Step-by-Step Guide

Arranging Winter Florals

 BY BONNIE BLODGETT

There’s no doubt about it, winter floral arrangements have staying power. And you don’t have to worry about keeping flowers fresh, or snipping off their ends, or replenishing tired water. When you’re dealing with dead plant material, all you have to think about is arranging it to look good. If the arrangement is outside, the cold weather will keep it crisp. Snow will only enhance its charm.

For distinctive pots, planters, and window boxes, broaden your horizons. Look around your garden. You might be surprised at the undiscovered talent sitting right there. As for design, apply the same rules you would for any other floral arrangement. Use contrasting shapes, textures, and colors. Think smooth, shiny green holly with rough, dried, golden grasses. Add tall spikes for height and line, and a plump mass for substance. A trip to the flower shop will offer non-hardy options, such as heathers, that hold onto their looks in dried arrangements.

If you’ve dried your own garden flowers, you can add color and romance with roses and sedums, straw flowers, and bachelor’s buttons. Other excellent greens to cut from the garden or purchase to use in both indoor and outdoor arrangements include cedar, blue-berried juniper, boxwood, ivy, magnolia, rhododendron, holly, pieris, golden false cypress, golden arborvitae, Scots pine, white pine, and the blue-tinged ‘Vandewolf’s’ limber pine.