CUT EVERGREENS AND BERRIES FOR THE HOUSE

There’s something special about a fresh, festive display

Where possible I like to bring plants and flowers from the garden into the house to admire them up close. It’s something we do all through the year, but during the winter, and especially over Christmas, there’s something special about having part of the garden in the house.

There’s long been a tradition of bringing cut foliage and branches indoors that dates back to pagan times, but for us it’s simply so that we can enjoy the fresh, colourful foliage and berries that are in gardens at this time of the year.

Evergreens are perfect to cut for the house and most have a long shelf life out of water, but even longer when in water. I like to cut a selection with differentcoloured leaves and shapes, such as pi osporum, laurels, griselinia, elaeagnus, arbutus, holly and euonymus. If you have conifers, they’re also good to use and, of course, come in many different colours. Berries are also good to add colour and holly is the obvious one for Christmas, but pyracantha and cotoneaster work just as well. Deciduous shrubs with interesting stems, such as twisted hazel or coloured dogwoods, can be cut and mixed to make an informal display that will look great for a few weeks.