Winter Outdoor Décor Tips

Jennifer Polanz

Porch pots for the winter holidays and modified for January and February are getting more popular. In my inbox, I recently received tips for top notch greenery décor from Denise Walden, College of DuPage floral design instructor and owner of Walden Floral Design Company. Here are her tips:

• Ensure greens are as fresh as possible; the needles shouldn’t shed easily when a finger is run along the branch, and it should smell green and fresh, not dry.

• Try to use variations in texture and color. Long needle white pine, juniper with dark blue juniper berries, blue spruce and Frasier fir look beautiful in window boxes, outdoor pots and wreaths. Textures will give your creations more depth and interest.

• Leaves such as lemon leaf, also known as Salal, can be sprayed with gold or silver paint for a festive holiday look. Gold or silver sprayed pine cones stand out more than natural finish pine cones.

• It’s okay to add a few artificial accessories to arrangements, like berries, leaves or interesting faux flowers.

• Use red twig dogwood in the outdoor containers to give the arrangement some height. Other branches like curly willow and birch work well, too.

• After making your outdoor arrangements, water them well and check them occasionally throughout the winter to help keep them fresh. Adding flower food or Christmas tree preservative can help keep evergreens last longer. GP