Boston Flora

Tag: wreaths

  • 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 – Unusual Materials

    A Garden Club of the Back Bay signature is the use of unusual natural materials in our wreaths.  Below is a wreath festooned with lotus pods, poppy seeds, wisteria pods, rose hips, protea, sea grape leaves, cones, pheasant feathers, and some completely mysterious items scavenged in the fields.  Some of the items, such as lotus pods, must be purchased, since we haven’t yet figured out how to grow these in our gardens in the Northeast, and the pheasant feathers come from a source in Minnesota who sells them on line to fishermen as material for exotic lures. We think the wreath is absolutely stunning.

  • Wreath of the Day – Burgundy Roses

    We collect roses all year – we snatch them out of our centerpieces, we buy and dry from the deep discount bins at the flower market, we grow them, we take them from friends.  Roses preserve their original color most successfully in warm, dry spots with circulating air and little sunlight, and the examples used in the wreath below are especially lovely.  If you’d like to dry some at home, just bunch a few stems together with a rubber band (which will contract as the flowers and stems dry – much better than string) and hook the rubber band over a cabinet door handle or a nail.  When they’re thoroughly dry, place them flat in an airtight plastic bin until you’re ready to use them.

  • 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 – 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.

  • Wednesday, December 1, 1:00 – 3:00 pm – Wreaths from the Wild

    Get ready for the Garden Club of the Back Bay’s annual wreath making week (a detail of one of our wreaths is seen below)  by trekking out to the Berkshire Botanical Garden in West Stockbridge for this hands on workshop on Wednesday, December 1, from 1 – 3 pm.

    Create a beautiful evergreen wreath for the holidays, using the bounty of the fields and forests of the Berkshires. Learn about the natural history of common and not-so-common plants that can be used to create interesting holiday decorations. Consider a wide selection of plant material including: evergreen boughs, berries, seedpods, fern fronds and moss. Construct and take home a simple evergreen wreath. Take it home and the knowledge to create wreaths for holidays to come. Elisabeth Cary is the Director of Education at the Berkshire Botanical Garden and has been collecting plant materials from the wild and creating wreaths for over fifteen years. The cost of this workshop is $40 for BBG members, $45 for non members, and the materials are included in the cost of the class.  Bring pruners and gloves.  To register, or for more information, log on to www.berkshirebotanical.org.

  • 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.

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Wreath of the Day – Matched Pairs

    We have to admit, we rather dread the matched pair orders.  Getting two (and sometimes three or four) wreaths to coordinate is a challenge.  Is one bow too high?  Did we run out of a certain seed pod?  Is there enough ribbon for all the bows?  Somehow, we do them, and we do them very, very well, as these wreaths designed by former President Margaret Pokorny demonstrate.

  • On Line Wreath Store Closed for 2009

    Garden Club of the Back Bay volunteers are getting ready for this week’s big event, our four day wreath making marathon at The First Lutheran Church of Boston, located at 299 Berkeley Street.  We proudly announce that we have presold all the fully decorated wreaths we can create during the project days, but invite the public to stop by the Church Monday through Thursday, December 7 – 10, to see what we have made (it’s a holiday event just to walk through the courtyard and see the variety of styles) and to purchase a plain wreath or a wreath with a spectacular bow, while our supplies last.  We also thank all our loyal customers, and welcome the new ones.