Carol Klein makes her own Christmas decorations and answers your questions
They'll be totally your own and look better than any you can buy!
One of the loveliest parts of getting ready for Christmas for us here at Glebe Cottage is finding time to make a few simple flower arrangements to green up the cottage and make everyone feel there’s something special about the occasion, rather than worry about how fast we can spend all the money we haven’t got!
In common with everything else, flowers are expensive at this time of year but with a bit of ingenuity there are all sorts of ideas you can employ to use whatever you can lay your hands on! You can make arrangements that are totally your own and that look just as good or better than bought ones.
Although we don’t major on them here, there are a fair few evergreens in the garden. Our skimmia ‘Kew Green’ has decided to thrive. Some of our camellias next to the path could do with a trim and their lustrous deep green foliage is ideal for indoor decoration. Close to the two sets of compost bins are two huge bay trees grown from cuttings. There are conifers too, including an enormous yew – grown from seed and given to me as a sapling. Conifer branches are laid down on windowsills; thuja smells particularly Christmassy.
Close to where we live are several conifer plantations and the woodsmen often climb up the trees, removing many of the lower branches. These branches are often abandoned at the edge of the road, and it’s always worth asking if we can take a few bits. When they’re freshly cut they last right over the Christmas period.
There are lots of other elements you can introduce: seed heads of agapanthus and alliums (we’ve kept several dried heads of
A. schubertii hanging upside down in the greenhouse for months) or hydrangeas. Spray them silver if you feel the need.
The most traditional Christmas arrangement though must be the holly wreath. When I sold my plants in Barnstaple Pannier Market, I’d make scores of them to sell. The ladies, who’d made them for years, taught me how to moss a wire frame and how to ‘sprig’ holly – quite an art.
First of all damp moss was packed into the frame, bound round and tied in with twine. Holly and variegated box would be cut into short lengths, tied in tight bunches with stub wire (special florists’ wire that’s malleable yet strong). Enough of the wire stuck out at the base of each little bundle to push through the moss, pull it from the reverse and twist it into the frame. The object is to make it thick and lush. And, of course, very Christmassy. You can add pine cones and berries, and not just holly berries but anything that’ll keep its shape and substance, rowan of different kinds, skimmia, even hawthorn, though subtle and dark, makes a variation in texture. This year there are apples galore on our 'Cox’s Orange Pippin' tree and we can incorporate some into the wreath. Our crab apple ‘Golden Hornet’ provides another fruity accent.
No need to deprive the birds either since the whole lot can go outside after Twelfth Night.
'With a bit of ingenuity there are all sorts of ideas you can employ to use whatever you can lay your hands on!'