Panel data provided by Madison's Canadian Lumber Reporter.

Deck The Halls!!!

By 250 News

With Christmas just around the corner, many people like to decorate their home with fresh greens. Boughs of holly, cedar, and pine along with cones, fruit, and berries are a beautiful way to add a natural touch to the holiday scene. They can be used either indoors or outdoors as swags, wreaths or made into arrangements. A nice thing to do is use your outdoor summer containers such as urns and pots and put sand in them and then place either fresh greens in them or decorative branches from deciduous trees and shrubs. For an extra touch put mini lights in them. This is a simple way to add a touch of festive elegance to the home.

A popular fresh green that is available in the garden center is Cedar. It has a beautiful fragrance and can be used in a variety of ways such as swags, or wreaths or placed along a mantle or shelf or in arrangements. Choose boughs that are flat, supple and as fresh as possible as these will last the length of the season as well be easy to work with. Branches come in bundles, the smaller branches can be used as is, and the larger branches are cut into sections or leaves. If you are making arrangements strip the bottom 2 inches of the leaf/branch before placing it in damp floral foam. Mixing other greens such as Fir, pine, and holly makes a beautiful display as well as adding berries, cones, fruit, ribbon, and other decorations. Holly is another festive green that is beautiful whether on its own or mixed with in an arrangement. The shiny leaves and bright red berries are long lasting providing you continue to water it.

It is always tempting to go outdoors into the landscape to prune some branches to bring indoors. This is fine if you are careful not to ruin the plant shape or by taking off too much. A few branches here and there will not hurt. Outdoor shrubs such as "Red twig dogwood" are nice, as the bark is a nice bright red color. You can also use willow branches and spray paint them to any color you wish.

Another addition of living color to the home is cut flowers and plants. Plants can be bought now and placed around the home but cut flowers should wait until just the day before you want them as they last for just a few days. It is important to remember to always keep things moist for them to last their longest!

-Jos 

Jos Van Hage owns three Art Knapp's Garden Centres  in the Prince George area
-Highway 97 South at the Old Cariboo Highway
-Highway 16 West
-Highway 97 North




Previous Story - Next Story



Return to Home