I like to keep fresh greens in the house during the winter months and often fill a basket with cuttings from the yard - balsam, fir, and cedar are easy to source, and winterberry branches add a festive touch along with pinecones and red dogwood twigs. I’ve been teaching greenery workshops for years and love helping people make their own holiday arrangements.
Above: From bottom left are spruce, fir, red osier dogwood shrub, birch branches, incense cedar, boxwood, and both orange and red winterberry (a deciduous holly shrub). When you assemble your cuttings, keep things fresh and cool. Boxwood cuttings should be kept in water to prevent drying out.
Wet foam can be presoaked and cut to fit containers (buy it in craft stores). The advantage of this material is that it holds water for a long time, keeping material fresh, and can be reused numerous times (but the disadvantage is it’s a petroleum based product that doesn’t decompose in the landfill). If you’d rather not use it you can try floral tape or roll some coated chicken wire to fit and make a base for your greens.
For the piece below, the student filled a small bowl with wet foam and added greens in a circular fashion to ring a candle. Cheerful red winterberry (Ilex verticillata) complete the arrangement.
Here are some other creations students made in one of my workshops.
The unusual chartreuse colored evergreen in these arrangements is a golden Japanese false cypress tree (Chamaecyparis pisifera) which has soft feathery needles; good for edging a container and adding texture.
A simple basket filled with greens makes a great holiday gift too. Just remember to keep it moist (if using foam test the dryness levels and add water as needed) and it will last for weeks. I often make several baskets and set them outside to decorate our doorway - very festive and fun to make.