The circular nature of a wreath symbolizes unity and inclusion – and what better sentiments to be reminded of at Christmas? Winter, of course, means all the fir, pinecones, holly and ivy, lichen branches and crab apples you can possibly cram on to your wreath. And for a super-chic alternative, try burying small pots of trailing ivy and hellebore in the moss and twisting and trailing the foliage around, keeping things in place with small twists of wire if necessary.
Ingredients
- Bind wire
- Wire wreath ring. These come in a range of sizes, from 20cm to 50cm (7–20in). I tend to go for something around 25–30cm (9–11in), but if you’re feeling brave, go bigger
- Moss
Foliage & styling
Take care to remove any gnarly, ugly bits and divide foliage into bundles of 3–5 stems.
- Foliage – Blue spruce, keifer pine, ruscus, berried ivy, cottoneaster, mistletoe
- Styling – crab apples, dried bleached ruscus, gold painted salal, gold painted asparagus fern, gold painted and glittery coral fern, dried honesty, dried fruits and pine cones
- Attach the bind wire to the wreath ring by twisting it around the frame a few times. Keep the wire on the spool.
- Take a large handful of moss and squish it on to the wreath ring. You want this to be nice and springy, so don’t scrimp on the handful! Secure the moss against the wreath ring by wrapping the wire around it a few times.
- Continue adding moss to the wreath, working around until it is completely covered, keeping the wire on the spool.
- Place the first foliage bundle on to the mossy wreath, pushing the stems slightly into the moss as you do so (the moss holds water, so will keep your wreath looking fresh). Secure with the bind wire, which should still be attached to the mossy base.
- Keep adding bundles of foliage, each overlapping the one before to cover the stems and your wiring.
- Repeat until the whole base is covered in foliage. At this point I usually put it on the floor and get a good bird’s-eye perspective of the design. If necessary, add extra foliage and fluff up any parts of the wreath that look a little sparse.
- You could happily leave the wreath as it is, all green and gorgeous, but if you fancy adding some extra Christmassy decoration to make it extra-special, now is the time. Here I have kept things quite traditional in terms of colour palette and the foliages used but made it feel super luxe by using glossy pops of red with the crabapples and rich lustrous golden tones with the painted elements. These can be skewered directly into your foliage base. For pinecones and dried fruits use small pieces of wire to fix these to your base. To complete the wreath add a lovely big bow, my favourite festive finishing touch is a velvet ribbon, and you’re ready to hang it on your door!
This is an adapted extract from Living With Flowers, by Rowan Blossom, available to buy from www.laurenceking.com, RRP: £19.99