Holiday wreaths are not just for Christmas – each year we produce a few blue and silver styles to celebrate the Festival of Lights. Sometimes people just ask for blue and silver because of its dramatic effect. In any event, here are examples dating from 2011 – 2017. Happy Hanukkah, everyone!
A big thank you goes out to today’s Wreath of the Day sponsor Dale Coxe.
Join Pacific Horticulture on July 8 – 14, 2021 in Santa Fe, the oldest Capital in the United States, located in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Discover over 1000 years of culture, history and tradition.Visit a collection of private and public gardens including Santa Fe Botanic Garden and Georgia O’Keeffe’s home at Abiquiu. Peruse the fascinating folk art market and learn the secrets of southwestern cuisine at the Santa Fe School of Cooking. We’ll be based at the atmospheric Hacienda Hotel & Spa. This wonderful trip will be escorted by Cheryl & Robert Nichols.
For complete itinerary details and information about booking this trip, click https://www.pacifichorticulture.org/tours/santa-fe-gardens-art-cuisine/
We have our secrets, even, sometimes, from our own volunteers. In the early years of our Holiday Wreath Project, we had no formal training procedure set up for decorators. Now, potential designers work at first next to an experienced member, assisting and watching, then do a wreath under supervision, before getting individual assignments. Back then, members grabbed a card and started decorating. We exercise quality control, and make suggestions, but sometimes, no matter how hard we try to gently lead, the finished product just isn’t up to snuff. We are a volunteer organization and treasure every volunteer hour given to us. But after the decorator left for the day, we would snatch the wreath back for a bit of repair and restoration. Sometimes it was a matter of balance, sometimes a mechanical issue (the pine cones are falling off!), but we needed to send out a finished product in line with the prices charged. This type of subterfuge is now rarely needed, thankfully, and certainly wasn’t needed on the wreath shown below, created by one of our star decorators, Rita Christensen.
Thank you Past President Stephanie Fletcher for sponsorship of today’s Wreath of the Day post.
We invite you to join Pacific Horticulture on June 27 – July 7, to explore the wonderful wildflowers, wildlife, and spectacular landscapes of Alaska in 2021.
PHS Board member and celebrated garden photographer Saxon Holt will be leading us on a photo expedition to Alaska. Book now as this very popular tour was sold out in 2019.
View photos and read Saxon’s travelogue from 2019.
Alaska possesses a profusion of native plants from streamside to mountainside. There are more then 1,500 plant species in the 49th state, from sea level to just below the snow line. Summer is the bountiful time for flowering plants, their pollinators, and large mammals who feed on the nutritious flowers or bulbs. On this expedition, we will traverse Alaska from Anchorage to Seward, traveling along the scenic Cook Inlet and spectacular Chugach Mountains, and then up the Denali Highway to Denali National Park.
Also guiding this expedition will be David Wimpfheimer, an excellent naturalist and leader of many Betchart Alaska Expeditions, and John Burns, a botanist with years of Alaska expertise, and other local experts. We hope you will join our exploration of this vast and beautiful land!
View Alaska 2021 tour brochure
For complete itinerary details and information about booking this trip, click https://www.pacifichorticulture.org/tours/botanical-alaska-2020/
Former member Florence Massimo specialized in elaborate, very feminine wreaths filled with dried flowers, primarily hydrangeas, roses, lavender, statice, and rose hips, and disdained painted or artificial elements. The fragile nature of the materials made the process long and sometimes frustrating, but each finished product was always a masterpiece. Florence lived on Commonwealth Avenue when she belonged to The Garden Club of the Back Bay, in a condominium building with multiple doors. She created all the wreaths for those doors each year. When Florence moved out of state to be nearer to family, we worried that we would be unable to find a decorator capable of producing that quantity of delicate, ethereal wreaths. In a complete about face, the association decided to change direction and has since ordered bright red and gold, vibrant wreaths to be visible from the middle of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall. The wreath below is not one of Florence’s (alas, our early archives do not contain a consistent number of photographs), but is in the spirit of what she did.
Today’s Wreath of the Day post is sponsored by member Judith Fleming, who we are sure remembers Florence well.
Nature play can awaken children’s senses, challenge their bodies, inspire their imaginations, and build self-confidence. In order to grow up healthy and happy, children need abundant unstructured time to play and explore in the natural world, but today’s children rarely have the opportunity to roam free outside. Bringing nature to the places where children spend their time is an answer. Well-designed nature play spaces are inviting and endlessly engaging for children AND good for the planet. With rich, inspiring images from around the world, author, educator, and landscape designer Nancy Striniste explains why and how to bring the beauty, adventure, and sustainability of nature play to backyards, schoolyards, churchyards, neighborhood parks, early childhood settings, and more. Nancy will speak online on December 14 at noon for this Ecological Landscape Alliance webinar. Free for ELA members, $10 for nonmembers. Registration required at https://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/webinar-creating-outdoor-spaces-that-connect-children-to-the-natural-world/
Nancy Striniste, founder and principal designer at EarlySpace, LLC, has a unique background as both a landscape designer and an early childhood educator. From her Arlington, Virginia design office, she has worked with schools, childcare centers, municipalities, and organizations to create sustainably designed natural play and learning spaces and to teach educators and others about how to use the outdoors for teaching and learning.
The late Stella Trafford was a founding member of The Garden Club of the Back Bay, and from the very beginning of the Wreath Project, was deeply committed to its financial success. What was less clear, however, was her commitment to some of the more arduous physical work wreath making entailed. In the days when we made the wreaths in Margaret Pokorny’s basement, she would arrive impeccably dressed, gloves and apron in hand, and then proceed to chat and advise (and it must be said, get in the way at times) before dashing off to another engagement. She was, however, a master at marketing, and steered many clients our way. We miss you, Stella.
Diane Gipson, Past President of the Club, who has run the Volunteer Assignments during Wreath Week, is today’s Wreath of the Day Sponsor.
Check out Fun with Floral Design short videos with Margo Yie and Ruth Evans on the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts YouTube Channel. Right now, Autumn Flower Arranging Ideas include using hydrangeas, dahlias, grasses, alliums, and mums. Each clip runs from 2 – 3 minutes. You can subscribe, or simply watch, at your leisure. Each segment contains at least one good tip for enhancing your flower arranging skills.
We have loyal members who decorate each year and look forward to the opportunity to work with their hands creating each individual piece of art. Others, equally talented, hesitate to try. Often, they are artists, flower arrangers, graphic designers, people in the business of design. Perhaps they are shy. We encourage everyone to be a decorator if the concept appeals. Sometimes there are physical limitations – attaching the items to the wreath so they don’t fall off in transit takes a bit of hand strength. Often, we have to remind the decorators that symmetry in wreaths is generally preferred by the clients – anything too off kilter may be interesting in an abstract way but not quite right for a holiday decoration. Some have said we are intimidating, Quality control has to be vocal if a wreath is underdecorated or isn’t what was specified in the order. We often go around from station to station tugging at decorations to be sure they are on firmly. But from year to year, new talents emerge. We hope more volunteers will give decorating a try next season. The example below, from ten years ago, features burgundy and gold accents, along with natural elements such as milk weed pods.
Today’s Wreath of the Day post was generously sponsored by Alexi Conine, who we will coerce into decorating in the future.
Join the City of Boston Office of Arts and Culture, Age-Friendly, NorthEndWaterfront.com, The Greenway Conservancy, and the Friends of Armenian Heritage Park on Sunday, December 13 at 4 pm for this annual celebration, virtual this year, while enjoying the warmth and togetherness of hot chocolate and favorite cookies. Vicki Lee Diamant Cookies and Hot Chocolate are sharing their favorite recipes. Meet and greet, virtually walk the candlelit labyrinth, share wishes for the Park’s Wishing Tree, and enjoy the joys of music. Performances will include Arazn Antsa (Mher Mnatsakanyan on duduk and Hovo Epoioan on piano), and Ain’t No Mountain High Enough with the Boston Children’s Chorus, with Andrea Baker and choirs from around the world, for the Massachusetts General Hospital Staff, April 2020. RSVP for this Zoom presentation at hello@armenianheritagepark.org, or call 617-803-8785.
