Boston Flora

Category: Wreath of the Day

  • Wreath of the Day – Individual Efforts

    While we aren’t able to decorate wreaths for our customers in 2021, we do have talented members who, on their kitchen counters or porches, take what items they can gather and proceed to decorate a few wreaths for themselves and for their friends. Sometimes bows are recycled from past seasons – savvy members always store their bows after their wreaths are taken down. Wired ribbon can be fluffed and resuscitated, even taken apart, ironed, and reformed, to look good as new. Dried sturdy materials like pine cones and lotus pods last a long time, and artificial items basically are good for the next hundred years. By purchasing a plain wreath at the garden center or grocery store, beautiful results are possible, like the one below. Our vast displays of materials and mechanics like picks and wires are missing, making this process more difficult and much less fun. Nevertheless, we persist.

  • Wreath of the Day – History, Part II

    We began with paper ribbon – wide, rather stiff, backed with metallic gold, prone to wrinkling. It was sturdy, weatherproof, hard to work with, and limited in color choices. It did come in big, fat rolls and wasn’t especially expensive. We pre-made a lot of them in November, at a bow making meeting. In truth, many bows made in those meetings were destined to be taken apart and re-made. Staples came out, loops were uneven, tails were bedraggled, sizes varied from one to another, especially unfortunate if you ordered a matched pair. Bow making sessions were later abandoned. Finally we began to use better quality ribbon. It cut our profit but was much more fun to work with. The first year, we tried charging an extra $5 for “premium ribbon” but soon had to abandon the idea. The decorators didn’t want to use the paper ribbon anymore and rarely checked the order to be sure the buyer had requested the upgrade. From then on, fancy ribbon was the norm. We still tried to buy on sale, at the end of season, or at going out of business or Christmas in July sales, but you can’t keep them down on the farm once they’ve seen Paris. Below is a wreath from 2006, fifteen years ago. We would be trimming down that middle opening if quality control got their hands on it today.

  • Wreath of the Day – History

    In a “normal” year we would be beginning our Wreath of the Day features, highlighting our creations from the holiday Wreath Week project just wrapping up. For the second year in a row, that project has been put on hiatus due to COVID concerns. Celebrating our past achievements, however, is still possible. Hard to believe that the picture below was taken thirty years ago, in 1991, in Margaret Pokorny’s basement on Marlborough Street. It wasn’t even the first year of the project, either. Photos from that era are hard to come by. We had no sense of preserving an archive of what was at the time considered a hands-on craft project with a minor fundraising component. Starting out, we worked for two days, taking orders by telephone, and buyers picked up their purchases at Margaret’s. Over the next few decades we moved to a larger venue, The First Lutheran Church of Boston, organized purchasing by mail, newsletters, and ultimately online, maintained extensive databases, and set up a delivery system. Numbers of volunteers grew, and the project expanded from two days to four and one half days of active work, with preparation tasks beginning in October. The essence of the project, however, remained the same – friendship and neighborhood beautification.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Happy New Year

    Today we wish you all a Happy New Year. It’s 2021 and we all hope the coming year brings health and a resumption of some of our cherished activities and traditions, if not immediately, at least by summer or fall. We intend to be back decorating in December, and will be planning accordingly. These posts over the past month have brought back many happy memories but are certainly bittersweet. We miss each other. Continue to be careful, please, and enjoy the many online activities which have blossomed in response to lockdowns. We will continue to keep you up to date on many of the possibilities to learn and enjoy.

    Thank you to long time customer Julie Mathisen, our closing sponsor for Wreath of the Day posts. From our Wreath Volunteers: “See you all next year!”

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Champagne Dreams

    New Year’s Eve has traditionally been a day in our Wreath of the Day posts when we illustrate a wreath with lots of bling – it’s a celebration night, after all. This year we are (hopefully) not carousing, at least at parties or in crowds, so we are showing off some more subtle approaches to the color champagne. Please stay safe, and stay indoors tonight if you can.

    Thanks go to Laurie Thomas for her sponsorship of Wreath of the Day. Laurie is not only one of our most talented decorators but is renowned for her beautifully round and balanced designs.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – We Don’t Do These Anymore

    Originally, we offered three sizes of wreaths – standard, large, and extra large, and we offered a fully decorated option for all three. The order forms were complicated, to say the least. Decorating an extra large wreath took half a day, and the weight of the decorations usually resulted in a wreath that was less round and more oval. Our decisions to simplify came gradually. First, we dropped extra large wreaths except by special order. A few years later, we dropped the fully decorated option for our large wreaths – the time commitment was too daunting. We lost a few customers but retained our volunteer base, who were in open rebellion over having to decorate large wreaths, especially matched pairs. Below is member Judith Fleming holding a very large fully decorated wreath from years ago, and below, a more modestly sized standard wreath which more than fills a space and is a pleasure to create. Large wreaths with magnificent bows are still on offer, and some people with wide doors have found them to be a terrific option.

    Elizabeth Johnson of Charles River Square in Beacon Hill is today’s Wreath of the Day Sponsor and we thank her heartily for her continued support!

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Charitable Repercussions

    Each year we donate many gift certificates to other not for profit organizations for auction or raffle, including certificates to each member and affiliate club in The Boston Committee of the GCA. The proceeds from their raffles benefit The Blossom Fund, which was created to fund public projects of horticultural impact in the Greater Boston area. Our cancellation this year puts the Committee in the position of having to raise additional funds through increased donations, so if you are able and so inclined, please visit their site and make a year end gift (and tell them we sent you!) Below is Milton Garden Club member Beverly Van Orman picking up her winning wreath in 2010, and a more recent example of a winner’s wreath. We confer which each gift certificate holder to determine color and decoration preferences, which are often quite a challenge. These orders are some of our favorites to execute.

    Thank you to Susan Sloan and Arthur Clarke, today’s generous Wreath of the Day post sponsors, who themselves are active in many of Boston’s charitable organizations, and understand well the challenges of today’s economy.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – The Fall of Copper

    Trends come and go – it’s why they’re called trends, we suppose. A few years ago we began to offer copper as a ribbon and accent option and the response was dramatic. People wanted to try it, and sometimes asked for copper and gold in combination, As years went on, the copper orders became fewer and fewer. We think it’s because when viewed from afar, copper can just look brown, as if you’ve hung up a dead wreath. Indoors and up close, it’s something completely different, but for outside door use, we’d recommend a more traditional choice.

    We are grateful to the 165 Commonwealth Avenue Trust and to Patti BiFulco for their contribution to our 2020 Holiday Wreath Project, even without receiving a wreath, and they are today’s Wreath of the Day Sponsors.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Beyond Christmas

    There is something a little unsettling about wreaths hung on doors and still lingering in February. There are many reasons to leave wreaths in place after, say, Epiphany, or in our household, Superbowl Sunday. Sometimes, people are away. Weather can play a part – who wants to be up on a ladder in single digit temperatures and ice on the ground? Laziness may play a tiny part, if we’re totally honest. A winter theme wreath solves this dilemma. Until spring comes, your neighbors can’t be too judgmental if the wreaths shown below are still on display.

    Member Patti Quinn, our Wreath of the Day Sponsor today, hangs her wreath in her fireplace as a winter accent, and always requests her wreath be winter themed, often without even a bow. The look can last a long time.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – The Advantages of Storage

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay rents a storage facility where we keep leftover ribbon, mechanical apparatus, tools, extra glittery balls and accessories, and substantial cones and seedpods. Anything too delicate, like grasses and dried flowers, don’t survive a year in a dry box very well. But if you look at the wreath below, with the exception of the base balsam wreath, all the decorations could easily have come out of our storage bins. Cones, especially when painted, are pretty much sealed and shatterproof. An advantage here is, should our orders be more extensive than the amount of our fresh greens, we can improvise. Also, a wreath like this one will last much longer in a hot city unit than an all natural wreath with a variety of pines and holly. Don’t be afraid to keep some of the decorations from a wreath you may buy or make yourself for recycling next year. A bowl filled with gold pine cones makes a handsome table centerpiece. The gorgeous bow will top a tower of presents or cookie tins. The gold and red balls can go onto next year’s Christmas tree. It’s all a matter of storage, and how much closet space you can dedicate to the purpose.

    Margaret Pokorny, co-chair of the wreath project, is today’s Wreath of the Day post sponsor. She still has much of our material stored in her New Hampshire barn, so the transition to rented storage is as yet incomplete.