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Of course, there is the option to buy a ready-made wreath, but we believe it’s much more fun to create your own. Most of the materials required should be available to buy at your local garden centre and also you can also include some extra bits of foliage foraged from your garden or winter walks in the countryside.
Getting started
Foliage such as holly, blue spruce, conifer, spagnum moss and ilex or ivy can all be used to great effect by mixing bushier foliage with thinner leaves or festive twigs. If possible, use moss secured onto your frame with wire before you start laying your foliage. Foliage is added at a 45 degree angle to the outside and then to create a luxurious finish, a smaller bunch added to the ‘inside’ of your wreath. Each bunch needs to be secured with wire. Don’t cut the wire in between bunches. Work your way around the wreath adding first the outside bunch and then an inside bunch until you have covered the frame. Wind your wire around several times to secure the final bunch and tuck the end back under and into the wreath.
Here are five simple steps on how to create your own wreath.
Materials required: a wire wreath ring (approx 25cm diameter), a spool of florists’ wire, secateurs or hardy scissors, foliage, flowers and decorations. We suggest using evergreens such as pine or spruce for the base, but holly, ivy, eucalyptus and bay make
pretty additions.
To start forming your wreath, lay a small bundle of foliage at a 45 degree angle to the frame and then wrap the wire around the stems and the frame three times so that it is secure. Do not cut the wire as this will be used to secure the rest of the bundles. Here, we have used pine to form the
base of the wreath.
Add another bundle of foliage, overlapping the previous one and wrap wire around the stems. As well as using pine, you could start to include some other leaves in the bundles to add more texture. Continue adding bundles until you reach the starting point and
the metal frame is no longer visible.
When the base is completed, you can start to prune and personalise your design. Hold up the wreath and check for any areas that may need shaping or gaps which can be filled with leftover foliage. Then you can start to add decorative items such as pine cones,
berries, dried citrus and cinnamon sticks.
