As autumn leaves and colours give way to a crisper, more wintry feel our attention turns to seasonal ingredients for our wreaths – and festive foraging. We love showing people how to create a plastic-free, festive wreath using our home-grown willow and an abundance of winter foliage – but there’s still room for a bit of festive foraging too! There’s nothing nicer than personalising your lush, green wreath with favourite berries, seed heads and other ‘finds’ from your garden or hedgerow.
Hedgerow finds
Some of our favourite foraged hedgerow ingredients include Old Man’s Beard – also known as Traveller’s Joy or, officially, Clematis Vitalba – as well as ivy seed heads and fir cones in all shapes and sizes. Alder cones are especially dinky. Spindle berries are gorgeous in early winter, though you may need to replace them with holly berries once the frosts start. But that’s one of the lovely things about a seasonal wreath – once you have the base, you can add and remove seasonal ingredients from week to week. Think of it as a natural pin board for whatever takes your fancy; it could be feathers, lichen-covered twigs or bark.
In the garden
In the garden, consider herbs such as rosemary, bay or sage and the scented leaves of myrtle and eucalyptus. Then there are seed heads which, in some cases, may be even more fascinating than the flowers that preceded them. The most obvious one is honesty, Lunaria annua, with its papery, oval seed pods which catch the light and flutter in the breeze. If you go looking in your borders, it’s amazing what interesting shapes and structures you’ll find, where once there were flowers.
Further afield, in woods and fields
If you’re wandering further afield, in woodland and fields, keep your eyes peeled too. Crab-apples add an opulent feel to wreaths and winter vase arrangements – and what could be more festive and fun than the winged leaves and opalescent berries of mistletoe? You may not want to encourage a kiss on the doorstep – but the option is there… There’s much more to mistletoe than just its reputation for festive kisses. You can read lots more about it here on the Woodlands Trust’s website
Responsible foraging
Foraging seems to be having a comeback, whether it’s for edible ingredients such as mushrooms and berries or for decorative materials for your home. We’ve always been big fans of foraging, as have our customers… bit it’s important to forage responsibly. Our tips for festive foraging would include asking permission, where necessary, and never forage anything that will have a detrimental effect on the environment. There’s a fantastic guide to responsible foraging, put together by the Woodland Trust, which you can read here
A mindful and relaxing run-up to Christmas
We hope to see some of you at our wreath-making workshops in the coming weeks and, in the meantime, why not try some festive foraging keeping your eyes peeled for extra little bits you can use to make your Christmas wreath truly unique and magical. There are few things more mindful or effective for putting you into a festive mood.
