Gardening for Health

Make a Garden Craft for Valentine’s

By Maria Price

It’s fun to craft something indoors when the weather outside is cold and dismal. Celebrate the season of love by making a wreath for Valentine’s Day.

First, gather your materials. Find a flexible vine that you can shape into a heart—hardy kiwi vines work well, as do grapevines. Try to find about 6 to 8 pieces, depending on thickness, with a length of about 2 feet each.

Start with two pieces and cross the ends like an X, with about 3-inch long ends, secure the ends with floral wire. Bend the rest into a heart shape and crisscross the bottom two pieces. Secure the bottom end with wire and overlap the two ends. Continue adding more vines and securing the top and bottom crisscross until it forms a firm heart shape.

I gathered pink and red cockscombs from my garden that I then dried and enhanced the color a little with floral spray paint so that my wreath won’t fade a year from now. I dried Limelight hydrangeas, which are somewhat cream-colored. I sprayed one of the large heads dark pink and another light pink. I also dried cream-colored feverfew.

Using a hot glue gun, glue the flowers onto the vine backing. Take the pink and red cockscombs and break them apart like you would break apart a head of cauliflower. Glue the flowers onto the backing in a pattern. At the top middle part of the heart, leave a little gap for a bow.

Start gluing a piece of red cockscomb, a cluster of cream-colored feverfew, a piece of pink hydrangea and a piece of pink cockscomb. Repeat this pattern all the way around the wreath until it is filled in.

You can grow celosia (cockscombs) in your garden in a sunny spot. Johnny’s seed catalog (johnnyseeds.com) has crested celosia called the Chief Series that comes in carmine, gold and persimmon. Select Seeds (selectseeds.com) offers a crested celosia, Tornado Red and Kurume Corona. They also offer feverfew in three varieties: Aureum, Snowball and Tetra White Wonder. Celosia and feverfew are best started indoors about a month before our last frost.

Make someone happy with a heart wreath this Valentine’s Day.