Fresh Outdoor Greens

Saturday, December 15, 2007 04:00 AM

Using fresh greens to decorate the home is a nice way to bring a little of the outdoors, inside.

There are many beautiful greens available that can be used. Cedar is very popular because of its flexibility and beautiful foliage. It can be used in wreaths, swags, centerpieces, as well as lay on a shelf, mantle, or stair railing. When purchasing cedar boughs you want to make sure that the branches are fresh, flat and supple as this will give you long, lasting arrangements. Branches can be quite large but are easily cut into smaller sections. If you are making arrangements you should strip the bottom 2-5 cm of the branch before inserting it into the damp floral block.

Other greens that can be used are Boston Fir, Ponderosa Pine, Juniper, Spruce, and Holly. All are beautiful and make beautiful arrangements. The nice thing about using evergreens for arrangements is that they will last a long time if they are cared for properly by never letting them dry out. A nice added touch to evergreen arrangements is adding a few colored twigs from deciduous trees. Branches of red twigged dogwood, and curly willow add a nice touch, or you can choose other branches from shrubs and spray paint them any color you wish. Another touch of nature is adding pine cones to the arrangement.

A fast growing trend is making outdoor fresh arrangements to adorn the outside of a home. You can make fresh arrangements to fill an urn or you can make a hanging arrangement to hang where last summers hanging baskets hung. They add a festive flare to the home especially when you add some shiny balls, Christmas ornaments and ribbon. You can also fill an urn with sand and then place a few branches in the urn adorned with mini Christmas lights.

Many greens can be purchased from the garden center but you can also utilize what you have growing in your backyard if do it carefully. Prune off just a few small branches from the tree as you do not want to damage it. Also when temperatures get below freezing you want to be careful when touching outdoor plants as they damage easily. This is especially true for cedars when it gets cold as the foliage breaks off easily. Do not put lights in the trees or decorate until the temperatures warm up to around 0 Celsius or above.

-Jos

Jos VanHage owns and operates two Art Knapp garden centres in Prince George