December is around the corner, which means it’s time for holiday decorating. And today Cherry Ong is sharing some of her incredible holiday wreath creations. She combines basic wreaths with materials gathered from her garden and purchased to make these marvelous custom creations. If you want to try your hand at making your own wreaths with materials from your garden, you can get your inspiration here, and learn the technique in this video: Make a Holiday Wreath.
A magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora, Zones 7–10) and snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus, Zones 3–7) wreath. Amazingly the snowberries lasted through and beyond the season.
Ingredients: Fraser fir wreath, magnolia leaves, snowberry clusters, seeded eucalyptus, pine branches, white branches, and an apple-green velvet ribbon
A wreath with warm tones. Magnolia leaves direct the color choices for this wreath. I made the dried orange slices by baking them for 8 to 10 hours in a 200°F oven.
Ingredients: Fraser fir wreath, gold Ilex berries, spruce with pine cones (foraged after a windstorm), and dried orange slices
A juniper berry wreath decked with more berries.
Ingredients: Juniper berry wreath base, more juniper berries, beautyberry (Callicarpa) from the garden, foraged privet (Ligustrum) berries, seeded eucalyptus, silver bells eucalyptus, white branches
This year’s front-door wreath screams of warm colors with foraged Pyracantha berries and Thuja ‘Forever Goldie’ from the garden, seeded eucalyptus, eucalyptus, grevillea, rose hips, and Cornus ‘Arctic Fire’ branches on a Fraser fir wreath base.
Another red wreath, this time featuring Hypericum berries. This is one of the larger wreaths, and the base is made from discarded Christmas tree branches. I gave this to my godmother and her family.
Ingredients: Mixed fir wreath base, magnolia branches, red Hypericum berries with the foliage removed, foraged Norway spruce pinecones, seeded eucalyptus
A woodland-inspired wreath with foraged conk mushrooms, variegated Skimmia japonica ‘Magic Marlot’ from the garden, saved lichen and moss branches, and store-bought preserved mushrooms (they were sold as vase fillers). I thought sumac flowers would’ve made a perfect luxe addition to this wreath, but I didn’t find any. Maybe next time?
I wanted to create a natural wreath that didn’t shed or deteriorate indoors. I foraged pinecones over the years; some were bleached and some natural colored. I covered a cardboard wreath form with natural-colored reindeer moss before attaching different-size pinecones and added a satin ribbon.
Finally, here are some simple creations made from leftovers and late additions.
I love them at the garden entrances and gates.
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