Ideal Greenery Plants for Winter Flower Arranging

At Christmas, it is always fun to have lots of color, fresh scents and flowers to help cheer you through the darkness doldrums. I often like to give flower arrangements as gifts and use services like Harry & David's or FTD to send them. Sometimes I look up a local florist when I want to send a specific type of flower, for instance, a fuchsia basket for a birthday. A lot of the time I buy them at Thriftway, or QFC where they have many bundles of cut flowers and take them to a hostess. Buying cut flowers and arranging them yourself can save you money. Often, for less than $15, I can create 3-5 arrangements and have them in several rooms of the house. Arranged cut flowers or live plants are also really nice to add to the center of wreath.

One way I can make unusual flower arrangements from the same bundles of cut flowers is to have plants in the yard that I can use in my arrangements. The best plants to grow in wintertime provide the greenery used as backbone in the arrangement.

In Picture 1, I've followed Malcolm Hillier's advice from "Flower Arranging" for creating a facing arrangement. In creating one of these, you fill your container with wet foam, then use greenery to cover up the pot edges and supply the backbone of the arrangement. Greenery used in this arrangement include:

Yew (Taxus)

This time of year, or in late autumn, our yew has usually almost grown into the roof of the house, so just by pruning it back, I get nice cylindrical pieces with tiny evergreen leaves. Use this for upright center greens.

Sweet Bayleaf (Laurel Nobilis)

This plant's leaves are used in cooking. It took us several years to establish a plant, but now, this time of year it needs pruning and the leaves smell heavenly sweet and stay green for a long time. Use this stuck into the edges to hide the pot.

Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster Horizontalis)