Winter Wreath Making

Friend of the GPOD Cherry Ong makes beautiful wreaths each year for the holiday season, and today she is sharing a bunch of beautiful ones with us. She made all the wreaths from a combination of foraged, recycled, and/or purchased materials.

Wintry and muted—this was the second wreath I made last winter, and it was a gift to a good friend who was grieving.

This one is made from scratch with an old wreath frame, Christmas tree discards, foraged Hedera helix (Zones 5–9) flowers, Leucothoe (Zones 4–6) and laurel leaf branches (Laurus nobilis, Zones 8–10), and Jacobaea maritima (Zones 7–10) leaves from a summer container. I delivered and installed this wreath for our family friends whose all-time favorite color is red.

A closer look at the holiday red wreath.

This berry wreath went to a friend who loves purple. The beautyberry (Calicarpa dichotoma, Zones 5–8) is from my garden. Some of the other berries are foraged too.

Here’s a traditional wreath inspired by the staff of a local nursery where I have volunteered for the last five years. We love a traditional, all-out, natural wreath filled with goodies.

The pearl glam wreath. I love pearls and just had to make one. I used a store-bought, inexpensive pearl garland for this one, combined with foraged white pine cones and bay leaves. The white flowers were saved and dried from an old arrangement.

Nature makes the best silver and gold! For this one I reused an old wreath form, Christmas tree discards, foraged ivy flowers, thuja (Thuja occidentalis, Zones 3–7), and dusty miller from the garden. The only store-bought item in this wreath are the white branches. I made this for a kind friend.

Detail of the gold-and-silver wreath

I saved my cut-up foraged birch branches last year and reused them for this woodland wreath. They kept well and are much lighter too.

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