Boston Flora

Tag: wreath of the day

  • 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.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Warming Up the Silver

    We receive a fair number of orders for silver wreaths – silver bow with silver accents, silver bow with all natural accents, glamorous glitz with silver, but the challenge is to make the wreath warm and inviting, rather than cold and harsh. Different colored silver spray paints can cause problems. Some make leaves, such as magnolia leaves, look like radiators instead of sterling. Pine cones turn gray. One solution is a judicious addition of gold accents to the silver, which immediately lifts the design into another sphere. Below are some examples – the wreaths still read “silver” but the pitfall of the gray wreath is avoided.

    Thanks today are extended to customer Donald Denniston, who each season purchases a wreath for his condominium, with the specification that the decorations be tight and controlled, since the door is an “active” door, opened and closed often. We try to keep the glitter off the floor.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Most Popular Bow

    On another day, we may delve into the popularity of various styles and bows, perhaps with a survey quiz, but for today we concentrate on this 2018 wreath with paw prints, bones, and overall doggie heaven theme, which was universally acclaimed (thank you, Susie Shafer, for the design). We also introduce you to the Garden Club’s newest mascot, who we hope will be guarding the wreaths outdoors next season, our Vice President Maureen O’Hara’s puppy Jackson, with the blue eyes. Follow him on Instagram @jacksonthemayorofbackbay, and don’t forget to follow us @gardenclubbackbay.

    Today’s Wreath of the Day post is sponsored by Elisabeth and Michael McCord, recently retired as leaders of The Learning Project Elementary School, and active supporters of the neighborhood.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Crazy Elements

    Members acquire many strange articles to add to the decorated wreaths. Often they come in with something they think looks beautiful (and is!), but we are left with the issue of how to attach them to the wreath. Some of us are better than others in this regard. We don’t use glue because glue becomes brittle and falls to pieces in freezing weather, and while people often promise they are hanging the wreath indoors, they change their minds and we can’t obligate them to keep their words. Some members come armed with electric drills and awls. Hammering has been heard. Below are some examples of what happens when the often large and interesting element are successfully incorporated.

    Cathryn Griffith, today’s Wreath of the Day sponsor, lives near the First Lutheran Church where we make our wreaths, and famously decorates her own wreaths but buys the basic forms from us, which we very much appreciate. Perhaps we can convince her to decorate for us next year.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – All Glitzed Up

    Flashy, sparkly wreaths may not be to everyone’s taste, but we have a loyal customer following for eye-popping, spectacular designs that owe a lot to artificial materials. A designer has to be very skilled to pull off this look. Balance and color sense play a big part, keeping the wreaths bold but not gaudy. Below are three examples of glittery but tasteful holiday wreaths that are especially effective hung in dark areas.

    Thank you to Elizabeth Foley for her support of our Wreath of the Day, From the Archives feature.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Hanukkah Through the Years

    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.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – The Florence Wreaths

    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.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Directed by Stella

    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.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Disintegrating Pine Cones

    A staple of our wreath decorations is the pine cone, in all varieties. Some years we have bins and bins of them, collected over the late summer and fall by our members, and some years we are a little short and end up stretching the supply by cutting them in half into pine cone “flowers”. When we have extras at the end of Wreath Week, we pick through them and store the good ones in plastic bins in our rented storage facility. We’ve learned from experience that the term “sorting through” is key. One year, tired and worn out from marathon decorating days and nights, we threw lids on bins and hauled everything off, only to find the next year that some sort of bug had gotten into some of the bins and managed to reduce the pine cone supply to dust. After disposing and sanitizing, we swore not to do that ever again. The same principle applies to dried fruits, nuts, and berries. We do, however, save ribbon, mechanicals such as wire and picks, and artificial decorations mostly used in our “Glamorous Glitz” category. Below is a ten-year-old example of how pine cones, when fresh, are put to good use.

    Thanks today go to Francie Cramb, our Wreath of the Day Sponsor and Past President who travels from up from Florida to staff the Assignment Desk and all important Quality Control, along with Jolinda Taylor, each December.