Why Wreaths in February?

A symbol of Unity and Welcome, with the possibility of endless variations...

In some areas of the country, like where I grew up in the south, this would be a ridiculous question. It is simply your social responsibility to re-decorate and herald the joys of each season and holiday. It's all about the welcome. Practically speaking, however, this the best time of the year to build up my stockpile of wreath bases.

The holidays are over. Why are you making wreaths?

As I get ready to post this, the brutal cold of the Maryland winter is about to end or at least take a few notches up on the thermometer. Peppers, cold crops and the most reluctant annual and perennial seeds have already been started in the greenhouse but I haven't stopped making wreaths just because the holiday season is over.

Early Spring is the best time to Gather Vines

Much of the deciduous foliage has withered away, except for the beech trees and privet and some of the more hearty honeysuckle vines. Though our farm is tiny, we still inherited a ton of invasive shrubs and woody vines (#lianas) that need to be dealt with or greatly reduced each year. So, along with my new metal wreath forms from Kelco of Maine and the puppies, we took a couple of hours out in the sunshine to weave some honeysuckle, privet, and eleagnus forms together. Each of the stem types has different characteristics that make them compelling. Obviously, the honeysuckle is the most supple and the easiest to work with. If you can get a knot or cluster where several stems pop out, that is going to make for an interesting form or moment down the road, but smaller stems of privet are supple enough to work with as well and will yield a beautiful pale base for a winter white or pastel palette. Finding any use for eleagnus pungens is a wonderful thing too since it's so hard to eradicate. I think it's going to look great as a medium-value brown base for just about anything.

There is grapevine on our property, but those types of wreaths are cheap and plentiful in the world. More compelling is the corky stemmed winged euonymous (#hearts-a-busting), the redtwig dogwood and the Harry Lauder's walking stick. Sometimes I have to cheat with a little bit of wire or mix in honeysuckle to keep things together, but these things dry well and solidly.

Fall blooming clematis is another volunteer on our property that chokes things out but makes a lovely finer textured base. It's on the woody side now, but still supple enough to work with. If you wait until it's green, it will turn to mush.

I still have buckets left of dried flowers and artemisia to weave in so this is a great way to spend the gap time while I anticipate planting the new seedlings and the long-away (it feels like right now) future harvest.

#Wreaths #DriedFlowers #Driedwreaths #Flowerfarm #Strawflowers #Usesforinvasivespecies