Decorating...

Last summer, I was teaching Abies concolor (white fir) to my students.  I was extolling the plant's virtues, in comparison to Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens glauca), noting on how much softer the needles were and encouraging the students to smell the lemony scent on their own.  As I was wrapping up this introduction, I mentioned, "You can even make wreaths or boughs with its branches during the holidays."

My students stared at me curiously, mouths agape, and I actually processed what had just come out of my mouth.

"Wow," I laughed, "That was a real Martha Stewart moment."

I'm not a particularly crafty type -- despite years making holiday decorations like wreaths and topiaries at various plant nurseries, or my repeated Valentine's Days spent working at a florist.  I appreciate the skill and talent involved, but who has the time?

This year however, I planted about 30 boxwood (Buxus microphylla and B. sempervirens) at my folks' place in Virginia, and they all needed pruning.  It seemed like a waste not to make something out of the clipped branches.   

This wreath (and one other one) was made in a fevered bout of ambition -- I had the clippings and dammit if I wasn't going to finish this project, stat.  So as I sat on the living room floor of my parents' house, with the clipped branches spread out on an old bedsheet and bad '80's movies on TV (Shelley Long, anyone?), I furiously wired bundles of boxwood to a frame and I failed to take a single photo of the process.  If you're interested in making your own, Cottage and Vine has a great post with pics of the process and materials needed.

I used some old pear ornaments and hot-glued them to the wreath to add some interest, but you could also use small lemons.  I prefer the simplicity of a wreath like this one, and my folks' house has some Williamsburg-ish vocabulary in the architecture which called for something understated and classic.

Later that weekend, when my fingertips were still a little raw from repeated contact with florist wire, I was at a Wegman's and saw boxwood wreaths on sale for $17.99.  Next year I may just buy them.