Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our nursery to you! It has been an exciting year filled with weather challenges and economic surprises, but the plants just keep on growing all the same. May your holidays be filled with friends and family and good will to all. In the coming year, we will be bringing you many new and exciting plants to add to your garden. We hope you will be checking in with us on occasion to see what you just have to have. Also, we will be offering articles to educate and inspire, as well as to share those insights that add to your experience. Let us know when you can, those plants that you wish we would grow, and we might just do it!
 
   
If you would like to use a live tree for Christmas this year, here are some tips to keep the tree healthy through the holidays.

1. Gradually introduce your living tree from outside to inside over three or four days via the garage or enclosed porch. A tree that is dormant and exposed to immediate warmth will start to grow. You want to avoid any quick resumption of growth.

2. While the tree is introduced into the house via porch or garage, check for critters and insect egg masses as the tree acclimatizes.
 

3. Visit your nearest lawn and garden supply store. Purchase a spray with an antidessicant or antiwilt product to minimize needle loss (do this during the introduction phase). This particular product will not only reduce needle loss, it will contain the loss of valuable moisture lost to a climate controlled home.

4. If possible, locate your tree in the coolest part of the room and away from heating ducts. This will work with the antiwilt product to keep the tree moist and prevent the loss of valuable moisture.

5. Place the tree in a large galvanized tub including root ball. This tub stabilizes the tree and ball (or pot) and confines water and needles into a more manageable and cleanable space.

6. Stabilize the tree in the tub in a straight and vertical position using rocks or bricks. Water only in the tree's container if not a balled-in-burlap tree.
 

7. If balled-in-burlap, fill empty space around and on top of the ball with mulch to retain as much moisture as possible. Then water your tree as often as necessary to moisten the roots but not soggy.

8. Leave inside no longer than 7-10 days (some experts suggest only 4 days). Never add nutrients or fertilizers as that may initiate growth which you don't want to occur in a dormant tree.

9. Carefully introduce tree back outside using the reverse procedure and plant as instructed in my How to Plant a Tree feature. If you live in a climate where soils freeze, you should have prepared a planting hole during moderate temperatures.
Our Live Christmas Tree "ideas" may not be traditional, but sometimes it is fun to do something completly different for a live tree, especially if you really want one in your garden. We hope you will consider growing a live Christmas tree this year, as
it is so much more fun and rewarding to grow a tree, rather than taking one to the land fill or burn pile. And...it is more appropriate to put a "live" tree in your "living room", right?
 
 
 

Making a Christmas wreath is one of the simplest holiday crafts, and it's especially rewarding because the fragrance and colors of the foliage feel so festive! It's fun to do with friends, because everyone can bring their own trimmings and share different types of foliage, and it's easy to make a really pretty one on your first try.

What You Need

a wire wreath frame, $3
floral wire, in a spool or paddle, $2 (both available at any craft store)
pruning shears
a paper shopping bag's worth of foliage trimmings
Plants That Work Well in Wreaths

Conifers are the best trimmings for Christmas wreaths since they stay fresh for weeks, and there are so many beautiful kinds to choose from. For the green foliage, I ask for scraps at my local Christmas Tree vendor – they're happy to give them away, and I love the fragrance!

Golden conifers, like the dramatic Juniperus chinensis 'Daub's Frosted' or the feathery Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Golden Fern', add a wonderful contrast. The gold looks fantastic with the deep green of Holly leaves and the cheer of the red berries.

Or, if you have blue foliage, like Picea 'R.H. Montgomery' or Chamaecyparis 'Blue Surprise', set it off with the deep red stems of Cornus stolonifera, the Red-Twig Dogwood.

For an herbal wreath, try fresh Rosemary, 'Bergartten' Sage (a big-leaved variety), and Bay leaves for a decoration that will be both fragrant and useful even after it dries.

Other Plant Materials You Can Use:

Rose Hips
Yellow-Twig Dogwood
Variegated False Holly (Osmanthus 'Goshiki' or 'Variegatus')
Silver Dollar Eucalyptus
Pinecones
Evergreen Magnolia
(Don't try Cotoneaster; I know the berries look appealing but they make a terrible mess within a few days!)

Making Your Wreath

First, you get to have a blast playing with the different foliage textures and colors as you design your wreath. Silver Dollar Eucalyptus, Green Douglas Fir, and Red-Twig Dogwood stems? Yes! How about some Variegated Holly or Osmanthus (False Holly) against a bed of Green Cypress and Blue Spruce? Go for it! Wreaths are like container plantings – if your surroundings are sedate, go a little bolder with your colors and have fun with it.

Once you've decided on a theme, clean up your trimmings by cutting them to 6-10" long. The tips of the stems look best; discard the woodier sections of each branch.

Pick a few stems and bundle them together with the cut ends facing the same direction.
Attach your floral wire to the wreath frame (anywhere!) and tie in your bundle of trimmings securely, wrapping the wire around the bundle once in the center of the bundle and once at the bottom near the cut stems.

Leaving the wire attached and holding it taut, grab a second bunch of foliage and set it over the first bundle with the cut ends facing the same direction. Cover the cut stems of the first bundle and wrap the wire around your second bundle, moving diagonally downwards with the wire.
I like to alternate foliage colors, using two bundles of green then one bundle of colored foliage or stems. Use more foliage than you think you need – you don't want to see the wreath frame beneath your greenery!

Keep wiring foliage in around your frame until you reach the end. When you get to the last bundle, tuck the stems under the leafy top of the first bunch of foliage so that no cut stems are visible. Securely attach the wire to the frame and cut the wire.

Now's the time to add accents like ribbons or pinecones. To add a pinecone, simply wrap the cone with wire around the base, tucking the wire inside the cone so you can't see it, and wire it to the frame. You can wire on a finished bow or just tie a bow around your wreath.
How to Care For Your Wreath

Wreaths do best outside, where the cool temperature and the moisture in the air keep them looking fresh. Spritz them with water every few days to help them last.

At the end of the season, you can compost the dried foliage and save your wreath form for next year's festivities!
Genevieve Schmidt is a local garden coach who provides a fine landscape maintenance service to those who need more than a mow and blow. You can read more garden musings and advice at www.NorthCoastGardening.com, and contact her for service at genschmidt@gmail.com.