Here we are again, launching into full-on festive mayhem…What is your preference in the indoor decorations department? All sparkle and flashing Santas, or can I persuade you to go for something subtler and classier collected from the great outdoors?
There are other gardening tasks such as pruning vines or acers, or clearing away diseased leaves that will give you a break from wrapping and mince-pie making…..
One of our favourite ways to decorate our home is to pile ivy on to the wide plate rail of our Victorian flat at Christmas to try and give the dining room a sort of ‘enchanted forest’ look. As you can see from the feature photo, Laura likes to cut all sort of branches to bring inside too. If you are gathering stems like this for indoor decoration, a good tip is to split them at the base and then leave them in a bucket of warm water overnight before you use them. They will last much longer and stay fresher-looking.
Laura likes to use ivy inside as well but tends to favour the small-leaved kinds in pretty little pots (you can find these pots in our shop -see below).
As for berries, I find Cotoneaster Cornubia or rosehips to be a more reliable source than holly – it’s only the female hollies that have berries and even that is a bit of a minefield (‘Silver Queen’ is male, ‘Golden King’ is female. Plenty of gender fluidity in the horticultural world!). With holly, you may have also haveproblems with pollination, suitable weather, marauding pigeons…. But hawthorn, spindle and Hypericum and Nandina domestica will all yield pretty berries, and Caroline has a ready supply of fantastic sea buckthorn in Scotland which livens up her festive displays no end with its bright orange berries 😎.
For silvery effects, eucalyptus foliage is lovely or lichened twigs. Other pale effects can be created with snowberry berries or Old Man’s Beard (Clematis vitalba) which trails softly. A while back we were given a good tip about using the Old Man’s Beard in arrangements by a reader: “If you first let it steep in a one part glycerine, two parts warm water mixture, the flowers take up the solution, become silky and don’t shed their fluffy seed heads!” Brilliant idea! Don’t forget those charming silver pennies of Honesty either.
Pine cones are traditional Christmas decorations but many are too large to accommodate in table decorations; larch cones are smaller and easier to manage. Another favourite of Laura’s (typically obscure!) are the seedpods of Yunnan liquorice.
Poppy or Phlomis seedheads and Allium seedheads are all exquisitely-formed and fabulous for admiring at close quarters, whether or not you like to get busy with the silver spray can.
You see, you can step away from the nodding plastic reindeer this year , and create an indoor winter wonderland just by using plants from your own (or a friend’s?)
On the subject of plants that look great at this time, Caroline has been working on a previous article we wrote about Plants for a Festive Pot, and you can now click on almost all of the photos to see where to buy them. Check out the link below.
Pruning vines
We 3Growbags were giving another talk this week and one of Caroline’s Powerpoint slides was of a grapevine that I gave her for her Highland
The only exception to this is when you live in an area very susceptible to spring frosts. In that case, it’s possible to delay your pruning until March, which has the effect of delaying the buds bursting until after the most threatening time for frost is past. The cuts will still weep sap but it shouldn’t do a heap of damage if the plants were strong and healthy in the first place.
Most grapevines are grown to cover pergolas and fences and these are usually ‘cordons’; these have main permanent stems and pruning involves simply cutting back all of the shoots sprouting from these main stems to one or two buds, unless you want them to extend the main branch framework.
Like most people, we had an AWESOME harvest of fruit in 2025, and that included our grapevines (we grow Vitis vitifera ‘Sieguerrebe’ to eat which has a lovely muscat-like flavour). I know the summer weather must have helped A LOT but the winter pruning surely set up the success in the first place!
Gardening shorts
- Did your roses get black spot this summer like some of mine (principally the older varieties). Clear away any fallen rose leaves from round each plant to lessen the chance of the disease overwintering and affecting the shoots next spring.
- If you need to shape acers or silver birches, do the pruning before Christmas. They, like vines, tend to have sap that rises early and weeps if you leave this shaping until early spring.
- Don’t forget to insulate outdoor taps with bubble-wrap before frost can freeze them solid and damage them.
- Even in a greenhouse, temperatures can suddenly plunge and kill tender plants, rooted dahlia cuttings, species pelargoniums etc. To help them through, it’s a good idea to group them all together on one bench and cover them with fleece or hessian overnight, then take this cover off in the morning. You may have to do this for quite a spell in the depths of winter – keep an eye on that weather forecast!
Find out what 10 plants we voted our favourites to put in a winter pot… and why… and where to buy them!
You can get free delivery off EVERYTHING – even blooming great wheelbarrows and shredders – from Thompson and Morgan this weekend. Take a look at this and other offers on right now
We had a tremendous response to last week’s blog about gifts for a gardener. If you are still looking for the perfect present, do have a browse through for inspiration:
Here’s another large shrub that will yield you some very beautiful berries for indoor displays – the birds love them too but not usually till later on in the winter. A seasonal beauty – ideal as one of Louise’s Great Plants this Month..
We’re giving away one of these beautiful indoor watering cans – new in our shop last week – to one of our lovely subscribers. If you know of someone who doesn’t yet follow us – send them this link!
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