Christmas staples: Buds, twigs, branches and berries

There's nothing like the real thing for Christmas decorating.  You get to go for a little adventure in the woods with your trusty snippers, and come away with a red nose and a trunk full of inspiration.

Sometimes you just have to go to your backyard, but there's a limit to happy cutting in a small space. That's where I got the materials for my front porch planters, if you don't count the leftovers from my summer planter and feathers I've recycled several times.   

 Hubby made me a trough box for my trunk/ottoman.  I knew what I wanted to put in it, but I couldn't hack away anything else in my yard. My sister came to the rescue.  Remember last year when I posted about her nature inspire Christmas?  She  had already made her yearly trip for bough and twig cutting to complete her planters and agreed to take me to her spot. Bonanza.

Here's her efforts ...

Don't you love that hit of yellow with the red?

Now on to my family affair project..

My son sprayed the box for me with  Krylon Colormaster  in nickel.  Then I taped it off and used gold to create two stripes around the box.  I figured I may as well get with the mixed metal trend.

  I had three LED candles (so safe and they actually flicker- daughter tip from Costco) I wanted to use and went to the dollar store and bought seven square glasses  to put oasis in to keep the boughs fresh. The alder twigs looked a little boring so they got the spray treatment too in a mix of nickel and gold.
Then I began the arrangement.

Fresh flowers are a must anytime of year.

A favourite vase, fluted and textured makes a stunning centerpiece on my coffee table. Nothing else is needed.

And my favourite berry wreath that has been in every room in the house over the years surrounds a vase of baby's breath and white carnations.  You can tell I like my flowers simple and usually white because they work anywhere with anything, especially with red.  


I was very lazy with the  dining room  additions....

I'm not a theme driven decorator, but  nature is always a staple in whatever I do.  My new purchase for 2014 was two white carved reindeer.  I always buy a green plant;  this year it is a Norfolk pine in a faux burlap container.  May it live for awhile.

For my dining table  centrepiece I simply added some fresh cranberries to my Boblen vase, and used it as a candle holder, added a string of red wooden beads  (at least 30 years old) and fake red berries  to the well used  vase of twigs.  In honour of the season I changed my tray to my favourite white one with the silver leaf birds and leaves.

And wise silver bird  looks on knowingly because he's seen it all before.

Creating natural arrangements for Christmas

Arranging natural materials creatively requires knowledge of balance and proportion.  Some people seem to have natural instincts in this area, but  the skills can be learned from floral arranging books. 

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By using the following four elements you can achieve a stunning Christmas planter.

1. Droopers (Spillers)

While there are many places/ways to start, I usually start with the hanging material  to cover the edges of the pot. These have to be set in almost horizontally  as the cedar in the above image.  You want it to droop gracefully and cover the edges of the pot. 
 

- Spanish broom

-  pine

-spruce branches
- cedar

2.Uprights (Thrillers)

Sometimes if I have interesting tall materials  I arrange them first to establish height and then work out and down.  Thrillers are always tall and act as the apex of the triangle design.

- dried goats beard stalks

- corkscrew hazel

- yellow - twig dogwood, red dogwood

- spirea with dried seed heads

- forsythia stalks (which are very light and work well with dogwood branches)
-birch sticks

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Twigs make great uprights, and don't forget that small potted trees can be placed in the middle of a planter and other materials can be added to cover the pot. A planter within a planter!

3. Fillers 

Once these two aspects have been arranged you need to fill our the arrangement (fillers) by applying the branches at roughly 45 degrees. I have lots of possibilities in my garden:

- boxwood

-yellow mound cedar

- holly 

- blue spruce

- rhododendron leaves 

- dried hydrangea blooms

 

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4. Accents  

These are the final touches that hightlight and brighten your arrangements.   The sky is the limit here. 

- sprayed grapevine spheres

- brightly coloured plastic ornaments 

- wooden Santas

- plastic ribbons 

- plastic Christmas flowers
- artificial birds 
-woven twig stars

-toys 
- small colourful lanterns
- large sphere shaped ornaments 
- ribbons

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berries, pinecones, pods

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fresh fruit or plastic fruit

 

 

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and even birdhouses!