Make Your Own Wreath
The traditional Christmas colors of red and green mimic the reds and greens in nature this time of year, specifically, the holly trees that bear their red jewels of berry clusters against their evergreen foliage. Their evergreen nature has long represented life everlasting.
I like to fashion a Christmas wreath made from dried flowers and herbs from my garden. This allows me to make it early in the season and enjoy its beauty through the holidays — even a few years after if stored properly.
I use anything in the shape of a ring as a base. Dried artemisia Silver King makes a good background. Its silver color is perfect for the holidays. Cut sprigs into three- to five-inch lengths depending on the size of your backing. Attach a wire and lay a cluster of Silver King on the backing, and wrap wire around the bottom half-inch of your cluster. Use a spool of floral wire, as the wire should be continuous and pulled tightly around your cluster. Overlap with continuous clusters until you’re all the way around, tucking your last cluster of stems under the first one.
Now you’re ready to make it look like Christmas.
Everything can be glued with tacky glue on top of the Silver King. I use dried celosia (cockscomb) for the vivid red color. Thyme sprigs are a pretty addition, especially since thyme was a manger herb. I add sage for domestic happiness. Rosemary sprigs are beautiful and follow the Christmas legend that it turned its flowers from white to blue in Mary’s honor. I also add gilded holly leaves and red beauty berries that I have painted with floral spray. The holly symbolizes Christ and life everlasting. I dry and add miniature red roses to my wreath. For a finishing touch I dry white globe amaranth and tape them into bundles that I embellish with a snowy glitter for that wintery look.
Try it yourself.