Dried Flower Expert

How to Make a Fall Nature Wreath

Wreaths, those attractive and fragrant decorations, can be displayed on our front  doors at Christmas or indoors any time of year. You can easily make your own unique  and lovely wreath to show off your home grown herbs and flowers, or to display the  pods, cones and seed heads you can find in the woods or roadsides in fall.The first part is fun – collecting the materials. Start in your own back yard, and look for  interesting flower heads that may have dried, seed heads with unique shapes such as  poppies, tulips, columbine or iris, or feathery heads of grasses. Silver dollar heads and  Japanese lanterns will have dried, and are ready to pick. Clusters of cones can be found  on and under evergreen trees, and nut trees will have shed the seed husks from  filberts, oak or chestnuts, or maples their winged maple seeds, just waiting to be  collected. Your wreath will be more interesting if you plan for some contrasts in texture and  color – shiny chestnuts next to a fringed hemlock cone cluster, or a deep brown walnut  shell next to silvery feathers of ornamental grasses. Place the same item in different  positions – a cone can sit on its base, lie on its side, or even be placed stem up. Just  make sure your pods, cones, acorns, seed heads and foliage are ripe and dry. Green  material can get moldy and destroy all your hard work.Cut a sturdy corrugated cardboard into a doughnut for the base. Use white glue or a  glue gun to attach the materials to each other and to the base. Strip a large pine cone,  and glue the pieces shaped like petals around the edges of the wreath to form a  border. Once it has dried, start building up the wreath with the largest pieces you have  collected – the largest cones, teasel heads, large pods, and so on. Glue them in place  around the wreath. Next, add the medium sized pieces – acorns, thistle heads, small cones, seed husks or  dried flower heads. Make sure you keep a variety in your arrangement, and again, think  of contrasting color and texture as you glue the pieces in place. Finally, add your  smallest pieces to fill in any spots where the cardboard still shows. If you have some  feathery grass heads or dried flower heads, these can even be broken apart and used to  fill in small spaces, adding even more texture, color and depth.Once the glue has dried, take your wreath outside and spray it with clear varnish.  If  you’d like, you can add some ribbon, beads or berries to make a Christmas themed  wreath. Glue a hanger to the back, and you’re all finished.The mellow natural tones  make this an appropriate decoration for fall and winter, and even year round.

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