Boston Flora

Category: Wreath of the Day

  • Wreath of the Day – Christmas at Highclere Castle

    The Earl and Countess of Carnarvon were delighted to host an exclusive Festive Evening and Dinner in the State Dining Room at Highclere Castle on Friday 6th December 2019. One of our best decorators was privileged to attend. Following champagne cocktails in the Saloon with a roaring fire and magnificent Christmas tree, she then explored the State Rooms such as the Drawing Room, Music Room and Smoking Room with Lord and Lady Carnarvon, who also took her around the Egyptian Exhibition which is housed in the atmospheric cellars of the Castle. The exhibition follows the story of Lord Carnarvon’s great grandfather who, with his colleague Howard Carter, discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. Dinner was served in the State Dining room, one of the most famous rooms, with the portrait of Charles I. Coffee and petit fours followed in the Library. For fans of Downton Abbey, this would certainly be a priceless experience. Luckily, we didn’t lose the services of our intrepid traveler, who flew out to London immediately following our Thursday wrap-up. Below is one of her wreaths, a sugar plum fairy confection anticipating her night at Highclere.

  • Wreath of the Day – Easier with Easels

    This year we were especially fortunate to receive an additional supply of easels for our designers to use. Former member Sandra Ray brought in her own easel, made by her husband, sometime in the early 1990’s, and we were all envious. Used to working flat on tables, we discovered we could better envision our designs and achieve a more accurate balance and placement if we worked upright. Not only that, we saved wear and tear on our backs! Another intrepid member husband, John Christians, constructed our first set of easels in his back yard. Last year we realized we were running short on easels, and member Patti Quinn approached her very talented son, Zachary Hardoon, of Cannon Hill Woodworking, to put together more for our use, which he did, donating his time and skill to the project. We all realized this was a bit like asking John Singleton Copley to paint a sign, or Frederick Law Olmsted to weed a garden, but we are basically shameless. Thank you, Cannon Hill, for making this year so efficient, and we urge you all to visit the website link above, and follow them on Instagram #cannonhillwoodworking. Beneath the wide shot of part of our workshop, showcasing some of the empty easels, is a trio of wreaths hanging on them, demonstrating how critical they are to the success of our designs.

  • Wreath of the Day – Winter Storms

    We hope everyone is as excited as we are to begin our month-long annual feature of Wreath of the Day, highlighting just a few of the many beautiful wreaths created by our members this year during our Wreath Week sessions at The First Lutheran Church of Boston. We try to pair the pictures with a story from the project, and this year we begin with what just might have been a record breaking two day weather event this past Monday and Tuesday. Although we remember a snowfall or two over the past twenty-some odd years, never were we battered with such unrelenting rain, ice, and snow for such an extended period. Not only was it a challenge to keep our wreaths dry, but we worried we would lose the services of some of our volunteers, as well as walk-in buyers for plain wreaths or wreaths with bows. We need not have worried about the volunteers – they came out in record numbers. On Tuesday we had 37 people working in the basement and in the Courtyard. Thank you everyone for your dedication! The winter wreath below is emblematic of those first two days. Natural and spray painted pine cones, milk weed, branches, and sweet gum seed pods were joined with silvery artificial silver ferns, added greens and dried flowers, all highlighted by a cream, white, gold and silver bow.

  • Holiday Wreaths – Where We Are This Week

    There are many interesting garden related events taking place in the beginning of December, but luckily, many Garden Club of the Back Bay members and friends have decided to dedicate a portion of their week to our Annual Wreath Project, taking place today, December 2 through Thursday, December 5 at The First Lutheran Church of Boston. We’ll be decorating and delivering over 400 wreaths to friends and neighbors. While fully decorated wreaths are only available by advance order, a simple wreath with or without one of our signature bows may be purchased on site at the Church, which is located at 299 Berkeley Street, on the corner of Berkeley Street and Marlborough Street. Do stop by and view our operation if you are able, and put your name on our mailing list for next season. You can choose your ribbon and walk away with a fragrant holiday treasure.

     

     

  • Holiday Wreaths – Deadline Approaching

    Tomorrow is the absolutely, positively, very last day to order a fully decorated wreath online, and we encourage you to click on to https://bostonflora.com/shop/ and do so now. Next week, when we are at The First Lutheran Church making and delivering, we will sell you a wreath with a bow while wreath supplies last, if you stop by, but no amount of wheedling will succeed in scoring you one of our custom designed fully decorated wreaths. We look forward to seeing our volunteers next week, and keep watch on Instagram for live “action shots” of the proceedings.

  • Holiday Wreaths – Supporting Parks

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay gives annual grants to many parks throughout the city and region. We support The Friends of the Public Garden, The Esplanade Association, The Friends of Copley Square, the newly created Charlesgate Alliance, The Emerald Necklace Conservancy, and more, in addition to the hands-on work we undertake in the neighborhood. Those grants are, in some cases. critical to the the continued operation of the organizations. In other cases, it is a show of support and an opportunity to raise awareness of the issues the groups face. Please order a holiday wreath today, or a beautiful poinsettia plants, and help us help them. https://bostonflora.com/shop/

  • Holiday Wreaths – Saving the Trees

    We serve the trees. Our most recent website, www.backbaytrees.org, is a valuable resource for searching and identifying the trees in our neighborhood, and was creating in part with proceeds earned through our two major fundraising efforts, the Holiday Wreath Project and the Twilight Garden Party in the spring. We recommend visiting the site and looking up the trees on your block and alley. All data was collected by Club volunteers and the site itself was created and designed by one of our premier wreath decorators. Please consider how much your support will mean to future and continuing projects in Back Bay and throughout the City, and order for yourself, and for others near and dear to you. The gift of a holiday wreath is always appreciated. https://bostonflora.com/shop/

  • Holiday Wreaths – Late Thanksgiving

    Holiday Wreaths – Late Thanksgiving

    Every four years we experience the dread late Thanksgiving scenario, giving us only a few days between Thanksgiving and the start of wreath week, which is always the first full week in December. Having an intervening week between Thanksgiving and wreath week gives our customers the chance to focus on holiday decor and get in those late orders, but 2019 will not allow for ordering at leisure. We ask that you focus on that wreath order form you received in the mail now, or head right on over to https://bostonflora.com/shop/ to choose your wreaths, poinsettias, and delivery options. We will continue pruning the Back Bay street trees next spring with the proceeds of the sale, trimming away the winter damage and promoting healthier growth.

  • Holiday Wreaths – How We Price

    Last year we were obliged to raise the price of our exquisite hand tied bows due to the ever-rising costs of ribbon. Customers purchasing wreaths with bows or just a separate bow paid an extra $5 ($10 for extra large bows), but we didn’t add on the extra costs to our fully decorated standard wreaths. This year we realized we need to charge more for the fully decorated models, for a few reasons. One factor, naturally, was the more expensive ribbon, but in addition to ribbon costs, prices for all the mechanics we need to execute the designs also had risen. Wires, picks, paint, exotic greens, and accessories have become more expensive. Off-season storage costs went up, as did the popularity of the wreaths themselves. We have only so many volunteers and a limited time in which to create the wreaths, so we decided we needed to charge more for what we are designing and delivering. In 2019 a fully decorated wreath will cost $140, still massively less expensive than comparable wreaths from high end florists. And remember, as an all volunteer organization, every cent of profit goes directly to the projects and causes we support. We hope every customer agrees that ordering from The Garden Club of the Back Bay is the responsible consumer choice! To order, visit https://bostonflora.com/shop/

  • 2019 Kickoff Announcement: Holiday Wreath Sale is Back!

    Very soon our Club members and past purchasers will receive the 2019 Holiday Wreath Order Form in the mail. We mail early, in October, to encourage you to check one holiday task off your list in a timely manner. Our annual benefit sale helps fund our participation in all the good projects we undertake, including pruning street trees and inoculating trees against disease. We help maintain public garden spaces around Commonwealth Avenue Mall statues and along edges of the Public Garden, in conjunction with The Friends of the Public Garden. We contribute to dozens of area-wide not for profit organizations, helping them manage and care for their public spaces. Monthly meetings, open to the public, educate the community and bring awareness to the serious ecological and climate problems of the day. Our second website, www.backbaytrees.org, keeps a record of every tree in the Back Bay, and serves to help the City of Boston in its public planning process. In the coming weeks you will hear about some of our endeavors in greater detail, but for now we encourage you to order from us, and consider giving wreaths as holiday gifts as well. If you are not on the mailing list for our order form, email info@bostonflora.com, or leave a message at 617-859-8865 and we’ll get one out to you. You may also order online at https://bostonflora.com/shop.