Deck the halls
December, is a wonderful time of year to bring in evergreen foliage’s and trees in to our home in order to celebrate the Christmas period. One of my favorite things to do this time of year is to collect fir (yew). I sometime am able to get gold yew. Prickly green and variegated holly with berries. I also occasionally use ivy berries, catkins and rose hips when holly berries are scarce to make a door wreath with. This will hang on my front door and welcome my Christmas guests in.
There are many wreath making classes around the area in the early part of December and are a great way to socialize and make a great wreath for your door or even a grave. If you are unable to make your own you can buy ones from markets and garden centers. You can buy just fir or moss rings and with a bit of wire create your own. There are often many silk flowers and accessories to decorate wreaths with.
The next item we bring into our houses is a Christmas tree. Personally, I am a traditionalist and will put my tree up 12 days before and take down 12 days after Christmas. I always try to buy a tree that has many twigs on to support the many baubles I have. I find the traditional tree the best for me (Norway spruce). However, there are many on the market.
Modern people I find seem to go for the even more popular non drop tree (Nordman fir) these do drop far less needle than the traditional tree, but if you go with the children to a Christmas tree farm where they grow, a fresh cut tree will last far longer than a tree bought from a garden center. As most cut trees in a garden center are often cut and netted in October. Other cut trees you will find at the garden center are Fraser fir, similar to non-drop trees but are far narrower and more suitable for a smaller room. Very occasionally you can find Sebian spruce, (Picea omorika) like the traditional but had blue needles.
Treat all cut trees the same cut an inch off the bottom and water like a cut flower for the time you have it in the house.
You can also find other trees in the garden centers. The first described as potted. Potted means a tree that is grown in a field in a pot. It is lifted and the roots outside the pot are cut off. The pot is placed inside a plastic bag and then placed into a usually red cover pot. Most of these trees from experience die after being taken down after Christmas, but can depend on the size of the tree. Traditional and non-drops mostly. You can also find Picea pungens (blue spruce) which appear to have bluish needles and are very stiff.
The other type found is pot grown. The trees are far smaller than potted and have roots coming out of the base of pot.
Often a lot of conifers are used like Picea omorika, Picea albertiaina conica and Picea glauca all with little fairy lights, bows, baubles and many other accessories.
If you would like to grow a ‘’Christmas tree’’ in the garden then all of the above will suffice. I am quite fond of the steel blue of Picea pungens group, ones like P.p Bakeri, small conifer to 5 ft x 4ft or maybe P.p Fat Albert.
Below is a gallery of pictures relating to December
