Quick Decorating Ideas for the Holidays!

Need a couple of quick tips for decorating your home for the holidays? Think greens. Step outside with a pair or pruners and take cuttings from evergreen trees, shrubs, and perennials (being careful to prune judiciously and not to offend any neighbors), or order a 7- or 14-lb box of our Decorating Greens. The key here is to amass an assortment of ingredients that come in a variety of colors, textures, and forms.

Here you can see some of the contents of a 7-lb Box of Decorating Greens from White Flower Farm.
Here you can see the contents of a 7-lb Box of Decorating Greens from White Flower Farm.

Spread out the collection of elements on a worktable or floor so you can see everything you’ve got to work with. Next, round up a few pots, cachepots or vases. Then, play. Generally speaking, it’s easiest to start by placing the largest and tallest elements in your pots and then filling in around them. Trim and prune the greens as needed to fit your pots, and save the clippings to make other decorations.

3-the-arrangements-are-coming-along-the-dried-white-statice-in-our-box-of-decorating-greens-resembles-a-sAs you make your arrangements, keep in mind where you’ll be displaying them. If they’ll be on a mantel, with one side against a wall, there’s no need to fill in all the way around. But if your arrangement will be viewed from all sides, be sure to keep turning the pot as you go so all sides have a finished look.

6-the-finished-product-near-the-front-door
A small and festive accent just inside the front door.
7-lb-box-of-greens_closeup
This is why it’s wonderful to have a mix of different colors, textures and forms.

If you have any leftover greens or dried flowers, use your imagination and whatever you have on hand to create additional decorative arrangements.

Use your imagination with leftover greens.
Use your imagination with leftover greens!

Where greens aren’t the central element in your decorating scheme, they can be used to add a color to other adornments, including a wide variety of houseplants.

One of our favorite things to do is mass a particular indoor plant in groups along a mantelpiece, atop a sideboard, or on an entrance table. Depending on the effect you’re going for, Azaleas, Gardenias, Lemon Cypress, Wintergreen, Holiday Cactus, Jasmine, and potted Hydrangea all work beautifully.

2a-cyclamen-on-the-mantel_closeup

This year, we took home some of our new Cyclamen Fantasia® Deep Magenta to spruce things up for the holidays. The rich, deep pink blossoms with white trim are a lovely and unexpected surprise. They’re attractive enough to stand alone, but to create a fuller effect, add some other simple elements, the sort most of us have around the house. Here, we added candlesticks and votives, some clippings of Noble Fir left over from our box of Decorating Greens. The silvery color of the candlesticks picks up the patterning in the beautifully veined leaves of the Cyclamen, and the candlelight makes the whole scene glow.

3a-cyclamen-in-candlelight

We decked the mantel . . .

cyclamen-on-the-sideboard

And the dining room sideboard . . .

When the holidays are over, the Cyclamen will keep blooming until early summer, adding vibrant color and lush greenery to any room where you have bright, indirect light. (For helpful tips on caring for Cyclamen, visit our Growing Guide.)

The best part? Our decorating took only an hour or two, leaving us plenty of time for other holiday preparations.