Rustic Rosehip Wreaths

Last week I went home to Nova Scotia to check on my Dad. It's been a month since my Mom passed away and I needed to reassure myself that he was adjusting to life on his own. My parents were married for just over sixty years, and after so much time together, the loss must weigh heavily on Dad.

At ninety-three, Dad will tell you that his memory "isn't so good", but truth be told, he's still pretty sharp. Over short distances, he gets around with the help of a walker. For longer hikes, he's a speed demon in a motorized wheelchair. On our walks together, he usually left me in the dust!

Opposite Dad's apartment at the Berkeley (an assisted living residence for seniors), there is a lake with a gravel path that skirts the shoreline. In the area closest to the road, I discovered a large number of wild roses. How these roses came to grow amongst the wildflowers and grasses I could not tell you. They seem to have self-seeded themselves around the shoreline quite happily. 

While roses have a reputation for being fussy plants, the abundance of these shrubs suggests that some roses are quite capable of withstanding whatever nature throws their way. No gardener fertilizes or waters them. No one wraps them up to protect them in the winter and yet they flourish. They're quite content to make their own way in the world, thank you very much.

What I found particularly remarkable about these wild roses was the proliferation of colorful hips. 

I have not had the pleasure of seeing them in bloom, but I imagine that the majority of these roses are single flowers that are pale pink in color. Mixed in among the single roses were other shrubs where the big, round hips suggest larger, double flowers. This second type of wild rose had glossy, reddish-brown leaves that were quite magical when mixed in with all the other autumnal hues.

I couldn't resist gathering some hips to bring indoors.

Even if there are only a few rosehips in your garden, it's nice to bring them indoors for the holidays. Arranged in little vintage bottles, they look quite festive.

A few stems of red hips can also look pretty in a jug with some foraged evergreens.

Rosehips can even add a small flourish to a holiday gift.

Rosa glauca (medium pink)

Rosehips are actually edible. When roses are pollinated small fruits are formed that carry the seeds. Most hips are round, but they can have an elongated shape as well. Like oranges, rosehips are high in vitamin C and can be used to make tea, jams, jellies and syrups.

If you don't have roses at the moment, but would like to be able to gather hips of your own, look for roses with single or semi-double flowers that have an open cup-like shape that encourages pollinators to visit. Many-petaled roses like hybrid teas make it hard for bees and other pollinating insects to reach the flower's centre. 

Stop deadheading your roses in late-summer allowing the blossoms to fade naturally and produce hips.

In my garden, a John Cabot rose is a thorny warrior that produces orangy-red hips.

Roses that are known for producing hips

Landscape and Shrub Roses 

Bonica (medium pink)

Carefree Beauty (pink)

Meidiland Species: Alba, Coral, Fire, Magic, Mystic, Pink, Red

Carefree Delight (pink)

Rugosa Roses

Hansa (deep pink)

Jens Munk (medium pink)

Hybrid Musks

Ballerina (pale pink apple blossom type roses)

Buff Beauty (pinky-apricot)

Felicia (pink)

Sally Homes (white)

David Austin Roses

Constance Spry (light pink)

John Clare (deep pink)

Shropshire Lass (light pink)

The Generous Gardener (soft pink)

Penelope (white)

Other Roses

Bourbon Queen (pink blend)

John Cabot (medium pink)

Rosa glauca (medium pink)

Rosa mundi (pink blend)

Rosa rugosa

Rosa rugosa alba (white)

Rosa woodsii (medium pink)

With the bundles of rosehips I gathered by the lake, I decided to make a few holiday wreaths to bring home with me. The starting point for the first one was a simple grapevine wreath.

Often you will see it recommended to use hot glue or wire to make wreaths. For me, that's a bit of overkill. I like to reuse my grapevine wreaths, so I always keep my working method very basic. That way, when the wreath gets dusty or I simply get bored with it and want to make something new, it's easy to dismantle and repurpose. 

If you prefer to make sure the wreath is absolutely rock solid, simply fasten some paddle wire to the back of your grapevine wreath and wrap the rosehips with the wire as you go.

Working in a single direction, I inserted the longest stems of rosehips into the outside edge of the grapevine wreath. If you push the rosehip stems in at a low angle, they should catch in the grapevines.

After I had gone around the circumference once, I went back a second and third time adding more rosehip stems each time. The look of this wreath is loose and pretty rustic, so it is hard to go too far wrong.

I was happy with the final project, but I wasn't done playing just yet. 

Next, I made a heart-shaped wreath. This time I kept the stems of my rosehips shorter for a fuller look (the working method, however, was the same).

Have I said how much I love making wreaths? My final version included some faux evergreen sprigs.

I like these faux-evergreen picks are from Michaels because they look so real. For this project, I used four stems in total. I trimmed the evergreen sprigs leaving just a couple of inches of stem. Then I wrapped some paddle wire around the wreath and twisted it closed at the back to secure the evergreen sprigs into position.

Unlike the other two wreaths, where I worked in one single direction, I began this final version on the lower left and worked in an arc that ran in opposite directions. Where the two sets of evergreen sprigs met, I tied a gingham bow. The final step was to add my rosehips.

I am pleased with how they all turned out. What about you? Do you have a favourite?

The days spent with my Dad passed quickly. It was hard to give him a hug and say goodbye. 

"Your visit was the best Christmas present you could have given me," he told me. That made my day and broke my heart all at the same time.

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A Little Twist on a Holiday Planter

Come mid-November, it’s always nice to switch things up on the front porch of our Victorian-era house and add a little flourish of seasonal greenery to make things look festive for the holidays. 

A wooden railing that runs along the length of the porch would tend to hide a typical arrangement of seasonal evergreens in an urn, so I have learned to get creative and use a metal plant stand that has some height. 

Step 1

I purchased this plant stand years ago through Pier One, but a number of retailers sell similar items for outdoor floral displays.

An exposed plastic pot could look tacky, so I began this project by tucking a square of burlap into the metal basket (if you don't have burlap, an old coconut liner will do).

Next, I filled a plastic pot with potting soil. The soil need not be fresh and can easily be left over from your summer containers. Its only purpose is to secure your evergreens in place. Moisten the soil, so when the ground freezes, it will provide an extra means of securing the stems of your evergreens.

Place the plastic pot into the stand and tuck in the raw edges of the burlap around the top to keep things looking neat and tidy.

I always have quite a few holiday containers to fill, so I try to forage as much greenery as possible from the yard and the adjacent woodlot. I harvest responsibly so that I don't damage the trees or shrubs I am cutting.

In the shady part of the garden, I am lucky to have quite a number of yews. Every fall they get a good haircut which leaves me with quite a bit of raw material for my winter arrangements. But even with the yew, I don't have quite enough evergreen boughs to fill all my containers, so I also buy mixed bunches of greenery from the grocery store. 

Step 2

As with any nicely designed container planting, I recommend using "spillers, fillers and thrillers" to create a pleasing arrangement of greenery and berries. 

Begin with the "spillers" that will drape down over the edges of your basket. For this, I suggest long pieces of cedar, pine or juniper. These evergreens have curved stems that allow them to hang down gracefully over the rim of the arrangement.

Step 3

 Next, it's on to the "fillers" that will give the arrangement the fullness you want. For this, you can use almost any type of evergreen. I used pieces of yew, cedar and fir. To add a bit of height, I used a few pine boughs and some Dogwood branches that I snipped from the garden.

Step 4

The last step is to add some colorful accents. I began with some Magnolia branches and some pine cones.

For a final pop of color, I used some red berries. If you are lucky enough to find them, fresh Winterberries are a terrific option. In this case, I used some faux Winterberries I had on hand.

 Here's the finished holiday plant stand with my faithful helper alongside.

One last consideration with this type of holiday arrangement–it's top heavy. A strong winter wind could topple the whole thing over. To balance things, I placed a heavy cast iron figure of a squirrel on the base of the stand. If you don't have an object like this, a second smaller arrangement at the bottom of the stand might be nice.

Blooper reel!

A Thanksgiving Basket

A few years ago, we began what has become a tradition of eating our Thanksgiving meal outdoors in the late afternoon. The break in our usual dinner routine adds to the holiday feel and I love having meals in the garden. Yes, it can be a bit chilly here in Southern Ontario in October, but we put on warm coats and we light a fire. Hot, homemade food to tastes even better on a cool fall day!

This year I thought I would add to the festivities with a few decorative touches. Two things spurred me on. One: Last weekend I came across a wire basket that I forgot I even had. Two: I had a small container planting of mixed herbs that had served me well all summer, but had become pot bound and needed attention. 

Eventually I plan to harvest and dry a few of the herbs from the overgrown container. Others I will plant out in the garden. But for the short run, I thought I'd mix a few herbs with a some ornamental cabbages to make an arrangement for our Thanksgiving table.

Coconut liner (on the left) and sheet moss (on the right)

If you want to make your own arrangement, you may not have a wire basket with a readymade burlap liner like mine, but any wire basket could be made to suit. To line your wire basket, you could always use a square of burlap cut to fit. Alternatively you could line the basket with sheet moss (from a craft store) or use a coconut liner (from a nursery or garden centre).

The burlap interior of my wire basket was pretty porous, so before I filled it with potting soil I added a big square of landscape cloth (from the garden centre). On the very bottom of the basket, I placed a second rectangle of cloth just to make sure the bottom of my arrangement was going to stay dry. If you are really concerned that the bottom of the basket might get wet, you could always use some black plastic to line the interior instead of cloth (I'd cut up a heavy duty garbage bag if I was using this option).

I placed the black landscape cloth inside, trimmed it to fit, and then added some potting soil. In hindsight, I wished I had added the soil first and then did my trimming. The way I did it, the black liner ended up being just a bit short. I'll know better next time.

Just a quick side note on this great little tool. If you pot up lots of containers, a scoop like this makes the job so much easier! I picked my potting scoop at a local garden centre, but I notice that similar scoops are readily available online. 

Before I started, I watered everything and set the plants aside for a few minutes to drain.

As well as the herbs I had from the overgrown container, I bought a few ornamental cabbages, a bag of white pumpkins and two pots of sage from the local Farmer's Market. One was a golden sage (above on the left) and the other was tri-color sage (above on the right).

To hold the white pumpkin in place I attached a flower pic from the craft store. To do this I placed a generous dab of glue on the bottom centre of my white pumpkin and inserted flower pic into the hot glue. Then it was just a matter of holding the pic in place for a few seconds until the glue set.

Here's a full breakdown of what I used: 

1. One ornamental cabbage with a white centre 2. Tri-color Sage 3. Three grey ornamental cabbages with purple accents 4. Thyme 5. Oregano 6. Golden Sage 7. Variegated Lemon Thyme

A view of the far side of the basket.

Because I plan to use this as a table centre piece, I worked from both sides to put the basket together. No matter where your guests are sitting at the table, you want the basket to look good!

I don't know about you but, whenever I pot up something, I always get potting soil where I don't want it! To clean up my mess, I use a dollar store spray bottle filled with water and a piece of paper towel.

As a final touch, I added a little metal banner that is topped with a tiny bird. 

Here's the completed project. A similar basket or pot might even make a nice hostess gift.

Again, this isn't meant to be a longterm container planting. After the long weekend, I'll plant most of the herbs into the garden.

Sage

When I was finished the basket I still had some sage, rosemary, thyme and a couple of ornamental cabbages leftover, so I decided to use then to give one of the containers on the front porch a fall update.

Here's a full breakdown of what I used: 

1. Sage 2. Rosemary 3. Thyme 4. Oregano 5. Ivy 6. Variegated Lemon Thyme 7. Ornamental Cabbage

With the exception of the cabbages and the ivy, everything is a herb. Most herbs are pretty cold tolerant, so they work well in fall container plantings. (The ceramic pot is tall, so I thought the long trailing stems of the ivy would be a nice "spiller". There are also a few Dogwood branches at the back of the pot.)

The final touch was a little rusty birdhouse I picked up at a craft show for $5.

This little winged piggy greets all our visitors. In the fall, I put pumpkins or acorns in his outstretched arms. At Christmas time, it's usually pinecones.

If you're celebrating Thanksgiving this coming weekend, I hope you and your family 

have a lovely holiday!