memories from a few years back

Piles of fragrant fresh greens are heaped up high in the wreath shed and the aroma of pungent spruce, fir, and pine fills the air and clings to all who make wreaths. The little wood stove heats the shed as the late afternoon and evening chill comes on. For years our boys use to start the wreaths the week of Thanksgiving and keep going until about the second week in December. It is a family tradition that now has been spread to several of the nursery employees. Last week I enjoyed collecting greens at the farm. I am always looking for berries and especially like the native red cedar juniperus virginiana with its waxy blue or silver berries. On Thanksgiving Day we collecting a whole jeep full of bright red winterberry holly at our son’s nursery in Greenwich . So far the weather has been a bit too warm for wreath making but but I hear the cold is on its way !
We usually wait until this time of year to prune all of the evergreen trees in our yard. They all are thick, bushy and healthy so the 45 years of this treatment has been good for them. Hollies especially respond to winter trimming.
Making Wreaths
I learned to make my very first wreath on vines twisted into a circle about 50 years ago . We eagerly waited to help when my Dad and Uncle Ed would make wreaths. Later on as a grade school 4-H member I learned to make wonderful wreaths on coat hangers that had been shaped into circles. This became a holiday business from 7th grade through college when my brother and I made wreaths each year to sell locally. My husband learned to make wreaths too and once made a huge one on an old hula hoop!
Man has made wreaths, the unbroken circle, a symbol of eternity, since ancient times . Today they are still made in the same manner. Small bunches of plant material are attached to a form in a circular style. Use a thin, yet strong wire (#24 or # 26) on a spool or small paddles .
When our three sons were old enough to learn to make wreaths, they also made wreaths to sell each Christmas. Their first wreaths were also on coat hangers and later on metal rings with clamps to hold the greens . We still use these rings and have made wreath tables to hold the gadget that pushes the clamps shut.
I figure that I have taught more than 1000 people to make wreaths over the past 35 years. It was not unusual to have PTA, scouts, and 4-H or church groups making wreaths in my kitchen, family room or porch when the boys were young. Now we have *classes at our nursery, so the wreath cycle goes on. Joe and I use to teach most of these classes at the nursery, but now Jola who came here from Poland 13 years ago teaches the outside portion of the class in the wreath shed. I do the indoor part where folks decorate the wreath they make.
There are many kinds of wreaths . Son Joe made some very remarkable 5 foot wreaths of unusual plant material for a firm in Washington D C years back . He also has made wreaths of PHS Gold Medal plant materials. There is no end to what you can do with wreaths
Techniques For Using Natural Trims
A botanical wreath can be as authentic as the outdoors. Made of fresh greens and trimmed with berries, cones, lichen, moss and pods it is a natural treasure . A simple bow and a cardinal or two is all that is needed to complete this traditional beauty .
Beautiful pods such as magnolia pods work well with berries and also look pretty with other natural collections of materials. Acorns, especially the large fringed ones of the saw tooth oaks (Quercus acutissima) look handsome on wreaths .
Pine cones are so beautiful glued to wreaths and swags. There are many kinds and many sizes. All coniferous trees have cones, see how many you can find. Some are as small as a blueberry, others the size of a cherry, and some as long as a banana. What a variety!
One of my favorite wreaths is the one I make called a ‘bird watchers wreath’. Start with a fresh evergreen wreath, then using hot glue, attach a variety of berries and other kinds of bird food. I use several kinds of holly berries, bittersweet, rose hips, cedar berries, nandina berries, beauty berries, crabapples small corn, acorns or other nuts or any type of seed pod, including tiny sunflower heads. A few cardinals or other colorful artificial birds can be attached to the wreath with hot glue.

Some other trims that might please the birds would include little bundles of wheat or barley, stems of millet if available, and very tiny pumpkins cut in half so the seeds show. If you have lots of hungry birds in your garden, you might have to replenish the seeds and pods several times. Try apple slices when the weather cools, or some wild persimmons for variety. Cardinals, cedar waxwings, mocking birds, and catbirds all like this fruit. The cardinals and chickadees both love the sunflower and other seeds, and a great variety of birds will partake of all the other goodies.
There is nothing happier than a wreath that has the song and color provided by the birds that visit your bird watchers wreath. Make one soon and enjoy the winter birds.
* Wreath classes at Triple Oaks