A few cuts of this and a few snips of that can go a long way when it comes to decorating for Christmas and where better to start looking for decoration than in the garden.
After all, many of our favourite decorations like wreaths, evergreens for the mantle and paper whites (Narcissus species) come from the garden. Almost every garden has something to offer for cut greens for wreath making, centrepieces or evergreens to adorn the window or mantle.
The obvious evergreen trees like cedar, Douglas fir and spruce provide excellent sources of cut materials for decorating. Hemlock is not so good because it drops its needles too quickly. If you don’t have trees to cut from there’s always the hedge to cut, just try to hide your cuts as you make them so the neighbour doesn’t notice. Just kidding. Please do not trespass to cut greens but if the hedge hangs over the fence on your side then it’s fair game. Native trees are not the only plants to offer good cut greens. Any cultivated coniferous or broad-leaved evergreen tree or shrub can be carefully pruned to yield some decorating greens. Broad-leaved plants like holly, laurel, skimmia and even lily of the valley bush (Pieris species) can provide nice wreath-making materials. Don’t forget about rhodos and camellias when choosing cut greens, especially the indumented rhodos covered with orange-brown felt-like hairs on the undersides of their leaves.
We cannot live on greens alone and fortunately the garden bears big bundles of beautiful fruit each year and if you haven’t pruned them off already, there’s plenty of interesting fruit and seed cuts to be had.
Beyond the obvious chestnut tree or pine tree growing in the local park, seeds and fruit adorn most plants in our gardens at this time of year but you have to look closely to find some of them. For brightly coloured fruit, check your climbing roses because they usually offer the biggest and most colourful rose hips. But even the common Meilland landscape rose will produce colourful rose hips in shades of red and orange.
If you have a magnolia that still has any fruit left after the squirrels finish, then pick that reddish orange fruit using a pole pruner. Make centrepieces out of them or place the fruit on the table with other decorations. The colour of magnolia fruit holds quite well indoors and as the fruit dries it opens to reveal bright pink to red seeds that will interest your guests.
If you grow skimmia or holly then you will have access to an abundance of red berries for wreath making and centrepieces on the table.
Of course, the queen of winter berry plants would have to be Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii “Profusion” or beauty berry, whose summer blooming pink flowers yield stunning purple berries in winter held in tight clusters on the branches and it’s even reportedly deer-resistant. Cut carefully on beauty berry to avoid destroying the plant’s structure and fruit-producing wood.
Let’s not forget all those deciduous shrubs that have interesting stems and bark.
The winged burning bush is an easy choice to provide attractive cut stems as is the common willow tree adorned with bright yellow-green stems to be cut for arrangements. The red and yellow stemmed dogwood is another common plant found in many gardens that yield colourful stem cuts and it is properly pruned by cutting the stem back to its point of origin on another stem or right down to the ground.
Hydrangea sargentti, if you have it growing in your yard, will not mind bearing a few cut stems for displays and its stems are tawny brown to dark brown with sizeable buds. The list of stem cuts is long and varied including blueberry branches with their tight pink buds or twisted hazel stems or oak tree stems with their tight brown buds even if the leaves are still on.
When choosing cuts from the garden always use clean, sharp pruning tools, prune judiciously and leave the plant with good form when done so next year’s harvest will be just as bountiful. Most importantly, realize that all plants have some beauty in their stem, leaf or fruit so don’t limit your choices to the traditional.
Remember that whatever you cut from the garden for Christmas decoration is a reflection of your personal taste and in keeping with the 100-mile diet philosophy, it is about as local as you can get. I believe there is no right or wrong choice when cutting plants for decoration. And who cares what the politically correct say about your choices? Your choices are right for you and your guests will appreciate the effort, interest and your personal sense of style.
Todd Major is a journeyman horticulturist, garden designer and builder, teacher and organic advocate. Contact him at [email protected].
