With Christmas fast approaching, I couldn’t help notice that my favourite ornaments this year were the least popular (go figure!) and not selling. I loved these large purple cabbages ! I could see them on a tree with magenta lights….oh well. So, I thought I would make a demonstration centrepiece with them and a few of their beet friends. I chose a very low birch bark dish, wired on a partial piece of OASIS foam and began wiring on my veggies. I uses very thin florist wire and also a glue gun. I included some nice pine cones, and hid all my sins (wires) with green lichen moss. The whole thing took about half an hour. I like it so much that I am going to use it on my own holiday table this year !
December 12, 2014
Whad’ya do with unsold ornaments?
December 11, 2014
The Christmas Rose
We have just received the most floriferous Helleborus niger I have ever seen ! They are incredible. It used to be that you were lucky to get three or four flowers on this winter-flowering perennial. Now, there are hundreds of flowers and buds on superior selections, mostly from Germany. Through the miracle of tissue culture (cloning), millions of identical plants are available and affordable. Breeders have selected amazingly healthy, easy to grow standouts from their thousands of seedlings. With upward-facing flowers, these introductions were a fantasy only ten years ago ! Hellebores must be grown outside. They are not houseplants and will hate it in a living room, even for a few days. The front porch or balcony is ideal, then plant it out where it can remain undisturbed for the rest of your life!