...inside and outside!
Dress up your home and landscape for the holidays with greens, spruce tips and holiday trees. Look for new and traditional ways to make these a part of your holiday celebrations. Keep them fresh and looking heir best throughout the holidays with minimal effort.
Evergreen wreaths and swags look great hung on a wall or door. Consider using wreaths as a base for your outdoor containers. Spruce tips provide vertical interest to containers for the holidays and all winter long. Dress up fences and arbors in the landscape and mantles indoors with garland and evergreen boughs.
Select fresh greenery with pliable branches and firmly attached needles. Check for good color and an aroma you prefer. Consider buying extra greenery and storing it in the garage or other cool location. Use these to replace any indoor greenery that is starting to brown.
Recut the bottom of the stems and submerge the greenery in a tub of room temperature water to help rehydrate the needles. Once dry, seal in the moisture by spraying the greens with an anti-transpirant, often called an anti-dessicant, like Wilt-Pruf. These products seal in moisture reducing desiccation due to warm dry air indoors and drying winds and sunlight outside.
Follow label directions for application tips and dilution rates based on what you are treating. Apply these products outdoors during the day as light is needed to activate some of these chemicals. Allow them to dry 3 to 4 hours before moving inside.
Display indoor greenery in cool locations out of direct sunlight. This reduces moisture loss and extends the life of your garland, wreaths and arrangements.
Outdoor greenery lasts much longer thanks to our cool fall and cold winter temperatures. Those displayed in more sheltered locations, out of direct sunlight and wind, suffer less drying and last even longer. Anti-transpirants can also be used on outdoor greenery to help reduce moisture loss and extend your enjoyment.
Keep the soil moist until it freezes when displaying spruce tips in outdoor containers. Add some berry-laden branches, birch branches, red twig dogwood stems, other evergreens, cones and ornaments to create an attractive display.
Keep your holiday Fraser fir tree looking its best throughout the holidays with the same attention to care. Pasquesi makes it easy to select the right size and shape holiday tree for your space. Just take a walk through the hanging Fraser fir trees to find the one that is best for you. Check the trunk diameter to make sure it will fit in your tree stand.
Remove at least an inch from the base of the trunk before setting it in the stand. Straight or diagonal cuts work equally well. A diagonal or V shaped cut may make it difficult to properly support the tree in the stand.
Fill the stand with water and check often. Fresh trees can absorb 2 quarts of water or more in the first 24 hours. Keeping your tree stand filled with water is the best way to keep your tree looking good throughout the season. Adding a tree preservative to the water helps discourage bacteria and extend the life of your tree.
Once your greenery is in place and tree is decorated take time to relax and enjoy your favorite holiday beverage while admiring your handiwork.
Melinda Myers is a nationally recognized gardening expert with more than 30 years of horticulture experience. She is a wealth of knowledge and we are pleased to share Melinda’s New Gardener's Guide with you!