Some materials used by The Garden Club of the Back Bay are stored in our rented storage locker from year to year, if they are in good shape and not likely to crumble to dust.  We’ve found, to our dismay, that fruit doesn’t keep well (who would have thought bugs could find there way into a baggie?) and dried herbs become too fragile after a further year of drying out.  Pine cones, however, wear like iron, and we made good use of last season’s white pine cones in the wreath pictured below.  The bright, orange-red bow was a perfect match for the holly berries, as well.

Throughout the year, members of The Garden Club of the Back Bay collect and dry flowers.  Some of us dry fruit (new method this year – cut oranges, lemons or limes thinly with a V-blade slicer, soak briefly in lemon lime soda for color retention, then dry on a cookie sheet lined with a Silpat mat in a 170 degree oven until brittle.)  As fall progresses, we start collecting milk weed pods, baptisia, bark and lichen, and of course a variety of pine cones.  Just before wreath week, we cut fresh greens to augment the balsam with other interesting textures and colors.  White pine, juniper, and cedar are favorites, and we love to acquire blue spruce and variegated evergreen boughs.  In the wreath shown below, a member saved and dried flowers from her son’s October wedding, including roses from a bridesmaid’s bouquet, and fashioned a wreath for the newlyweds’ new home.

As orders come in, The Garden Club of the Back Bay wreath chairs determine what materials will be needed to execute our sales.  Basic balsam wreaths in a variety of sizes are ordered in advance, as well as some miscellaneous greens not native to New England, such as the magnolia leaves featured in the wreath below.  Wire, picks, and ribbon are also acquired from a wholesale source.  Some of us are savvy shoppers and don’t pass up a sale opportunity at places as diverse as Ocean State Job Lots, The Christmas Tree Shoppes, even eBay, our primary source for feathers.

Once our Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreath order forms are in the mail, the action begins.  Many customers – our favorite customers, naturally – shoot those order forms right back to us with a check, and they specify what they want.  Bow color is of paramount importance, of course, and if the wreath is fully decorated, we want to know about accent color preferences, and whether the wreath is destined to be hung inside or out.  All this information is logged into a database with 58 separate fields.  We can access records back to 2004.  We can tell you how many people want silver bows, how many fully decorated standard wreaths have been ordered, how many people on Marlborough Street will receive a wreath, etc.  We slice and dice the data in many different ways, and are always trying to improve the system.  Forgotten what size you ordered last year?  We can tell you.  Need the delivery between 5 and 6 only?  Can do.  Below is a wreath designed for a darker space, a vestibule which is sheltered but remains cool.  The iridescent clear and milky white balls were a perfect foil for the white ribbon which also had a rainbow sheen.