Florist’s guide to making a Christmas wreath, festive garland & table decorations

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I am Graeme Corbett, I'm the florist,

and today we're in my workshop and studio here in Kent.

And I'm gonna be showing you how to make Christmas

decorations with seasonal ingredients.

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I am gonna make a completely sustainable wreath today.

So one that at the end of the season I can throw

straight on the compost heaps.

I've made these bases out of wisteria vine

and they're just twisted onto themselves.

Other options would be the traditional kind of wire res.

You can pick these up easily online or your local florist.

So you just want to take a string around, loop it on,

and just tie it in a knot.

And now the goal for me is

to keep your string attached the whole time.

So we're gonna use this one piece of string

and just keep wrapping.

This is moss that I had from last year

that I've just kept in a bag over the year.

And for me what the moss does is it adds a little bit

of moisture into your wreath.

So it keeps your foliage looking nice and perky

and you wanna pull pretty tight

just to make sure it's on there.

But again, you know, if you pull too tight,

you're gonna break your string.

And it's also, it's quite hard when you're building a wreath

to be looking down in it.

So sometimes it's worth just holding it up

and taking a look at the shape you're creating

and making sure that you're happy with the where it's going.

Our next step is to start to decorate our wreath

with our lovely greenery.

Other things I've got are just mixed kind of pine

and fur, lots of different varieties.

This has got a more kind of B bluey tone

and this is a kind of darker green

and it's got another kind of texture.

So you are looking for a mixture of things.

Great way to find ingredients like this is to go

to your local Christmas tree farm.

To start, you want to think about having something,

maybe at the back you want something a little flatter.

So this guy is really thin

and quite flat, so I'm gonna edit that down

so I've got a usable kind of stem.

And then you just wanna start kind of layering up

and you're almost making a little bunch in your hands.

And what you can do at this stage as well is start

to add in things like little twigs.

So for me, one of my favorite ingredients at Christmas time

is larch.

So we're gonna touch a first bunch onto a ring.

So you just wanna lay it flat.

And then using your string, you just wanna wrap it

around the bottom of those stems

and make sure that they're nicely gripped onto your ring.

Give it a really good pull.

And there you are, it's super secure.

I tend to think if you're making your bunches pretty full

and lush, you can just lay it straight on top of the one

before with the stems coming straight across

and look at what your stem is telling you it wants to do.

So this one's got a nice little curl off to one side,

so I'm gonna let it kind of tell me where to put it.

So it's gonna kind of come across that way.

I've got a little bit of my eucalyptus

and I'm just gonna add that in as well.

And at this stage, don't worry about which bit is

your top and your bottom.

Once you've finished your design, we'll hold it up

and give it a spin and it'll naturally have a place to land

where it kind of looks the best.

Equally with our eucalyptus,

you could almost use this as a berry.

I've seen some people strip away all the leaves

and just use the berry as a more kind

of structural textural element.

This is where we've got to at the moment

and you see we've still got a small gap,

so we probably need one

or maybe two more bunches to finish off.

To attach your last bunch, you just want to

lift up the first bunch and then place the stems underneath.

And then you want to come around with your twine

and just attach.

I've decided this is my top

'cause I've got this nice bit of larch coming away here

and I've got another bit kind of coming down here.

So it gives a nice drape.

I've got a little tiny gap here though from my eye.

So I'm just gonna find a stem that I want to use

and I can just work it straight into my moss.

And when you're adding things in,

you just want quite a good bit of stem

that's nice and clean.

And then cut it on an angle so it's nice and sharp

and then you can just add it in wherever you want

and you just kind of have to feel around

until you find it just kind of hooks in.

And I think that might have finished it off quite nicely.

I know we're gonna make a piece for the mantle.

If you've got a mantle at home,

you should definitely decorate it for Christmas,

even if you've got a tree as well.

If we just use our chicken wire on its own, you have

to work quite hard to stop it from kind of rolling

around and moving.

Whereas if we team it up with our stick

and we put some moss inside, then we're making something

that is really super secure.

So when it comes to finding the perfect stick,

you're looking for something

that has a little bit of movement.

So you don't want something dead straight.

So you know, if I'm doing a hanging piece, this is great

'cause it gives me a natural S

and on my mantle it's gonna sit nicely.

I'm gonna use two pieces, one on each end

and I'm gonna leave a gap in the middle.

And that gap gives me the choice of leaving that exposed

or I can cover that up as well if I want to.

And then I'm gonna start adding my moss.

From there, you wanna start attaching the chicken wire

to itself.

So just find those ragged ends

and start to kind of twist them together.

And so our chicken wire is giving us loads places

to grip our flowers into so we can find lots

of nice spaces for them to hold.

If you don't wanna knock any nails in,

which is understandable,

you could use those little removable hooks

that could go on your wall

and then you could string from there just

to make sure it's super secure.

When you're looking for the stems, again, hold them up,

see the shape that they're making

and let that kind of dictate where they want to go.

And you want a good clean bit of stem at the bottom,

so you don't wanna be trying to prattle

with getting all this foliage into your chicken wire.

Another nice thing to do

to test your stems is if you hold them right at the bottom,

they'll show you how strong they are.

So that one, if I put it in, if I wanna use the whole length

of it, it's gonna be really, really happy

to stand up straight.

These dry hydrangeas, if we use them on their own,

they slightly get lost,

but if we group them all together,

they make much more impact.

And once you add something in, take a step back.

Does it work there? Does it add anything

or is it just getting lost?

For me, I think this is gonna be too competitive.

I think it's gonna take over

and maybe this is just a beautiful thing

that hangs somewhere on its own.

So I've also got some smaller rose hips

and many little bunches.

So I'm gonna separate out and I'm gonna spread those

through this side I think.

So don't jump the gun too much on stuff.

Have a think about where the best place is to use it

and where the best value for money is as well.

You can tape your stems onto another bit of stick

or a bit of twig, a bit of an old stem

and you can extend things like that as well.

I've gone super traditional here, red and green,

and I've chosen the honesty in between my rose hips

and my hydrangeas because they're just a little softer

in color and they've got this lovely

kind of iridescent finish to them

and they look like little kind of jewels.

For me that's done.

I feel like it's big enough, it's got lots

of coverage, it's got lots of visual interest,

but I might add stuff as I find it throughout the season,

you can keep kind of playing around with it

as much as you want.

Now I'm gonna show you what I use to decorate my table.

And for me it's all about keeping things seasonal and local.

I do love twigs and sticks,

but I would like them to have something else going on.

So things like these are great

'cause they've got the little catkins

and what I'm looking for is kind of nature.

I'm not looking for kind of perfection

and I think that's the beauty

that I find in using locally grown stuff.

I tend not to use fresh cut flowers at Christmas time

because there's not loads of stuff around

and I try to be as seasonal as possible.

But things that you can get hold of

that I really like are things like hellebores.

You can buy these from your nursery as kind

of potted plants.

And what I like to do is, you know,

you can take a little stem and trim that off

and then that can be something that is used on your table,

a little pin frog or a kenzan,

which is a Japanese flower ranging tool.

So think about what your stem is telling you wants to do.

And this one is wanting to come off to one side.

So I'm gonna pop it on my little pin frog

and it's gonna come straight up.

Now this pin frog mechanic,

I'm not bothered about hiding that completely.

I actually love the look of them and the design of them

and I'm not gonna it.

I'm gonna put a few stems in

and just think about how it's gonna look 360.

I'm also working on a box because what I try to do

on our range is try to think of how people are gonna

experience the flowers.

So if people are gonna be sitting at a table,

they're gonna be looking kind of this way.

I want to give everything a bit of space

and a bit of its own little place to play.

So I don't want everything competing

because we're using our stems really sparingly here.

So you wanna see as much of each one as possible.

But a little pop of blue is gonna be really nice from these

lovely little thistles.

If you're finding that the stem is a little thin

and you're struggling to get it in

and you can always add another little piece of

an off cut and just cut that short

and use that as a kind of little, a little wedge,

a little stabilizer to put your flower in behind.

Just need something kind of airy

and quite light coming up like a little off cut of

juniper would be really sweet.

It gives you a slightly different texture.

This is a great way to add color to your table

really quickly.

The thought sometimes of making a bowl arrangement

or a big centerpiece can feel quite daunting, whereas this,

you can run around the garden,

pick whatever you've got available, don't feel that you have

to be too labored, make something that you love.

I think that's the key with flower ranging.

Add your water and they're ready to go on the table

and they're just like a really sweet little gesture.

With our little bud vases,

start off by just filling them with water.

And the best way to keep your flowers fresh is

to refresh your water as often as possible.

So every day it would be good or every other day if you can.

And I've got this board with Burgundy one here,

and I'm just gonna pop that.

I'm gonna stick a little bit lower.

I'm gonna add in a little bit of my Hawthorne, I believe.

So super spiky.

So I'm just gonna take those off the bottom.

I'm gonna pop that in.

And what I like about these bud visors is you can add height

without it getting in anyone's way.

So you know that will be in someone's vision,

but it's not gonna block them talking

to the person in front.

And if you're taking off any of

these side little side shoots, keep all of those

'cause they'll be perfect for your other bud visors.

You want everything to have its own little moment.

We don't need to overwhelm these

with loads and loads of stuff.

So really be considerate when you're adding flowers.

I'll continue making these.

So I'll make multiples of these

and then I'll bring them over to the house

and start to set the table for Christmas.

And what I like to do is just think

about layering everything.

So from the plates, I'll layer those up with linens on top

and maybe as I said, a little sprig of something

inside the napkin to kind of just elevate it a little bit.

And I want the kind of flowers to be the main attraction.

So the candles have gone for something a little more muted.

I love decorating Christmas

'cause you can be super playful, so be kind of inquisitive

and have a look around to see the ingredients

that might be overlooked at other times of the year.

They really come into their own at Christmas time.

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