Boston Flora

Tag: wreath of the day

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Out of Fashion

    Wreath decorating, like flower arranging, follows trends. Some years we see customers favoring minimalism, some years they favor glitz and glam. Special theme requests often reflect current cultural phenomena – we’ve had our Downton Abbey years and our Martha Stewart years. For a while, past President Anita Bucknum sent up round, flat sea grape leaves from Florida, which we used with abandon, although they were a bit brittle and difficult to manipulate. The plants grow profusely in tropical climates and gathering by the roadside was simple. When Anita moved to Delaware, our supply dwindled, and we haven’t used them in years. Below is an example of them, painted a cool gold and peeking out behind the bow, behind the pheasant feathers. They not only framed our bows, making them more substantial, but covered up bare spots in the greenery.

    Our thanks today go to Wreath of the Day Sponsor Jane Gnazzo, another Member who has moved out of state but remains active in many capacities.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Margaret’s Basement

    For the first years of the Wreath Project, which began in the 1980’s, we decorated in the kitchen and basement of Past President Margaret Pokorny’s house. In those days we were there for two or three days (our switch to four days plus a half day of set up came later), and we made quite a mess. Margaret’s flagstone wall still bears evidence of some gold spray paint gone rogue. The amount of pine tar and ornamental grass dust shed was epic. I suspect some needles can still be found under the floorboards. Margaret’s long suffering husband would flee to New Hampshire. Even after we moved to The First Lutheran Church of Boston, a few special early orders were completed back on Marlborough Street. Wreath Week is always the first full week in December, but when the calendar doesn’t cooperate, some big buildings schedule their holiday parties on the weekend before we began decorating. To help with their dilemmas, we made a handful of wreaths early, including the one below, one of a fully decorated trio for 180 Beacon Street.

    Today’s Wreath of the Day post is sponsored by member Glenda Mattes, a decorator who specializes in the use of dried herbs, roses, and delicate materials, some of which are included below.

  • Wreath of the Day – From the Archives, Begins Today

    Thanksgiving is behind us, today is Black Friday, the coronavirus is still with us, and we now turn our attention to The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s annual holiday wreath project, sadly cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. Club members and past purchasers were notified of this state of affairs in an October mailing, but we didn’t go into all the reasons behind our thinking. First and foremost was concern for the health of our volunteers. We make the wreaths in the basement of The First Lutheran Church of Boston, a venue where social distancing and proper ventilation would be challenging. As with all public spaces, we could not be assured the Church could rent to us if State or City guidelines became stricter as case numbers rise. Our volunteers are, in some instances, sheltering away from Back Bay. We always anticipate Wreath Week with excitement, and its loss in 2020 cuts deeply. Luckily we have a collection of photographs from years past, to bring some cheer and inspiration from now through the New Year.

    Generous members have contributed to bring these posts to you, and today we thank Nancy Devereaux, our director of site operations and able second-in-command bow maker, as our first Wreath of the Day sponsor. Contributions can be made at https://bostonflora.com/donate/ and we will be happy to acknowledge your support in a future post. All proceeds to our all volunteer organization go to the support of tree care and neighborhood beautification projects.

    Below is a wreath from 2008, hung outside the Church ready for delivery, with some of the address information edited out for privacy. We chose this image as an example of the many steps necessary before the wreath gets to the door – the production of the paperwork, the decorating in conformance to order specifications, the quality control, and the assignment to our drivers and driving assistants.

  • 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.

  • Wreath of the Day – We’re Back!

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s 2017 Wreath Week has concluded, and we are now resting, soaking our feet, bandaging our hands, and planning for 2018. For those new to this web site, we have a tradition of posting a Wreath of the Day feature each day from now through New Year’s Day, highlighting some of our beautiful creations, and sharing stories of the season. Remember,  that allows us to show you only 24 wreaths out of the nearly 170 fully decorated wreaths created. We couldn’t be more proud of our decorators, and there are some designs which, if not published this month, will appear next fall as we gear up for the next sales season. We hope you enjoy and share with friends.  We will start with a classic almost all natural wreath – but look closely and you’ll spot glittery twigs of rhinestones among the rose hips, cones, magnolia leaves, incense cedar, dried flowers and white pine.

  • Wreath of the Day 2011 – Scheduling

    Wreath of the Day 2011 – Scheduling

    There are many timing factors for The Garden Club of the Back Bay to consider while preparing for wreath week.  Perhaps the most complex is the scheduling of our delivery personnel.  We deliver over two days, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with two hour delivery windows in the morning, afternoon and evening.  We like to have two to a car, a driver (to double park) and a runner (to carry the wreath to its destination.)  Our evening slot coincides with rush hour, and so that assignment is less popular with our members than the morning or afternoon time frames.  We need cars spacious enough to accommodate our wreaths without crushing.  Our favorite destinations are buildings with doormen, who are blessedly always there to accept delivery.  Sometimes a car goes back to a home more than once if the customer isn’t there, even though we’ve confirmed time of delivery in advance.  We know, life happens, and we just don’t feel comfortable leaving our beautiful creations on a doorstep.  Our decorators don’t sign up in advance – we welcome them at any time, and there is room for all at The First Lutheran Church.  We do have to schedule our hours with the Church personnel, the wreath and poinsettia drop off with our nursery, grocery and lunch deliveries, and trash pick up.  Somehow it all gets done.  The beautiful wreath pictured below, loaded with fragile dried flowers, was carefully hand carried home by the owner, so no scheduling was required.

  • 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.