Garden Glamour Tablescapes and Holiday Door Decor

One of the seasonal songs that keeps ringing in my head is the refrain, “It’s the most wonderful time … of the year.”

While it can be somewhat unnerving for us horticulturists in the northern temperate climates when the season demands we change out our sunscreen for windscreen and bandanas for winter scarves, I honestly embrace the opportunity to design something different than the garden beds brimming with perennials, annuals, trees and shrubs for my garden client’s exterior -- and bring the garden to the interior designs.

I’m excited to create seasonal container compositions, entrance decor, and tablescapes -- showcasing the beauty of the garden and how plants -- and bit of fantasy -- can help tell their personal and family stories.

Every design is different. No two garden clients’ look is the same -- each is unique because we are all special in our own way -- just as a plant or blossom is..

This season, one of my dearest garden design clients --and a muse -- needed to prepare for a one-two series of family gatherings: for both Thanksgiving and again for Christmas and Hannukah. What good fortune!
So too, there was a series of design and work stages in a series to produce the look she was hoping for.

We started by walking the property and noting where she wanted to change and boost the look. That turned into establishing a border garden on one side of the circular driveway (curiously, the other sides all possessed border beds of mixed plantings.)

Wow -- this area would be brought up to par. More on this later.

Welcome Entrance Design
In terms of the welcome entrance decor, I started by creating a private Pinterest board for my client to respond to. I selected a number of images that we could use -- a little of this, a little of that, and of course, adding our own personal touch and her special personality and taste -- that is her love of beauty.

Once we had a working composition, I set out to source the material to create the design.
That included the floral district in New York City -- those that Martha and Ralph Lauren use for their compositions - not far from my Gotham apartment - in addition to local craft stores, our own backyards and gardens, too.

My client and I determined we’d use/repurpose lanterns I suggested and she purchase some years ago from Restoration Hardware to highlight the pool.

I placed two of the lanterns on each side of the door, filled the bottoms with unpopped popcorn, and loaned my flameless candles that work on timers.
That was backed by two very large flameless candles that my client already had.

In addition, I made three sheave designs for each side of the door -- two each of wheat-color stalks of cereal grass and the center was her favorite color (besides white) of a potato vine bright green.

It was an elegant composition even before I did the posts and door frame! 

 

Later, I wrapped the posts in a spiral of burlap ribbons overlaid with gold silk flowers and berries. Over the door we hung faux Chinese Bittersweet berries -- that glorious, rich, cinnabar, smash-pumpkin hue. Brilliant -- and glowed off client’s signature hair color.


The door was caressed / wrapped in a kind of spun white and gold microfiber that has a life of it’s own -- all the better to nestle sweet moss-covered little bird’s nests and gold and white feathery little birds, perched in the nests and looking to welcome guests in a regal “love-bird” kind of way. 

The custom-made pumpkin topiaries are tiered like a three-layer cake.



For the designer pumpkins I used ghost, Cotton Candy, Blue Moon, Pump Ke Mon (white with green or yellowish stripes), white, the Tiger Tiger and very stylish Brode Galeux d’Eysines -- an heirloom pumpkin from France that boasts a pebbly texture that makes you want to almost pet the pumpkin!



I chose a mix of pumpkin styles with each layer a smaller size to create four distinct pumpkin topiaries.



We created this layered look by drilling a hole into each of the pumpkins in a set, then inserting a rod to hold the topiary together. 

I then “gilded the lily” -- hot glueing a mix of adornments: silk, seasonal flowers, leaves, ribbon, acorns from the property, grass head plumes, and ivy. 

Cinderella should’ve had it so good!


We anchored silk leaf “ropes” around the bespoke address light posts on the street side.

And wrapped a bit of it around the statue of Alice in the Alice in Wonderland garden (all dressed for the occasion to greet her former mistress, the client’s talented granddaughter). 

The entranceway was special, seasonally-appropriate and looks good in the day or glowing at night.

Tablescapes
In the same way, when asked to create a tablescape for the dining table using a crystal vase that measured just shy of a foot tall, I started by selecting some photos to post to the private Pinterest board in order to gauge the client’s reaction to a look and style.

I knew we should do a mix of ornamental and edible - given it was for a Thanksgiving celebration - so it should be about the harvest. 

 
I also knew the flora from both silk and fresh can be maximized.   This means the look can be de-constructed as the fresh flowers wane and the guests depart for home (whichever comes first!)

I created a series of low vases to surround the tall centerpiece (they can take away that away to foster easy table conversation) and still keep a pretty, glamorous, tablescape.


For the centerpiece it was a mix of rich hues: purple, bright green, pink, lilac, blue and white and gold was agreed upon.

For the small vases, it was gold football mums, magnolia leaves, and luscious as a candy apple rose called, Rose-Cherry Brandy whose gold amplified the mums and the delicate cherry color complemented the centerpiece -- and the red wine served up in the wine glasses.

Here too, I shopped the markets in the floral district in New York City where … plus sourced the fresh flowers from a local florist and flower friend.  I picked them up from her storybook home cum workshop and home-crafted greenhouse.

I filled the small vases with acorns, fragrant star anise and the fresh flowers.

I arranged the centerpiece with the silk flowers: ranunculus - green and burgundy red, peony, followed by the fresh: amaranth - red and green, roses, sea holly, ranunculus, two kinds of kale (love that frilly, ruffled leaves look). On site, I added the silk edibles: artichokes, clementines, and a few real purple turnips.

Around the centerpiece I placed faux grapes, gold baubles and beads to add just the touch of elegance this truly glamorous tablescape demanded.

In a room this grand, tall centerpieces can be almost be necessary.
And yet, those low vases facilitate the conversation - so good to have both low and high tablescape designs to accommodate guests.

Cheers to seasonal plant decor, tablescapes that sparkle and Finishing Touches. Remember, the eyes eat first - so be sure to design your home to welcome your family and friends with beauty and love.



Border Beds to be continued…

Putting the Green in Holiday Greens

For as long as I’ve had my own home and decorated for the Christmas Holiday season, I’ve always accessorized more with plants and cuttings from the garden than with store-bought items.  I do add to this with lots and lots and lots of candles: pillars, floating candles (snowflakes, hearts) votives and specialty or handmade candles to create intriguing compositions.  For the last five years or so, I’ve used the small LED lights that I buy by the bucket!  (Online purchases once a year, keep me in candle-clover for the rest of the year, including Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Garden parties, Independence Day …)

I usually order from:

http://www.acolyte.com

I put the lights in the bottom of the glass vases – concealing the pulp of the lights in the white or gold glass stones I use, depending on the look I want to achieve.

For several years, for example, I styled the dining table with white and gold. I used Casablanca Lillies and white roses.  Also, in years past I made the living room floral table display with a composition I learned from a floral designer who taught at The New York Botanical Garden. She demonstrated this combination for a New York Times photo shoot:

• 3 - 4 tall vases (I use cylindrical ones)
• 2 Calla Lilly per vase (I stretch and coaxed the stems so that they arch past the next vase’s bloom – think of a wattle fence or loose "M" shape)
• bottom of each vase is filled with water to same height, colored with red food coloring and topped by fresh, floating cranberries.

 Lovely, Dramatic and Unique.

This year I opted for a floral red theme – with silver bells and white “snow.”

I found red glass stones for the table vases (low, pineapple size) and the combination of the red glowing LED lights and the red roses, red carnations and Hypericum Berry, was an especially elegant, festive touch – and an especially nice match with the holiday table linens I got last year.

And I’ve always had our Christmas stockings hang from the sterling silver cup vases filled with red roses, red carnations and seeded eucalyptus.

My Christmas stocking was knit/hand-made by my godmother, Aunt Alice – she made them for all her nieces and nephews.  Even more special after all these years. I love it – especially that angora, snowy Santa beard.

I made my husband’s stocking the first year we were married, as he didn’t have a childhood holiday stocking...  So naturally I had to make a special one for him. I decided on a cross-stitch design.

I look at it now and wonder how I ever made it ^:^ 

I remember when I was working on the “stocking” that first year while traveling to Palm Beach, the airline made me check the needlepoint scissors – which seemed oh-so-ridiculous at the time: way before pre-September 11^th attacks…

Now, I wouldn’t even think of bringing scissors, er, a weapon, on board.

Regardless, the stocking is fun to look at and well done  J   and has now stood the test of time to become a tradition in its own right…

As part of our Holiday home design, I can’t help putting up the paperwhites bulbs, too. I know some people find the fragrance a bit too aggressive – (I think I remember that my friend, the amazing Anne Raver, writing about that in her New York Times garden column:
http://tinyurl.com/om5629  )
For me, they are so associated with the holidays...   
  

It’s part of the tradition.  

Tricky part is knowing when to plant up the bulbs so that they will be in their glory for the holiday parties for all to enjoy...  I am of the mind that two weeks before Thanksgiving works best. 

If you have another experience, let me know?

I studied Spanish in Mexico some years ago and consequently learned about the poinsettia tradition... Do you know of this??

Also, my mother had some issues with the bloom time this year for her amaryllis.  I convinced her to keep the bulbs from last year and they do look like they’ll bloom – but we planted them up in what, late October and they hadn’t bloomed by the 25h …. One or two blossoms looked promising on Christmas day...

What was especially thrilling was to see the jasmine plant boom --first-time ever for me. wow!

Of course, I always have to order the flowers from our best Garden State florist:

“In The Garden” located in the Highlands at their new address, 69 Waterwitch Avenue.

www.inthegardennj.com

Owner Nancy Thomas is not only an amazing horticultural expert, graduate of the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture www.nybg.org/edu/soph




Nancy is also a mother, and councilwomen for the town of Highlands.

"In The Garden" sells my Garden Pendant  Collection.

Nancy is always available – she keeps my floral design requests and past orders on file so she can better tell me the quantity of what I did from year to year.

And she got back to me asap via text when I asked her what the name of the the cutting I got: the  Hypericum Berry.

That’s a garden elf, no?!  Thank you, Nancy.

And in a slight departure from the usual tree - I had this idea in my head and then saw a similar concept in a magazine or newspaper - can't remember -- but the point was to use the garden look for the tree.

I wanted to use the garden urn from the terrace for the Christmas tree that we place in the garden room. I'll spare you the details, but the funnier part is when we purchased the tree at the benefit in town and I discovered a 8-foot blue spruce tree (the needles match the floor and...)

So Bill says, "she wants that one.  and can you cut it in half?!"
The guy thinks we're crazy but I get the perfect tree and lots of branch cuttings for decorating!

This year, I also saw the call-out for holiday garden decorations from my friend, Irene Varig (http://www.irenevirag.com/)  the award-winning Garden Writer and Pulitzer Prize Winner. (Irene wrote the most touching and inspirational coverage for her Newsday column following the passing of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s president, Judy Zuk.)

I took a few digital pictures for her holiday garden decor request and submitted to Irene’s web site.

This is the winter view of the burgeoning arbor I designed - (two years in the making...) coral bark -    uplit with solar-powered lights, fronted with red-twigged dogwood, and Lady in Red Hydrangea and red roses as border.  Brilliant in every season -- but have to love the look and design in the winter: red branches against the white snow is intoxicating.  and one's eye is still led toward the harbor beyond...

This wreath is the creative genius of EunYoung Sebazco (www.silverflowerdesign.com)  who works with Duchess Designs.  She is so incredibly talented -- landscape architect, designs and manages NYC public gardens and....!

After focusing on our own holiday decorations, I was delighted to see family and friend’s designs when visiting.  My cousin Jeff and his wife Suzanne are talented gardeners and always have some delight to surprise all. This year, they elected to put their “winter village” around the top of the kitchen cabinets -- what a great design option...

I think you’ll agree it is a natural-looking addition that gives the allusion it is part of the kitchen design.

But the really exciting element for me is their outdoor container garden design surrounding the deck and hot tub.  While they both said they compose the holiday deck designs in order to claim the privacy they need in the winter (sans leaves and seasonal shrubs) so they can continue to enjoy their fabulous hot tub -- hey, no peeking, neighbors!

Greens & Urns Accessorize the Hot Tub

I can't help it -- I'm impressed. It's simply a stunning garden composition.  Imagine enjoying the hot tub surrounded with greens from the garden anointing the urns.
How Glamorous!  What a stylish winter garden spa -- and all curated from the garden -- greens and conifers that add a dash of holiday winter fashion...

Cheers, Darlings!