If you have a garden , thinking
" door wreaths " and you have a bit of patience( we're talking 7 years or so ! ) , can I recommend you plant a wisteria ? The lovely mauve drooping clusters of flowers don't last too long, but when they come out, you can play around with it to your heart's content and they are super decorative and wonderfully scented- think Art Nouveau and Victorian ladies reclining on a chaise longue, their pretty heads encircled with a wreath of Wisteria flowers..
Just whack it in, water and feed it well, and let 7 years go by( yes, I know, that is the hard bit ! )
Wisteria, once it gets going can be a bit of a monster so make sure it does not creep it's way underneath your roof panes by the way !The occasional pruning should keep it in check.
Once you prune, you have some flowers left over..
which should give you a nice bit of material for a decorative wreath.
Make a basic wreath from willow, which you can find easily in the countryside or even in the city.
How to make the wreath is very easy, and is explained more extensively in
this post- it's basically forming a large circle with several willow branches, then tying it with twine.
To keep your flowers alive, use some tissue or lavatory paper which you moisten, and wrap the ends of the wisteria in this, then wrap some aluminium foil around this.
Your tools are thus as follows:
As the flowers of the Wisteria are like vertical clusters, I thought it worked best if you attach the major part of the flowergroup at the top of the wreath so the wisteria can flow down from the top to the bottom.
The bottom of the wreath would look a bit strange with again drooping clusters hanging from it so I decided for the bottom part of the wreath to go for a string of Clematis Montana .Luckily , I have inherited a Mount Everest of Clematis Montana from the lady who owned the garden before me and planted this very kindly-and they can grow to an enormeous height..
( Think two stories high at least - bit scary really ).
So plant yourself a clematis montana as well by the way- they give you such a lovely early Spring display.The flowers are very scented and from my mountain high clematis towering over my head the soft smell of old-fashioned 1950's facepowder seems to hang every night in the evening air, as thought Doris Day has just passed by on a sneaky nightly visit. If you don't have a clematis montana beg , steal ot borrow a cutting or in the worst case scenario just buy yourself one( they's are not that expensive, maybe £6.95 or so ).. Again this may need pruning ! So here you have your clematis tendrils with flowers and all, all nicely kept moist so it will last a few days with loo-paper and aluminium foil.
Just attach to wreath at the bottom.( tuck the ends with aluminium foil away, out of sigh at the back. )
Add pretty ribbon ( I went for cream ).
Done !
You can hang it on the door ..
and detail of the bottom :
Or if you want to be careful with the delicate blooms of the Wisteria, and not have them moved to and fro when you open the door, you can hang the wreath inside...
This is a bit of a wild wreath with the clematis sticking out a bit but it gives a nice rustic feel.
I hope I have convinced you Wisteria is the way to go and you will get cracking with either planting the darned thing and smoke a pipe or cheroot or take up knitting for 7 years till the thing starts flowering, or IF you have one, to start making a wreath and enjoy the fabulous flowers not only outside but only inside !!!! Either way- enjoy planting and/ or wreath making - wether it is a
door wreath or simply a
wreath for an indoor
floral decoration!
And have a fabulous weekend!
