Welcome wreath
To create a solid support for a door wreath, take some wire and form it into a circular shape, the wires overlapping loosely. Wire coat hangers can be used in the absence of other wire being available. To the wires, tie leafy lengths of cypress or yew foliage. These are ideal but any fine-leaved dense foliage will do. Lengths of laurel could be used too. Each piece is tied tightly at the stem end and green garden string is used to wrap around each piece several times, fairly tightly but not very tightly.
Choose a shrub with broad leaves, such as aucuba, elaeagnus, laurel or laurustinus, to be a filler over the cypress base. These pieces can be tucked into the cypress and then wrapped over, between the leaves, with green string to hold them firmly. The base of the wreath is now in place. Into this, at its most simple, can be slotted sprigs of holly with berries. But many other garden plants can be used too, such as the excellent berries and flower buds of skimmia, the foliage of mahonia, berries of gaultheria or snowberry, cotoneaster, sorbus and pyracantha, if they still remain. These can also be tied in with string, but often, if they are well packed into the base, they will hold firm.
Flowers will not last in a wreath because there is no water, so there is no point in slotting in stems of winter jasmine or winter viburnum. But dry material can be used, such as the split flower pods of stinking iris, pine cones or teasel. Wreaths can be sprayed with gold or silver paint to lend a seasonal touch. This can be heavy painting of the leaves, making them gold or silver all over, or just a glittery touch. Any kind of Christmas glitter or frosting can be applied, although the simple wreath with the beauty of leaves and berries is hard top beat.
In the past, all Christmas trees were liable to shed their foliage in a warm room during their two-week period in the house. The species used were Norway and Sitka spruce and pine, the latter two to a lesser extent. Then along came the ‘non-shed’ kind. The first non-shed kind was the noble fir, often called ‘noblis’ or ‘nobilis’ by the sellers. This plant often had a bluish tinge as blue trees were much admired in Europe, which offered an export market. Some of them tended to be yellowish, but this was more to do with unsuitable soil conditions.
Before buying a tree, measure the height of the ceiling and allow for the height of the tree holder. Make sure to buy a tree that does not need much taken
off its height if anything at all. Any reduction in size can be made by cutting off part of the tree-butt this can be awkward if you have not got a proper saw and is best avoided by buying the right size. In general, never cut a piece off the top stem as this spoils the proportions of the tree. Always disconnect tree lights when not supervised as there is a fire risk as the foliage dries out.
