Remind yourself to collect Christmas wreath materials from your garden

During the Christmas season, wreaths are everywhere, even in public places. People put their creative skills to work and create them out of all kinds of things. As a gardener, those made from natural materials catch my eye.

It's always interesting to me to see all of the different kinds of Christmas wreaths and decorations folks have put together using natural things they have collected.

As gardeners, we have the opportunity to grow or gather together the raw materials for unique Christmas decorations. For example, at pruning time in the spring, many gardeners save their grapevine trimmings and roll them up into circles to use as wreaths or wreath bases.

There’s a vast array of other natural materials that can be used as well. Many flowers, shrubs, stalks and even “weeds” have interesting features that can be quite decorative. I remember in elementary school one year we made Christmas angels out of milkweed seedpods.

Some ideas for home-grown wreath materials include acorn caps, red dogwood twigs, Chinese lanterns, Queen Anne’s lace (flattened and dried), iris seed pods, rose hips, sweet gum fruits, hydrangea flowers and many more.

During spring and summer, things often get so busy in the garden that decorating for Christmas would be the last thing on anybody’s mind. So right now, while your Christmas ideas are fresh, consider making a note to yourself in your garden notebook to be on the lookout for potential wreath making materials for next year’s Christmas decorations.

It can be disappointing to remember something from the garden that was discarded back in the summer that would have made a unique addition to this year’s Christmas wreath.

It’s easy enough to enter a few dates on your phone calendar as a reminder. Schedule one in the spring around pruning time; do a second entry during the summer; and one at the end of the season.

You only have to use your imagination or Pinterest to source something from your garden that would be really sensational and one-of-a-kind.