Home Decor & Curated Gift Ideas to Make The Holidays Special & Easy on the Budget

Nesting at home for the Holidays doesn’t need to feel like you're being deprived.  

It should most assuredly feel like you’re pampering yourself ~ treating beleaguered you and your family to those little luxuries that you may have overlooked this past year due to the barrage of never ending, relentless mal.  

This year, give yourself permission to revive long-held cultural or familial holiday traditions.  

And start new ones to fuel your own hygge - create a comfort and style that suits your spirit.  You’ll look back in years to come happy that you threw off those “onesies” or what I’ve read are a preponderance to wear “sweat pants” or pajamas (please say it ain’t so).  

**Years ago, I was asked to speak to incarcerated women about going for that first job interview and my counsel to them was to look good. When you feel and look your best, you can’t help but ooze  confidence. So start dreaming good thoughts.

I suggest you start with a personal kind of advent wreath for you ~ and your family.  

To get you started I thought I’d share a bit of background about what exactly is an Advent Calendar and why you’d want one.  

The history of Advent Calendars dates to 1851, Germany.  There, a lucky Gerhard Lang’s mother (why she doesn’t get her own moniker reference besides, Mother?!) 

Anyway, that was then.  And Mrs. Lang/Mother ~  wanted her son to experience that sense of anticipation that only the joy of Christmas can bring on. 

Mrs. Lang must surely be respected as one of the forerunners of a kind of Martha Stewart genius and creative DIYers when she crafted a calendar with 24 candles - one for each day leading up to Christmas. 

Sleuthing the history of the Advent Calendar, I found this reference at The Cottage Journal, that chronicled how young Gerhard’s Mother worked more than a Christmas miracle: “Lang grew up to operate the Reichhold & Lang printing company where he printed the first Advent cardboard calendar with 24 little pictures. A few years later, the company printed the first calendar with the little doors that everyone loves to open.” 

So three cheers to good parenting and inspiring the children to become artful entrepreneurs based on their family experience.  Who knows what future CEOs you might jump start… 

Today, you can certainly use your creative juices to craft a personal, meaningful Advent Calendar for the countdown to the big day, and to foster the “expectation journey” of better things to come…

How can you make an Advent Calendar? 

I’ve seen shoe holders artfully repurposed, with embroidered “days;” paper ones with doors that open to service or acts of kindness that we can perform. 

Consider making or getting a calendar with LED lights (safer than those original candles) that you can open each day. 

There are felt calendars that allow kids to easily reach for that star at the top of the tree.  

I found a font of possibilities on Etsy. I’m partial to the wine, chocolate, and book-themed creations. Don’t forget a calendar for your pet! STAGDESIGN offers dog treats. 

And who wouldn’t love a Santa “Claws” treat for your cat? Lily’s Kitchen offers lots of tasty feline treats. And for dogs, too. 

You can also purchase an advent calendar - I found ones that are true to the Victorian pedigree as well as more modern ones.

Plants as Gifts

While those of us living in zones that (used to) bring snow, (now, not so much… ) it is nevertheless a time to stow the trowel till spring.  But there are lots of garden-inspired gifts to give to your family and friends. Or gift to you! 

The quintessential holiday plant to gift or decorate with is the poinsettia. Today, this pretty plant has more to offer than the traditional red bracted Christmas stalwarts.  There are white, pink, spotted, and more color nuances than a box of crayons. 

  

I keep my white poinsettias front and center in a lovely composition all year long.  

But as ubiquitous as the poinsettia plant is, its history is rather murky. I remember sharing the story when a group of us were clutching our hearts at the incredible poinsettia Christmas display at Longwood Gardens.  I thought most folks knew all about the plant coming from Mexico and being introduced to the US by our first ambassador to Mexico, a Mr. Poinsett. Yet, recently, the subject came up again on our Slack conversation with fellow NYBG landscape design alumni group.  So, I figure this Christmas story needs re-telling! 

According to sources, the poinsettia plant was native to Mexico;  the poinsettia was used by the Aztecs as a source for purple dye and medicine for fevers, according to the American Phytopathological Society. It was introduced to the United States in 1828, when the first American ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, noticed the luscious red plants flourishing there.

Being an avid horticulturist, Poinsett sent some of the plants home to his greenhouses in Greenville, South Carolina. He also shared the plants with fellow growers. 

But poinsettias as we know them today, became associated with Christmas thanks to the savvy marketing of a German immigrant family, the Eckes. The family settled in California, in the 1900s. Albert Ecke noticed wild poinsettias growing along roadsides in the winter, thought they would make good Christmas flowers and set about growing the plants as an off-season crop.

The true marketing came into play in the 1960s, when Paul Ecke Jr. began to give poinsettias away to TV hosts such as Johnny Carson and Bob Hope. He also managed to incorporate his plants in women’s magazines’ Christmas photo shoots. This media savvy caused poinsettias to be accepted as a necessary holiday decoration.

The Eckes had a monopoly on the poinsettia industry until the 1990s, thanks to a technique that caused their poinsettias to look much fuller than competitors’.  In 2002, Congress passed an act that made Dec. 12 National Poinsettia Day in honor of Paul Ecke Jr.’s contributions to the poinsettia industry. Dec. 12 was chosen because it’s the day Joel Poinsett died in 1851.

Lovely plant story, isn’t it? 

Seed This 

Closer to home, you can take seeds from your own garden to gift. 

Gather the seeds from the plants you’re bringing in or pruning back for the winter. 

I was the lucky recipient of some poppy seeds from a dear garden design client and friend, Gina & Ted.  I, in turn, gifted some of the lode to my brother, the musician, James Popik.

As an auxiliary aside, the plant lore of planting poppy seeds is to sow them on or near Veteran’s Day to honor our military heroes, and the beautiful flowers will bloom on or near Memorial Day, to honor those fallen heroes who died for our freedom…

Poppies can also be a symbol of imagination, messages delivered in dreams, beauty, success, luxury, extravagance, and even peace in death. 

The poppy has long symbolized peace, death, or even sleep. 

The Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians connected poppies with sleep because of the sedative nature of its sap. In particular, the Greeks related the flower to Morpheus, the god of sleep.  Remember the Wizard of Oz scene where Dorothy and her friends were lulled to sleep just before getting oh-so-close to Oz?

Don’t have seeds to share? 

Consider bulbs as Garden gifts. You can tie up some bulbs in a fetching bag and pretty ribbons or plant them in a pretty bowl or now to gift later this Spring bulbs can be “forced” indoors for an intoxicating container display.  Especially those fragrant, Paper White Narcissus.  I adore them.  

  

And who better to get your bulbs from than my go-to bulb source: John Scheepers. 

I love them; as do my garden design clients who almost weep with joy at the beauty of the spring bulbs.  

I also have suggested to those Yankees who’ve migrated south to live and then bemoan they can't enjoy their revered spring bulbs bloom displays to think about potting up those glorious bulbs in containers, a la forced bulbs. And in terrariums, too. 

Here’s the Scheepers’ bulb experts tips  

Can’t get better advice anywhere.  

As I’ve noted in the past and even with my NYBG landscape design alumni community, the dedicated pros at Scheepers are completely dedicated to your success.  

Oh, and Margaret Roach was a great comfort to me a year ago when there was an inexplicable bulb debacle with one of my clients.  God Bless, Margaret. She shared her and Martha’s challenges with the same bulb… Ask me… 

If you don’t already subscribe to her Away to Garden or her podcast ~ please do sign on and gift to a garden friend.  It’s engaging, educational, and downright “dirty” fun that we can all relate to.  Margaret is most knowledgeable. And generous. 

Well, I hope I don’t need to put too fine a point on the fact that we are all spending more time indoors, so let’s just move on to the happier, healthier, living-well tip that indoor plants refresh and clean your indoor space. Plants heal us. Period. 

Further, indoor plants are so very easy to grow. Even in low-light situations. Caring for plants in a soul-enriching experience, especially for seniors. 

Want to be a plant parent? 

Here are a few recommendations for easy-care plants (Yes, even those of you who swear you have a brown thumb. Brown is the color of soil, after all. So you’re good!) 

• Ferns ~ there is an almost limitless variety of beautiful ferns to suit your style and decor. The only fern I have found that is at all finicky is that diva, the Maidenhair.

Otherwise, you can expect big rewards growing this family of green beauties. 

I love my Lemon Button Fern. 

And i find it so delightful and curious why so many common names of ferns are named for animals and birds: Rabbit, Crocodile, Kangaroo, and the cool-looking StagHorn Fern: , 

as well as the Bird’s Nest Fern. 

I grow many Christmas and Boston Ferns, too. They add so much to a room’s decor.  I often pot up diminutive ferns or succulents in re-purposed “pots,” including tea cups, crystal cordial glasses, and votive candle holders to use in a variety of tablescape designs.  

• Pathos/Devil’s Ivy or Silver Pathos is another easy-sneazy plant to gift and grow

• Right now we could all use more peace ~ so growing the storied Peace Lily feels so right 

 

• My Polka Dot plant is just too cute

• Heart-Leaf Philodendron - sometimes referred to as a Sweetheart Plant because of its leaf shape

 

Where to get your indoor plants?

If you don’t grow your own plants, I suggest you garner plants from these, my revered, superior horticultural, floral designers and herbalists.  I love having a network of trusted plant artists, don't you?

• Kinka for plants, garden art, floral design, edible gift sets and more.  This is truly a unique and bespoke source that you can call a friend… I do. Kinka is owned and operated with TLC by an incredible husband and wife team ~ both artisans. He a fine artist, she a garden and floral artist as well as a ceramic creator and so much more. The authenticity and beauty of their collections is unsurpassed.
• And then there is the unique greeting cards that I was introduced to by my Homegrown friend, Nancy Twardowski-Vallarella ~ a food writer at Edible, her "What's Cookin? Long Island" and more, and in turn, her Northport, Long Island friend at Hydrangea Home offers a variety of rich, detailed, botanical art cards (along with lots of other curated, homemade, and irresistible artful things from across the country. Plus they ship everywhere. The lucky recipients of the cards I sent were nothing less than gobsmacked. Plant a card! Double the plant love.

• Julia Rosa Artistic Floral Decorator ~ from fashion to floral design to edibles to dreamy gift baskets.  

• Greenery Unlimited. I met (re-met) one of the owners, Rebecca, last year at the annual  Metro Hort “Plant-O-Rama” and not only discovered we worked at BBG at the same time, but upon learning my Art of the Garnish book had been published, she invited me to present a garden-to-glass workshop and book-signing at their shop. While that never happened due to the corona virus’ March madness, the Greenery remains a fabulous source for plants and accordingly, “They believe that bringing the natural world into your home, office, or outdoor space will increase your quality of life.”  Amen. 

• The Sill describes themselves as “a modern plant destination for the modern plant lover.” They offer a constellation of plants for every plant dream.  I love their plant humor too ~ welcoming you to their Plant Parenhood!™

Stocking Stuffers for the Moment

And I sure hope you’re thinking globally and locally when it comes to giving a Membership to your local botanical garden. These cultural institutions and museums of plants offer more than just beauty. They curate plant exhibitions, they sponsor scientific and environmental research; they offer incredible online courses aplenty to choose from. My short list from which to gift a membership includes: The New York Botanical Garden, the Mt. Cuba Center, Virginia’s Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden (where one of my dear cousins got married), and the John P. Humes Japanese Stroll Garden. I also belong to the Garden Conservancy. Your membership here helps to preserve and celebrate America’s garden art and gardening traditions.” I’m paraphrasing a bit from their mission, but you get the idea. I have a weakness for botanical gardens that began their life as pleasure gardens and you can’t get better than Longwood Gardens and Chanticleer. Membership in these incredible institutions will give you back culture, education, and beauty. Same for National and local art museums. I just renewed my Metropolitan Museum of Art membership. You don’t need me to remind you that your membership goes a long way to keeping our unique cultural values and sustaining our artists.

Up Next: More gift ideas for the bar, fashion and tablescapes. Cheers.

Dream in Color: Fall Planting Tips for a Technicolor Spring

As we headed into autumn here in our temperate Zone 7 with visions of harvest and pumpkins and longer, cooler nights, it was also time to think about the spring garden. That’s right! Just like a fashion-forward seasonal advance, gardens so too require us to think ahead for style. And just like those fashion magazines, good garden design publications and the growers' & nursery catalogs arrived offering their “Look Book” temptations. 

There is a kaleidoscope of dizzying Crayola® colors: - oh, the luscious lipstick reds, rich, royal purples, sunshine yellows, and sunset oranges - enough to set your heart aflutter with desire. But selecting the best or optimum spring bulbs is not for the faint of heart. So many choices. Too much mystery.

For my precious garden design clients, I do the heavy lifting: determining a variety of bulbs for their height, texture, bloom size, color, time of bloom. We want to enjoy the compositions from very early spring though to the early summer.

I will share with you a few of these planting guides so that you can get an idea of what to plant; what combinations work together and when and how to plant. So that when winter's beauty fades, you can embrace the elegant, glamorous, glowing, somewhere-over-the-rainbow of the spring bulb colors. And blooming floral art. Think of frilly or star-shaped or dainty or blowsy. Plus, did you know you can eat the tulip petals? They are terrific as a cocktail garnish or in salad or as you please.

Garden Art with Bulbs
Perhaps it’s my Dutch ancestry (my mother’s maiden name is Voorhees - truncated from Van Voorhees. Or being mesmerized the first time I saw the L’horloge fleurie or Geneva’s botanical timekeeper/Flower Clock in Switzerland where I went to school.



Regardless of the genesis, I have always loved garden art using the stunning, visual impact of bulbs. Who can resist those naturalized, lovely daffodil drifts in larger gardens spaces and along country roads? I am attracted to that look but with more variety. As if Mother Nature waved her magical spring rainbow wand and, not unlike pixie dust, the bulbs pop their array of brilliant architecture and sometimes frilly heads to dazzle the landscape and our imaginations.

Instinctually, I feel many homeowners don’t utilize bulbs enough in their gardens. Oh, perhaps a few lonely hyacinths or clusters of tulips - but that’s not the look I dream of for me or my Duchess Designs garden clients.

Overall, the design philosophy I envision using bulbs has always been one that incorporates “the genius loci” or sense of place. By way of further explanation, genus loci incorporates the concept that a locale contains ecologically and spiritually unique qualities -- and that and should be infused into the garden design.

The possibilities for designing your garden with bulbs are endless and as unique as every home and garden lover ~ whether your style is Victorian to Contemporary.

When to Plant Bulbs
Bulb growers often recommend planting when the crickets stop chirping. I love that admonishment. So intuitive. So attuned to Mother Nature’s calendar or clock.

The other big thing to consider this year is to order asap - if you or your garden designer has not already done so.

Why? For one, the Coronavirus has impacted the world of gardens in a big way (nothing is off limits.). I learned from my suppliers that the pandemic has curtailed so many of the container ships from the Netherlands, and the Dutch are the foremost growers of our spring bulbs.

The other coronavirus-related factor is two-fold: existing homeowners with a yard are amping up their gardens. And then there are those folks who have purchased a country house separate from their city residence and/or those who have sold their city places to relocate to suburbia or the country for the foreseeable future - primarily for their children. And all these folks want their gardens to be more of an oasis. A restful, peaceful, beautiful exterior design they can enjoy because if you have to stay at home and shelter in place - they want their homestead to be as beguiling, blissful and gorgeous as any paradise here on earth - a place of their dreams…

Bulbs not only awaken all our senses just when we need it most after winter, they also transition us to the start of summer and the blooming of seasonal perennials and colorful annuals and edible.

How to Achieve a Stunning Bulb Garden Design?
From my garden design experience, it requires not only that genus loci/sense of place, but the considerations of height, texture, and bloom time; not to mention complementary color, and -- fragrance.

Choose bulbs that bloom in early spring - some such as the Galanthus



come up through the snow in March and then select some from mid spring,


with the early May into June crescendoing the show. It’s often said that gardens and their plants are the slowest of the performing arts! And nowhere is that more pronounced than in the spring bulb garden with its four acts.

It’s a wave of colorful blooms that never fails to astonish.

When choosing bulbs for their color, look through the catalogs and circle those that call out to you. What will work with your favorite colors? You can also take the color wheel and see the colors on the opposite side. These are the Complementary Colors.





For example, I very much like the Mediterranean mix of purples or blues with orange and yellows. Mixes hot and cooler colors.

I also tend toward the cooler shades of pink, rose, lilac, and salmons.



There is a color shade, tint, tone or hue that you can select to enhance the overall effect. Blend the various varieties to work together as a whole. And with each other.

See how I chose these two bulb companions ~ the yellow has a fuschia border at the edging -- how does Mother nature do that?! - and the yellow stamen




I also lean toward the multiple bloomers - many on one stem.





And the tulips that look for all the world like mini peonies ~ my favorite flower.



Another key thing to note when ordering bulbs is that you need many bulbs. Multiples of say 25, 50, 100, or more - depending on the garden space. Don’t be shy. You need the quantity to make a visual impact. You won’t regret ordering the larger amount.

When planning your design and choosing your selections be mindful of the amount of sun and/or shade in the garden beds where you are planting.

Also consider that in the early to mid spring, the trees are not yet leafed out on the tall and understory so there is more light than you might think is there as you gaze out onto a late summer/early autumn landscape.

How to Plant Bulbs
Pay attention to your soil. If you don’t know what kind of soil you have, do a soil test. I can help you with this. Soil is paramount to every planting!

Flower bulbs need to be planted in a neutral pH soil. That means no acidic or soil amendments, according to John Scheepers.

As I’ve noted, you can’t order enough quantity of bulbs.

For me and my clients I do a landscape design rendering in order to determine the quantity for the space. I take into account the spacing and the time of bloom.



Generally speaking if you are doing it yourself, Scheepers recommends:
The square footage of a planting site is determined by multiplying the width by the length. For example, a bed that is 5' wide and 20' long would be 100 square feet, for which one would need 400 Tulip bulbs. If there is other plant material in the planting site, you can estimate the space involved and decrease the square footage proportionately.

And don’t separate the bublets from the Mother!

I’m often asked, which end is up when planting. The Pros’ answer:
Place each bulb firmly in the soil with the pointed end up, and the basal plate, or root base, down. The general rule of thumb is to cover the top of each Tulip bulb with 3" to 4" of soil.

Me and my team of horticulturists add cayenne pepper to the plantings in the fall to deter critters from digging up and again in the spring to deter the rabbits from munching on these delectable beauties. I learned this horticultural tip from the scion of the Tabasco family!

These are a Few of my Favorite Bulbs
I am forever smitten with the tall, globe alliums. It’s an enduring love affair! In blue, purple, and white. A favorite garden design client and her family refer to them as puff balls. Indeed.






I love them from the time they begin to emerge:


right through their rather Sputnik-looking spent and dried stage.

Use many of the spring blooms fresh and dried in cut flower arrangements (I know, I know - it’s so hard to cut these beauties from the garden!) as part of your tablescape.







You can also use spring bulb petals as garnishes in your cocktails.

This past spring, I showcased how to use tulip petals, for example, as a pretty and delicious garden-to-glass garnish on my weekly Garden Glamour cocktail parties as part of a salute to my book, Art of the Garnish and a sheltering in place (SIP) coronavirus pivot. The tulip petals taste not unlike a sweet onion, not surprisingly.




I also am drawn to the bulbs that have their own fashion extras, such as dots or a contrasting, two-tone color. Many emerge one shade and then like a chameleon, transform into another shade. Fascinating performances.


















In terms of height, place the taller bulbs in the back of the bed and tier the shorter ones to the front.

Here, is a spring bulb composition I designed for a favorite garden client, Gigi and Ted:

Early spring and later spring:




Notice the colors and the structure.

Remember to select bulbs that not only look good with the other bulbs but also complement the flowering spring shrubs. Here, the tulips work so swell with the viburnum and the pink petals from the Kwanzan cherry tree!



And white lights up the garden and plays so well with all the other plant companions.


I can’t resist the frilly Parrot tulips. Look at this seasonal cloak as it comes up

and then later - is so glamorous when flat out pooped from the gala!


Take your time to truly enjoy your spring garden. Look here how Gina & Ted set out a happy yellow table to sit at and perhaps sip some spring wine or a cup of coffee there for an immersive garden experience.

And to punch up the interest around tree beds, use the Muscari or grape hyacinth with abandon. They are small but mighty when it comes to color - blue, periwinkle, purple, raspberry, white, plus two-toned. And their greens pop back up in the autumn! What a loyal acrobatic performer.


I chose Muscari armeniacum to underplant under trees - using the Delft Blue shades of light blue to purple.

Plan your garden design now for a spectacular spring blossom show. Order your selections right away.

Hopefully I’ve inspired you to create and/or add to your bulb garden planting.

I order most all of the bulbs for me and my clients from the very reputable John Scheepers Bulb Company ~ a family owned company for more than a century.

They not only offer superior bulbs but their customer service is second to none.

This past spring the CEO of the company called me personally not once but twice to address a question and issue ~ and took care of the resolution, as well. You don’t find that very often… Their bulbs are clean and beautiful.

I do need to source other suppliers when Scheepers is out of stock (see above) and have found some good sources on Etsy. Gotta be plucky as a garden designer in these times.

If you would like to receive my spring garden bulb plant lists I researched and designed for me and my clients, I’d be happy to share with you. Just email me or request here and I will provide it to you.

Truly ~ Garden Glamour.