Surrey Homes | SH50 | December 2018 | Health & Beauty supplement inside

CONTEMPORARY
CEDAR WOOD
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Garden
Fresh foliage and long-lasting leaves
Once you start looking in the garden it’s amazing
how many plants are naturally decorative in winter.
Evergreen leaves tend to be glossy, which also helps to
stop them losing moisture once they’re brought inside.
Holly is very traditional, but can be
hard on the fingers, so wear gloves.
Ivy is still one of the best Christmas
evergreens, with long pliable stems, attractive
leaves, flowers and fruits. The variegated forms
add a touch of white or gold for contrast.
Spotted Laurel (Aucuba japonica) can
be used as a wreath base, or to line a plain
bowl piled with nuts or clementines.
Conifer foliage is effective as a wreath or
swag base and many varieties are scented.
Viburnum tinus - often overlooked in the garden
for much of the year: a dark green blob that blends
into the background, but it lasts very well inside and
often has the added bonus of winter flowers too.
Pittosporum - leaves on this delicate looking
evergreen last very well among cut flowers, but
go carefully as some varieties aren’t as robust
and frost-hardy as our native evergreens and
won’t appreciate a mid-winter hacking.
Other long-lasting leaves to try:
Ruscus, osmanthus and euonymus have
small leaves and are useful as fillers in table
decorations and on wreaths or swags.
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monarchoak
Oak Frame Buildings
Over 50 years’ experience making oak frame buildings
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01323 765410 Quality in its finest form
www.monarchoak.co.uk
Seedheads and cones
Many dried seed pods, skeletal forms and the tracery of
stems and umbellifer can be made to look festive, but
you may need to think ahead with these. Collect them
once they’re dry, but before the weather gets to them,
as they can quickly rot away to un-festive sludge in wet
winter conditions. They can be picked weeks, if not
months in advance and stored as dried arrangements.
Mini-cones of alder and beech are great for decorating
wreaths and table displays. Teasel heads can also be used
in wreaths, or as tree decorations, but they are prickly, so
handle with care. The orange seed cases of Physalis will
add drama to decorations in their complete state, but
occasionally the casing is eaten away to make a delicately
skeletal form that can look as lovely as any bauble. Allium
seed heads look like glamorous decorations whether left
in a natural state or sprayed silver for extra sparkle.
Equipment
You won’t need much: a pair of secateurs and gardening
gloves (if you’re rummaging through the hedgerows and
picking prickly bits), some florists’ wire and ribbon for
hanging things. A glue gun is a useful thing if spherical fruits
and seedheads can’t be wired on and for creations that need
to hang outside in the weather for any length of time.
Contact Jo on 01233 861149
hornbrookmanor.co.uk for details of 2019 courses
surrey-homes.co.uk
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