Last year I skipped Christmas. I was busy playing in the southern hemisphere, spending 6 months studying plants in New Zealand. They celebrate Christmas, but not in any major way. This all translates to me getting doubly excited about Christmas this year. I am not one for all the material bits that go along with it. What excites me are the traditions, the time with family, the decor, and of course the food. That being said, here is the first of several posts about how I love to decorate for the season.
Once Thanksgiving has past, and the cold sets in, I immediately start thinking about my outdoor decorations. This year our November has been incredibly mild, and I have wanted to be outside (not normally the case in Chicago in November). I wanted to try something different this year, so I decided to create a winter hanging basket. I have seen them in a few places, but I wanted to give it a try.
Step 1.
The container. Essentially what I wanted to create is a poof of Christmas greens, with no visible container. I choose a fiber hanging pot. I prepped it by filling it with Oasis, or just normal bricks of non-water holding foam. I then wired those in across the top just to give it a bit more support. Right before you start adding the greens pour water over the Oasis if using, to hydrate it.
Step 2.
Greens. There are two options here. The first is to go to your local garden center, or florist and purchase an assortment of Xmas greenery. They will be prepared and ready to use right away. If you are a bit more do-it-yourself then go shopping in your neighborhood. If you are lucky to have nice neighbors like I do who don’t mind a discreet prune of their evergreens, then go for it. Look for different textures and shades of green. If you are especially lucky you will have some deciduous shrubs or trees that have bright berries on them. Don’t forget the classic red twig dogwood branches that should be brightly colored by now. Grab a few armfuls of an assortment of greens and get ready to prep them. Those commercial greens have been treated with a spray to keep them from sweating out all their moisture over the season. You need to do something like that. My favorite is Wilt-pruf. It is a food grade wax that just seals in the moisture. Spray it all over your greens and let them dry before using.
Step 3.
Get your shiny bits ready people. Decide on a color theme before starting to assemble your hanging basket. Do you want bright green and red, like I chose this year, or go natural. Blue and silver is always classic. Whatever it is, get it ready. Check around for large oversize ornaments or balls. Pinecones work great as well, with or without some sparkle on them. You can put them together in clusters to make a bigger impact as well. Choose your ribbon and have it close. You also need some floral wire handy as well to hold all of your bits together.
Step 4.
Assemble. Like in a kitchen, designing goes faster when you have everything laid out close at hand so its easy to grab on the fly. I put my hanging basket up on a turned over container so I could easily design it without squashing the bottom. I used some fluffy juniper and arborvitae to cover the green foam first, before worrying about anything else. There is nothing worse than being able to see the guts of your design when it is finished.
Then start at the bottom of your container and stick the greens in. With my fiber pot, I used my pruning shears to create a hole to shove the greens through. If you are using a wire pot, it will be a bit easier for you to just insert your greens straight in. I worked around in rows, trying to group some of the greens together to make a large patch of Blue spruce, or berried juniper. But I also did not want to have too many of the same texture together. Alternate colors as well, and check that you have some fun with the widths and droop. Remember it is three-dimensional. Don’t make it like Aunt Marge’s helmet head hairdo that is all smooth and perfect round. Shake it up a bit, and make some things stick out more than others.
Work your way up to the top, working around your container. Once you get to the top, work the outer edge to hide the transition. Use greens that have some droop or bushy-ness to them to cover that edge. Then head to the center to define your highest points. Work in odd numbers, using 3 or 5 high points. Remember to give your hanger room. Stay about 4-6 inches away from the hanger at the least. Then fill in between your highest points and keep the drama and movement going.
At the end insert any colored twigs or berry sticks into your basket. Once all the greenery is in place, I start placing my decor items. This year I used clusters of shiny red shatterproof ornaments tied together in threes using floral wire. I used the wire to shove into the foam and secure them. My final bit that I add to it is a bow and some ribbon. I hang trailers of ribbon from the drainage hole using a paper clip. It adds a lot of movement and leads the eye down to the rest of my decorations elsewhere around the landscape. More about those later.
Step 5.
To finish, just hang your container in place, and step back to check that it is visually balanced. Give it a snip here and there if needed with some pruning shears. To keep it looking it’s best, go out with a spray bottle every few days and lightly mist it, even if it is freezing out. This will keep the moisture up on your greens, and keep them looking good from Turkey Day to New Years Day.
