Creating a Living Spring Wreath

On the 1^st March, which thankfully was a Sunday and Mr was playing golf, I spent the day celebrating the approaching spring by creating floral living wreaths.

It was a glorious day, the sun was shining and it was unseasonably warm. The silly spaniels were pootling around enjoying their freedom and the poly-tunnel was, as always, a bloody mess in need of tidying before I could actually do anything.

I’d had a bash at creating the wreaths on Saturday but had been perplexed by how to attach the primroses. I’d spent some time that evening watching a number of YouTube videos and posts trying to understand how to attach them, and realised that actually, everyone just bodges them on!

The two unspoken rules to creating living Spring wreaths

1.     Unlike Christmas wreaths, you do not necessarily put the foliage on first. If you’re using plants, such as primroses, it goes on afterwards. If you are just using blubs you can create your wreath using the usual ‘bundles of foliage and flowers’ way and then add in your bulbs using wire to secure.

2.     All of the bulbs and plants you are going to use need to be wrapped in damp moss prior to attaching them to the wreath.

My Suggestion for your Living Wreath

You’ll need moss, a wreath base of your choice, florists wire and/or twine. Foliage and any dried flowers you want to add.

I used:

-       Natural sustainable English moss collected from a Norfolk woodland floor which was of course full of leaves and sticks too. I purposely chose this as I wanted a very natural look. You might prefer to buy sphagnum moss which is a fabulous green and does not have the forest floor included!

-       Approximately 14 bulbs and 1-3 primrose plants per wreath.

-       My foliage was a mixture of green and variegated foliage that I could find in the garden and willow that we'd just coppiced, Irish Hemlock and Soft Rucus both of which I sourced from a British grower.

-       For additional interest, I added dried Billy’s Button stems (Craspedia), white Limonium (a fab filler!) and a few Eryngium alpinum. The latter, I’d dried from last year’s borders, the rest came from the lovely folks at www.evolveflowers.com who are based in Norfolk.

Instructions for Creating a Living Spring Wreath

1.     Take a inspiration from the wreaths you see online and buy your plants accordingly. I bought some small primrose plants, some miniature Narcissus 'Tête-à-Tête' and blue Muscari bulbs. All were in flower and had plenty of buds too. You'll also need to decide if you're filling the whole of your wreath or only partially. I made three wreaths in total; one was a half-covered wreath for our back door, one for mum's annexe wall (I potted up some matching plants for her bistro table, because I'm nice!) and one for the cottage front door.

2.     Start with the primroses. Shake off as much loose soil as possible and give them a good water. Then wrap the root ball in moss. Use wire or twine to secure the moss in place, particularly under the roots.

3.     Wrap the bulbs or just their roots in moss too and secure with wire or twine.

4.     Cover your wreath base with moss. I tend to create lots of hand-rolled balls of moss and then fix these to the wreath using florist’s twine and by going anti-clockwise around a wire frame.

5.     When your wreath is covered in moss, decide where the top is and attach a loop of twine so that you can hang your wreath on your door. It’s much easier to do this now.

6.     Add the primroses first. I literally just positioned them where I wanted them and then wrapped wire around and around until they felt secure.

7.     Next add your bulbs but be really careful if using wire rather than twine to secure them via the bulb and not by their neck as the wire will cut through and garrotte the flower.

8.     Once all of your bulbs and plants are in place start adding your foliage. This can simply be pushed into the wreath or added in carefully in bundles. Remember to make sure all of the foliage is going around the wreath in the same direction. When you have plenty in and are happy with the look, you can start adding the extra ‘interest’ bits until you’re happy with the whole.

Aftercare for your Wreath

Remember that this wreath will require watering as the plants are alive, unlike your Christmas wreath that can keep going for a while and still look pretty if it dries out.

A final word

The most important part of course, is to have fun. If it doesn't look as you had imagined, does that matter? Is it still a celebration of the season to come? Did you enjoy playing with plants and flowers for a while?

For most cultures, the start of Spring is the start of the new year. If you didn't feel like beginning a new gym regime or healthy eating in January, well that's normal. For us in the Northern hemisphere, January is the middle of winter! It is not a time for renewal and rebirth. That time is Spring. So take all of the good intentions you had then and apply them now - the days are growing longer, the flowers are beginning to bloom, there's buds on the trees and the blossom is almost here.

Smile and enjoy the natural world coming alive around you!