Boston Flora

Tag: Holiday Wreaths

  • Holiday Wreaths 2011 – Gift Giving Solutions

    Let The Garden Club of the Back Bay solve your holiday gift giving dilemmas.  We will custom design to your specifications a gorgeous wreath, which can be delivered within the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, or the South End, or be picked up, with a lovely gift card attached, indicating you have been thoughtful, generous, and possibly the best gift giver ever (that’s our opinion, not the wording on the card, by the way.)  You can send a wreath with one of our magnificent bows for as little as $30 – perfect for the hairdresser, dentist, teacher, superintendent, babysitter, etc.  If you have close friends or relatives who simply have enough “stuff” – send a fully decorated wreath.  Some of our members do a lot of their holiday shopping at the Wreath Store, and it’s stress free.  Visit our wreath page – https://bostonflora.com/products-page/ – for the order form and click on the links to see past pictures of our wreaths and bows.  Naturally the ribbon selection changes each year, but all are beautiful.

  • Holiday Wreaths 2011 – The True Cost of a Wreath

    Sometimes, when neighbors ask their condominium Trustees to purchase wreaths for the building, they are asked if these wreaths are the “best buy” or if ones can be procured at a cheaper price.  There are a couple of answers to that question.  The first, naturally, is that a cheaper wreath, both in cost and quality, may assuredly be found.  But why should a condominium purchase one of The Garden Club of the Back Bay wreaths?  Because all the net proceeds are spent pruning, planting, and inoculating the street trees in our own neighborhood.  Last year alone, The Garden Club of the Back Bay spent over $14,000 on street tree maintenance alone.  These are dollars the City of Boston cannot afford to spend, yet the difference in the quality of our natural experience is immense.  During Hurricane Irene, for instance, the Back Bay suffered minimal tree damage, because dead limbs had consistently been pruned over the past months.  Worries about the potential impact of our October snow storm were also lessened.  So what is the true cost of a wreath?  Is it the base purchase price (which, we contend, still compares favorably to wreaths from a good florist), or is it the value of a well tended neighborhood, with healthy and beautiful trees, increasing all our property values?  We know our answer, and hope it will be yours as well.  To order, visit https://bostonflora.com/products-page/.

  • Holiday Wreaths 2011 – Why You Should Order Early

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s wreaths are becoming legendary.  For sheer beauty, freshness, and innovative decorations, these wreaths are holiday masterpieces.  Our past customers know this, and when the annual order forms are mailed, they are returned within days.  Last season we had so many orders for fully decorated wreaths, we had to cut off accepting new orders before the end of November, and our volunteer decorators still felt a bit overwhelmed during wreath making days.  So we made a few changes this year.  First, we did not advertise in our local newspapers, much as we love them and like to support our local businesses, especially those which give us such great coverage during the year.  Next, we are not planning to send out second notices, which we have always done prior years.  In an additional attempt to better manage our numbers, we instituted a $50 surcharge for matched sets of three or more fully decorated wreaths.  Matched sets are the most difficult to do, and we are happy to coordinate sets with matching ribbons and bow placement, as long as they need not be identical.  Our goal is to create 225 fully decorated wreaths December 5 – 8, along with our lovely plain wreaths and wreaths with bows, and no more.  As of today, we have orders for more than 115 fully decorated wreaths, and the window is closing.  Don’t be left out.  You may click on to https://bostonflora.com/products-page/ for an order form.

  • Wreath of the Day

    Our 2010 Holiday Wreath Sale is now over.  Club members spent four and a half days setting up, decorating, delivering, and cleaning up, creating over 400 wreaths (246 of them fully decorated) and raising money for our beloved street trees. Know that every last dime of proceeds will go to betterment projects in our neighborhood, in our City, and even a bit beyond.  Wreath Chairs Francine Crawford, Margaret Pokorny, and Elisabeth Lay, and Co-Presidents Jackie Blombach and Jolinda Taylor wish to thank all the Garden Club of the Back Bay volunteers, neighborhood guest volunteers, and most of all our loyal customers, for everything they have done this week.

    Last year we featured a “Wreath of the Day” each day in December following the end of Wreath Week through New Year’s Day, and the postings were a big success.  Every wreath has a story, and we think these stories should be shared.  Hanukkah is now over, but our first showcased wreath pays tribute to the eight day holiday commemorating the re-dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem in 165 BC.

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Wreath Making Days, Monday December 6 – Thursday December 9

    For all of our fans out there, be advised we’re knee deep in pine needles over at The First Lutheran Church of Boston, 299 Berkeley Street, from today through Thursday, so if you need to find us, walk on over.  If you’ve ordered a wreath, you should have received a confirmatory postcard detailing the time of delivery, or in the case of pick up, when the wreath will be ready.  If you haven’t ordered a wreath, because, we assume, you’ve been held hostage by Somali pirates and have only just now been released, you may still walk on over to purchase a plain wreath or a wreath with a beautiful bow, but we’re afraid we cannot take any more orders for fully decorated wreaths – we are SOLD OUT! We’re just overwhelmed with the positive response from our past customers and from new customers we’ve found through our ads in the NABB Bulletin, the Back Bay Sun, the Beacon Hill Times, and the Boston Courant.  You may, however, put yourself on our mailing list for next season by either coming by, emailing info@bostonflora.com, or calling 617-859-8865 and leaving a message.

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreaths – Black Friday

    Today is the day America shops online, or so we’re told.  Here is your chance to do your part.  By clicking HERE you may print an order form for our 2010 holiday wreaths, and then fax it to 617-249-1762, or email your name, address, and order information to info@bostonflora.com.  Or put it right in the snail mail to Francine Crawford, 421 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02115.  How easy is that?   Our decorated wreaths are masterfully done – the picture below illustrates the detailed work which goes into each wreath.  Remember, wreaths make great gifts as well. Take a rest this holiday, let us decorate your home and the  homes of your friends and family, then brag about how you finished your shopping by the end  of November.  We thank you most deeply for your anticipated support!

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreaths – The Perfect Gift

    Many Garden Club of the Back Bay members use our holiday wreath fund raising drive to cross off a few names on their gift lists.  We have known some real estate brokers who have sent wreaths to newly installed home buyers, and local employers who reward a valuable staff member with a custom designed wreath.  Wreaths have been sent to hairdressers,  dentists,  personal trainers, tennis instructors, married children, headmasters, political volunteers, schools, churches – the list is almost endless.  If the recipient is in the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, or otherwise in our delivery area, so much the better, or you can deliver the gift yourself.  We will prepare a beautiful gift card to accompany the wreath (not just a delivery tag – our gift cards are of the highest quality and custom printed).  Think how delighted you’ll be, knowing you’ve finished your shopping early!  For wreath order form and information, click HERE.

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreaths – Alternative Uses

    We all know how beautiful our hand decorated, custom designed wreaths look on your doors.  Have you ever thought, however, of other ways to use these gorgeous wreaths?  Some past customers have.  One innovative lady decided a few years ago that her wreath would be the centerpiece of her holiday table, so we designed a wreath which was meant to be viewed flat, with a hurricane glass covered pillar candle in the middle.  Besting that idea the following season, she ordered three, for a long farmhouse table in ski country.  We wrapped ribbon around the wreaths rather than creating our more traditional bows.

    Last year, at Shreve, Crump & Low, their professional table designer used standard sized wreaths as placemats, and placed an opulent service plate on top of each wreath.  What a statement!  The plain wreaths could be sent home with each guest as a fabulous party favor, or simply re-used with the addition of one of our magnificent ribbons, which we’re happy to sell separately.

    Another loyal customer delivers an advent wreath wire candle holder (available at craft stores and on line) to us each year, and we attach it to a standard wreath, which is then decorated with pine cones, pods, and berries.  So let your imagination loose – perhaps you need to order more than one wreath this year?  Order information is here.

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreaths – “Green Spending”

    Why should you buy from us? Yes, we know you could order from local florists (at a significantly higher price, we might point out), or from the nurseries or groceries stores (at perhaps a slightly lower cost, with a corresponding drop in quality.) Purchasing our wreaths comes with the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting many wonderful local organizations, in addition to our own.

    Each year we make grants to not for profit groups which are making a difference in our lives. In addition to the Friends of the Public Garden and the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee, we donate to the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, the Charles River Clean Up Boat, the Boston Nature Center of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the Esplanade Association, COG, and to City Roots/The Urban Ecology Institute. This is by no means the complete list of beneficiaries (click on to our Projects page on the menu above for details) but we give approximately $20,000 annually to area groups accomplishing great works which we do not have the expertise or manpower to do ourselves. The dollar amount of these grants is dependent upon our earnings, so we urge you to be generous and allow us the opportunity to enhance your holiday environment with our fresh balsam wreaths.  We also directly pay for the planting, pruning, and inoculation of the street trees in our neighborhood – another $20,000 annual expenditure, give or take a thousand.  As Everett Dirkson used to say,  and I paraphrase, “A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”  Click HERE for an order form.

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreaths – Natural Materials

    We are always happy to showcase beautiful natural materials on the wreaths we make during Wreath Week, December 6 – 9 this year.  Where do we find these materials, you may ask, since we live in such an urban environment?  Well, some of us are fortunate enough to have a weekend home or a summer place, or better yet, friends and relatives with a weekend home and a summer place.  We also take trips out to public parks (with permission, naturally!), and have been know to scavenge on road sides.  We walk by friends’ suburban yards with a gleam in our eye and pruners in our pockets.  Supporters have been known to mail us leaves, pods and cones when on their travels.  We buy half dead flowers in the deep discount bin at the flower market, and beg for wilting arrangements from our hairdressers’ front desks.  Even in the middle of the summer, as we sit on a beach, we’re fingering some interesting shells and wondering if we can drill a hole in it without cracking the entire piece.  Some may say we’re obsessed.  Please consider ordering one of our beautiful creations – the order form is right HERE.