Simplify your holiday decorating by purchasing ready-made fresh wreaths, garlands, and the like. Personalize these by adding decorative natural plant materials from the garden.

Often, many of the things you might want to use are available in your own garden. These might include hickory nuts, pecans, and hazel nuts along with various kinds of acorns.

Evergreens in the garden can also provide attractive cones, such as pine cones and spruce cones. The true cedar trees also bear lovely cones that look beautiful in Christmas decorations. One example is the Atlantic or Atlas cedar, hardy to zone six.

Beefwood or Australian pine is only hardy to zone ten or so. It is typically grown in Florida. This bears tiny, scale-like leaves and ½ inch wide cones, both of which can be added to Christmas decorations.

Some of my favorite additions to holiday wreaths happen to be dried okra pods and sweet gum pods. Both of these can be painted in holiday colors. Lotus pods can also be used in holiday wreaths.

The stems of the red twig dogwood are lovely when added to tabletop holiday arrangements. These stems retain their color well. There are also yellow twig dogwoods as well although the color isn’t suitable for all holiday decorating schemes.

Dried flowers of various kinds also appear in holiday wreaths and decorations. These can include dried, dyed hydrangea blooms along with various kinds of everlastings, particularly those with silver foliage.

Last but not least, fruits and berries can be relied on to bring long lasting color to holiday arrangements. I’ve seen absolutely gorgeous holiday
floral designs made with fresh cranberries.

Crabapples and many other kinds of fruits and berries can be gathered from the garden. The dove tree, also called handkerchief tree, is hardy to zone six. This bears 1½ inch long nuts that retain their attractive green color. They look lovely in holiday decorations.

Some other fruits can be easily purchased at the supermarket and used in holiday decorations. My favorite by far is the kumquat. However, oranges are also used as well. I’ve seen beautiful examples of fruit garlands and wreaths, such as the types widely displayed in Historic Williamsburg for the holiday season.