Opting for a muted colour scheme for my Christmas wreath

Last year my Christmas wreath was full of gold and silver and cinnamon sticks and dried oranges, and it was gorgeous. This year though I thought I’d try something different, though I wasn’t quite sure what that would be, and there wasn’t much point in having too set an idea as I wasn’t sure what would be available on the night.

This year I made my wreath with a small group of other people in a local pub in the next village to us - and a new to me pub too! The workshop at the Rose & Crown in Farndon was led by Emma from the Farndon Flower Farm, so it was great to support two local businesses at once.

This year instead of decanting the wreath into the garage overnight, I left it in the boot of the car. Retrieving it the next morning brought a pleasant surprise as not only was it the first time I’d seen the wreath in daylight, but the car also smelt of the pine and eucalyptus foliage.

My plan wasn’t to hang it on the door immediately though, as Storm Darragh with high winds was forecast for the weekend, so the wreath only made it as far as the gym for safekeeping. I was so glad I did as the weather was atrocious, our garden table and chairs were upended at one point, the table completely flipped over by the wind (while the chairs were still attached to it), so it was a good call.

With hindsight we probably should have moved the garden furniture ahead of the storm too - though when we spotted that it needed attention, thankfully it wasn’t raining so moving the table and chairs, and the cover which had become like a sail was only cold, rather than wet and cold work! Thankfully too the ceramic glass top of the table has been cushioned by landing on the grass, so it appears to have escaped undamaged. Phew. Needless to say, it’s staying in the garage for the time being much to MOH’s chagrin.

But anyway, the white washed walls so lovingly painted last winter by MOH provided the perfect backdrop for a mini photoshoot!

I was keen to have some longer tendrils of foliage on my wreath, and so that’s what I did choosing to leave the more wispy stems longer. I’ve also used a healthy dose of eucalyptus, which means every time we come in or go out we get a noseful of that - it’s glorious.

Decoration wise I added five sprigs of dried hydrangea - these were all from one flowerhead and separated into smaller more manageable sections. With those in place I added some dried bracken which adds a touch of natural gold, and bundles of berries sprayed gold, fluffy grass heads and dried sea holly flowers.

And I’m really pleased with how it turned out, and it looks great hanging on the dark grey door, as I knew it would. Though as I stepped back to admire it, my eyes were drawn to the door just above the handle, and yes, the door had eaten the wreath.

So much so, that this particular tendril had made it inside - some trimming was definitely needed! Now it’s trimmed and looking fantastic, we’re starting to feel like Christmas is definitely on its way!

Making an autumn wreath

A few weeks ago I saw a post on Facebook by The Flower Fairy here in Newark offering workshops to create an autumn wreath, and I thought why not.

I’ve tried Christmas wreaths before, with mixed results - they look ok on the table, and ok on the door for a while, but not as good as those in the shops created by professionals. So I signed up before first making sure the workshops could accommodate a novice.

The first step was to fill the wreath ring with moss, which isn’t something I’d done previously - and after a trim it looked ok - and still round!

Lucinda had provided all the materials for the workshop, including tons (probably not literally) of stems in a range of greens, oranges and whites to create the wreaths. The next step was to break these larger stems into more manageable sections, and end up with smaller pieces to create bunches to add to the mossy ring. As well as these there were rosehips, chinese lanterns, crab apples and grasses. I opted for the first two, knowing that I could use the crab apples and grasses from my own garden if I wanted to top up my wreath, or even make another at some point!

I spent the evening wiring small bunches of plants onto the mossy ring, while chatting to the women alongside me. It seems that I was so busy making my wreath that I didn’t take any more photos until it was done.

And I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I purposely chose not to make it symmetrical, as nature rarely is, and I like the natural look.

I’d not used moss on a florist ring before, and each bunch was secured by winding wire around the stems, using a single length for the whole way round - which seemed much easier than I remembered. Arriving home I put my newest treasured possession safely in the garage so that I could work out how to hang it the next day.

Of course, we didn’t have the right sized hook and nor did we really want to put anything too permanent on our new door, either of them. I knew that I’d be hanging this on our back door, which is the door we use - we rarely use our front door, and so wouldn’t get to admire my handiwork hardly at all.

If you look closely at the photo you can see a dark strip over the top of the door - that’s a very clever wreath door hanger, which hooks easily over the top of the door. The wreath fits into the hook, but I’ve also used the ribbon to tie it on so it’s a little bit more secure - hopefully!

I’m so pleased with it that I’ve already bought some florists wire and some large wire rings (I already had some small ones) - all I need when I’m ready to make another is some moss and some greenery. I’ve already been eyeing up the plants in our border and I’ll be keeping a keen eye on the hedgerows when we’re out walking.

But in the meantime, I’m going to indulge myself with a few more detailed pictures of the one that’s hanging on the door.