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Decorating With Flowers for Christmas

Rachel Whiting

For me, Christmas is a time to go even more overboard on flowers than usual. When it comes to Christmas decorations, I adorn every surface, staircase and amenable small person with flowers, candles, ivy and twinkling lights. However, I cannot bear poinsettias and will not let anything related to a cinnamon stick through the door. Something about predictable Christmas flowers makes me want to rebel.

I use locally grown flowers as much as possible, but at this time of year I do turn to Holland for help. My arrangements are made mostly from seasonal foliage - eucalyptus, box, ivy, yew and fir - plus a few foreigners. This year's favourites are giant delphiniums, towering lime-green moluccella, striped amaryllis, jewel-coloured ranunculus, white anemones with velvety black middles and potted white Helleborus niger.

For a show-stopping mantelpiece arrangement, pace out soaked Oasis foam in trays along the length of your mantelpiece and then begin creating the overall shape with foliage. I like to go large and wayward. Eucalyptus cinerea is my top foliage for this time of year - it smells delicious and still looks beautiful when it dries. Variegated ivy, berried ivy and berried eucalyptus are also favourites. Fill the Oasis with foliage so you cannot see any gaps, putting taller pieces at the back and off to the sides and shorter lengths in the middle, with trailing bits cascading at the front.

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Now begin adding flowers, the bigger leading ladies first - like the delphiniums and moluccella - and the smaller chorus girls at the end. Cut all the stems on an angle and poke them into the Oasis as far as they will go. Keep standing back to look at the shape - you may have to cut some stems more to get different heights. Fill in gaps with more flowers. Dried hydrangeas are my best friends at Christmas on account of their colour and bulk - and no diva-ish wilting. I rest them on the foliage or balance them in spaces quite low down.

While the arrangement is in situ, you may have to tweak out a few flowers if they start to wilt. There are no rules about which flowers to use, so choose ones you love and can afford and that work with your colour scheme.

Flowers and foliage to use

  • eucalyptus

  • berried ivy

  • berried eucalyptus

  • variegated ivy

  • ruscus, robusta

  • pittosporum

  • eryngium

  • roses

  • spray roses

  • nerine

  • painted gold berries

  • Icelandic poppies

  • delphinium

  • larkspur

  • anemones

  • dried hydrangeas

  • moluccella

More decorative ideas to try

  1. Dot mismatched jugs along your dining table and have them bursting with green and white parrot tulips, majestic white anemones and sparkling white hellebores.

  2. Weave candles in a variety of heights between flowers - I will be using Venetian blown-glass candlesticks designed by my sister-in-law, Matilda Goad, and cream tapered candles.

  3. When making wreaths, use dried or non-wilting foliage and flowers - I like dried hydrangeas and foraged old man's beard, and I make the wreath base from lengths of grapevine.

  4. If you want fresh flowers, fill huge jardinieres or wicker baskets with forced paperwhites or hyacinths. Cover the soil with moss and spike in twigs to add support and drama

Decorating With Flowers for Christmas

Source: https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/gallery/christmas-ideas-decorating-with-christmas-plants-foliage