Boston Flora

Tag: wreaths

  • Thursday, October 21, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Fall Wreath Workshop

    Learn how to create your own fall wreath using a mix of dried hydrangea and seasonal flowers along with pods, berries, grasses and foliage for a luxurious looking design. The finished size of this wreath is approximately 20” wide. Anna Holmes will review where to source local materials, drying flowers for future wreaths/designs and keeping your wreath fresh looking. We encourage you to bring your favorite things to incorporate into your wreath for a combination of student’s own collection and materials provided by instructor.  

    Space is limited. Sign up by October 14th. The program will take place at Highfield Hall & Gardens in Falmouth.
    Register online today or give us a call at 508-495-1878, ext. 2 $45 for Highfield Hall members, $55 for nonmembers.

    Highfield will adhere to social distancing protocols and space classmates out accordingly.

    Click here for more information about Anna Holmes

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Offbeat Colors

    One of our most active members, Bev Christians, has run or contributed to a number of Garden Club of the Back Bay events, such as the Winter Tea and the Twilight Garden Party, but is not particularly fond of traditional Christmas colors of red and green. She has, for a number of years, requested a more offbeat look, sometimes chartreuse, sometimes pink, to hang in her South End home. Designer Rita Christensen has obliged with some truly spectacular wreaths, a few of which are pictured below.

    Thank you to Margo Newman for sponsoring today’s Wreath of the Day posting.

  • 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 – Judicious Editing

    We have our secrets, even, sometimes, from our own volunteers. In the early years of our Holiday Wreath Project, we had no formal training procedure set up for decorators. Now, potential designers work at first next to an experienced member, assisting and watching, then do a wreath under supervision, before getting individual assignments. Back then, members grabbed a card and started decorating. We exercise quality control, and make suggestions, but sometimes, no matter how hard we try to gently lead, the finished product just isn’t up to snuff. We are a volunteer organization and treasure every volunteer hour given to us. But after the decorator left for the day, we would snatch the wreath back for a bit of repair and restoration. Sometimes it was a matter of balance, sometimes a mechanical issue (the pine cones are falling off!), but we needed to send out a finished product in line with the prices charged. This type of subterfuge is now rarely needed, thankfully, and certainly wasn’t needed on the wreath shown below, created by one of our star decorators, Rita Christensen.

    Thank you Past President Stephanie Fletcher for sponsorship of today’s Wreath of the Day post.

  • Monday, November 9 or Wednesday, December 2, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Holiday Wreaths Online

    Learn to fashion different types and sizes of wreaths – from those that hang on the wall to those surrounding a candle to bring a soft glow to your holiday table. Calamia Crafts owner Madeline Yanni will demonstrate how to make an evergreen wreath from scratch, as well as how to create one using preserved greens such as cedar and juniper, dried seasonal botanicals, and mushroom birds. The New York Botanical Garden online class will be held twice, on November 9 and on December 2, online, from 5 – 7. Registered students will receive log in instructions. NYBG members $25, nonmembers $29. Register at http://enrole.com/nybg/

  • 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.

  • 2019 Kickoff Announcement: Holiday Wreath Sale is Back!

    Very soon our Club members and past purchasers will receive the 2019 Holiday Wreath Order Form in the mail. We mail early, in October, to encourage you to check one holiday task off your list in a timely manner. Our annual benefit sale helps fund our participation in all the good projects we undertake, including pruning street trees and inoculating trees against disease. We help maintain public garden spaces around Commonwealth Avenue Mall statues and along edges of the Public Garden, in conjunction with The Friends of the Public Garden. We contribute to dozens of area-wide not for profit organizations, helping them manage and care for their public spaces. Monthly meetings, open to the public, educate the community and bring awareness to the serious ecological and climate problems of the day. Our second website, www.backbaytrees.org, keeps a record of every tree in the Back Bay, and serves to help the City of Boston in its public planning process. In the coming weeks you will hear about some of our endeavors in greater detail, but for now we encourage you to order from us, and consider giving wreaths as holiday gifts as well. If you are not on the mailing list for our order form, email info@bostonflora.com, or leave a message at 617-859-8865 and we’ll get one out to you. You may also order online at https://bostonflora.com/shop.

  • Holiday Wreaths – Black Friday

    No, we’re not offering a sale price today, but since you are online and perhaps looking to finish up that holiday gift list, may we suggest ordering a beautiful wreath for friends, family, or a co-worker, right now at https://bostonflora.com/shop? All proceeds benefit the tree canopy of the City of Boston, and the other good works done or funded by The Garden Club of the Back Bay. For those who may not know, we are a totally volunteer organization. We have no paid employees (although we do pay our CPA for annual audited financial statements!) and our two websites, www.gardenclubbackbay.org and www.backbaytrees.org, are advertisement-free and managed by our members.  Help us keep up the work of being an environmental watchdog and a force for beautification in the community.

  • Holiday Wreath Sale – Auction Reminders

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay contributes many wreath gift certificates to not for profit organizations throughout eastern Massachusetts (and even to a few farther afield). They are auctioned off and then, sometimes, those certificates sit in someone’s drawer and are forgotten. If you have been a lucky winner, please remember to contact us with your information and wreath design preferences before it’s too late.  Since we specialize in one of a kind creations, we love to have the opportunity to gather a few special decorations before we are in the middle of wreath making in December. Deadline for fully decorated wreath orders is November 30, so email info@bostonflora.com right away. If you haven’t been fortunate enough to win a wreath, you may buy one at https://bostonflora.com/shop.