Winter

- Work area and newspaper to prevent mess

- Silver/gold spray paint

- Pair of secateurs/pliers/scissors

- Roll of thin garden wire, string or twine

- Green foliage – Sprigs of conifer foliage – (Leyland cypresses), holly and ivy

- Candles for decoration

- Pine cones of various size

- Elastic bands

- Tinsel, Christmas paper and silver foil

- Some 10 - 15cm diameter flower pots filled with dry soil or sand

- Festive ribbon

- Time 60 to 90 minutes

Notes:

Making Christmas decorations from plant material is easy and cheap. It is great fun on a cold, wet December day to use your imagination and make a festive decoration. Seasonal wreaths and table decorations make good Christmas presents and brighten the home.

Before you cut any foliage from the garden ASK PERMISSION. The shape of shrubs, hedges and trees can be spoilt when they are not cut correctly. Ask a gardener to help you collect the plant materials you need

Follow the instructions:

1. To make a decorative Christmas wreath of 25 to 30cm diameter for hanging on a door or wall. Bundle and tie flexible lengths of evergreen foliage together with wire or cord. Make a long sausage about 5 to 7cm thick and about a metre in length that will not fall apart. Form this sausage into a firm circle.

2. Wrap ivy around the circular sausage, tying in the ends as you go. The circular wreath should now be tightly packed and ready to decorate with holy, pine cones, tinsel and bows of festive ribbon etc.

3. To secure the pine cones, wrap some wire or cord around the base of each cone leaving sufficient length to tie onto the wreath. Pine cones can be brightened with white paint or some silver or gold spray before they are attached to the wreath.

4. To secure a candle. First make a small hole on the inside bottom edge of the tightly packed foliage. Then push the candle into it. Finally make a loop of wire or twine at the top of the wreath for hanging.

5. To make a table decoration, cover a medium size flower pot with silver foil or colourful Christmas paper.

6. Fill the pot with dry sand or soil. Lengths of ivy and other green foliage can be wrapped around the pot and secured with twine, elastic bands or sticky tape.

7. Place a candle in the centre of the pot and surround it with silver and gold sprayed pine cones of various sizes. To secure the cones attach wire to the base of each and push them down into the sand/soil.

8. To finish the decoration tie a bow of festive ribbon around the pot.

9. NB - the candles are for decoration only, never light them, it might cause a fire.

Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society

Plant and Grow - Gardening for Children