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Vines For Your Holiday Wreaths ~ Get Them Young

By Maureen "MO" Gilmer
October 30, 2006

Cut and strip willow while it's green to shape
and dry for the holidays.

An old Irish proverb states: "When a twig grows hard it is difficult to twist. Every beginning is weak."

This was no doubt applied to early life training of children, but the same thinking will reward you with plenty of twiggy holiday decorating materials at virtually no cost.

While sap is still high in the woody trees, shrubs and vines, their limbs are soft and flexible. But when the sap falls to the root with the first hard freezes, it will harden the wood making it hard to shape. Plus, you'll need leaves to identify poison oak, ivy or sumac _ all definitely hands-off!

The most beautiful wreaths and garlands are composed of core materials made from branches, twigs, whips, runners and tendrils. When cut while still green and flexible, you can twist and bundle them into all sorts of beautiful holiday decorating materials. Once dried they retain these shapes indefinitely. Pioneers without nails or wire actually used willow whips to bind fence boards knowing that when dry they'd make a solid connection.

Birch twigs are excellent swag materials.

All you do is simply cut materials from the plant, strip the leaves and weave into a wreath. Tie it off with florist wire because it shrinks a little while drying, causing tips to pop out of shape. Lie the green wreath on a flat, dry surface such as a garage floor. There it will gradually dehydrate. In November you can bring it out again and remove the wire, then decorate. For Thanksgiving use colorful gourds and autumn leaves; for Christmas try mistletoe and holly berries.

Certain plants have long been traditional for these twiggy core materials. Each offers a different texture and flexibility. Some will be better for broom-like swags because they are brushy and fine textured. Others produce very long runners ideal for garlands. Still more are notoriously flexible, bending easily into wreaths of all sizes.

Even heat-loving acacia can be stripped
green to make wreaths.

Grapevines, be they vines supporting wine, table or wild grapes, are the best for very long garlands and big, solid wreaths. In the wild, the vines climb into the treetops where you'll find the straightest runners are easy to pull down.

Bittersweet and Virginia creeper are wild vines that produce finer runners for harvest. Creeper is also found in gardens. So if you need to thin out your vine there, do it in the fall to recycle the cuttings for decor.

Willows are the most flexible of all plants, but they tend to be rather slick and lack the character of grapevine and bittersweet. The best cuttings for garland making are from weeping willows. Use shorter wild willows and shrubbier willow trees for wreaths and short garlands. Weave tightly and secure with wire for drying as these are so smooth and so floppy they easily lose their shape.

A simple willow arch with honeysuckle vine.

Japanese honeysuckle vines are invading American woodlands, so harvesting them from wild forest is actually good for the environment. Their runners tend to twist and turn, making charming delicate garlands. Strip the leaves and lay them out on a dry flat surface to harden off before using.

Red and yellow twig dogwood produces rather short, stiff twigs, but their beautiful color puts them in high demand for the holidays. Naturally stiff. it's very important to harvest these during the growing season if you plan to twist them.

Birch trees produce the finest twiggy material reserved for mantle pieces and swags. They are treasured for the uniquely speckled bark. Delicacy requires you harvest and shape early to improve structural integrity.

Swags are bound just like old-fashioned brooms were.

In warm climates, California pepper trees and eucalyptus both produce flexible, highly aromatic twigs for wreath and garland. As evergreens they may be harvested year around to dry hard for the holidays.

If you enjoy a sizeable garden filled with these sorts of plants, or must go to wild places to find them, you'll save a bundle on holiday decorating. Rest assured that no plastic or tinsel or foam flocking can compare with Mother Nature's own decorating style.

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