Dear Miss Floribunda,
I was just looking on the Hyattsville Horticultural Society website and saw pictures of beautiful wreaths made at your workshop in November. Unfortunately, I had a conflict that day and didn’t attend. I noticed a lot of evergreens that didn’t look like the usual prickly conifers so painful to work with. Although pine branches don’t hurt, they are so slippery that I only use them to drape over doorways and around my banisters.
Can you identify the materials in those wreaths I saw? Any tips from those wreath-makers? I’d like something kind to my fingers.
I Don’t Pine Fir Yew on Forty-first Street
Dear I Don’t Pine Fir Yew,
When viewing the pictures on the HHS website (hyattsvillehorticulture.org), you may have noticed that although pine branches were not used to make wreaths, pine cones provided striking accents on several of them.
Courtesy of Julie Wolf
Another useful but painless conifer very creatively utilized was what the group speculated to be a volunteer cedar from the garden of Dr. Greengenes. However, there is some disagreement over whether all that we call cedars are true conifers, and it is known that some so-called cedars, such as the western red cedar (Thuya plicata), are actually varieties of cypress. Both cedars and cypress have cones, but cypress tend to have softer foliage than cedars. The foliage of the branches brought to the workshop were almost as gentle as those of the arborvitae — a coniferous cypress that I also recommend for wreath-making.
One of the wreaths was made of sprigs of deliciously aromatic laurel, or bay, bound together with English ivy. The nicest thing about using such a shrub is that you can use the leaves in your cooking after they have lost their green color and are no longer decorative.
Other wreath-makers brought heavenly bamboo, or Nandina, which has red berries but lacks the sharp-edged leaves that make holly such a torture to work with. Only one of the wreath-makers was brave enough to use traditional holly, as well as the redoubtable juniper. Different wreath frames were used, ranging from styrofoam to wire cages to wild grapevine twisted together. Some did not use frames at all but entwined the branches and secured them with wire.
Wendy Wildflower brought different varieties of boxwood, whose smooth leaves are comfortable to work with and whose flexible branches adapt to a variety of shapes. These included the Japanese boxwood Buxus microphylla var. japonica, and the sweet Sarcococca ruscifolia.
Thinking outside the boxwood, Dr. Agronomosky brought Osmanthus and Euonymus, whose leaves are as unaggressive as those of boxwood. The swag he made with the Osmanthus actually retained a few small white fragrant flowers. The flowers of Euonymus, redolent of honey, are not produced till spring, but you can spice up a wreath of it by inserting twigs of thyme, rosemary, sage and other bracingly odorous herbs. If you can find it, myrtle is a painless evergreen to wreathe with, and exudes perfume much like cypress.
You don’t necessarily have to depend on wreaths for festive decoration and fragrance. Pomanders can be made by studding apples and oranges with cloves, and hanging them on bright-colored ribbons. And this segues quite easily into decorating in the Williamsburg way, with swags, wreaths, mantel and table arrangements confected with fruit and magnolia leaves. Magnolia branches are as painless to work with as boxwood and Osmanthus, and they last longer and shed less than those of conifers. The broad glossy leaves look beautiful with sugared kumquats, grapes, small apples, lemons, limes and small clementines. You just brush egg white on the fruit, roll it in granulated sugar, and let it dry on wax paper. They can be attached with wire or plastic floral picks, or threaded with thin wire. Although some people use sugared pomegranates and pears in wreaths, I consider them heavy enough to tempt fate and believe it more prudent to use them in mantel and table arrangements. Pineapples can provide dramatic accent points.
For these and other decorating ideas, please come to the next meeting and holiday party of the Hyattsville Horticultural Society at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 21. It will be hosted by Heather Olsen, in her charming home at 4915 42nd Avenue.
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Miss Floribunda writes about gardening for the Life & Times. You may email her at Floribundav@gmail.com.