Christmas Greens Arrangement, Centerpiece, Evergreen decorations

Light Green leaved Holly with berries at Christmas time

Dark Green leaved Holly with prettier shape and less berries

Time to decorate for Christmas dinner. I need a seasonal greens arrangement for the table. I keep in ribbons and glass bulbs for seasonal use, and I have many shrubs and trees in the yard to supply me with greens. Huge Holly trees and bushes occupy a very green prickly corner of the yard, and they yield a shocking display of red holly berries. One variety has yellow green ovoid leaves accompanying redder berries. The other variety has very dark green glossy green leaves and scanter red Holly berries. Its green color is fabulously rich and the berries are MUCH fewer on a frond.. Both of
these buggers are prickly and painful to work with, but they are the traditional greens of Christmas. I'm going to use a combination of these hollies and some other evergreens that turn up on my walk. I don't have an Camelias, I wish I did. They are blooming in friends yards throughout the region, and they would be a wonderful help here, Hopefully some cedar, yew and blue spruce will be within cutting reach, for a balanced arrangement.  I have an old green glass vase that will be perfect for the job of holding all these fronds.

Yew

I'll show you with photos what I have to work with.

Rosemary...great fragrance

Cedar frond

Holly with berries

Starting the arrangement with Yews

Now I am going to take the Yew, because it is pretty flat, and put it as the base of the arrangement. It will be easy to slip pieces in around these Yews, so they are a good starter. Please note that I have my other greens laying on the counter next to my work area, so I can visually and mentally project where I am going with this arrangement. Next I am going to put in the Hollies because their color is so central to the design, and the Cedar will slip in between the barbed Holly leaves. Be sure to remove the leaves or needles of any part of the plants that are going to be below water lever, or they will rot and contaminate your  arrangement and kill your greens.

adding Holly to yews in vase

Note removed leaves below water line of vase

things are shaping up

Progressing nicely towards shape, note the bluish Rosemary stalk



Its progressing nicely but it is pretty boring. I must have some design elements in the Christmas boxes. Voila!

I added a bow to add some pizzazz but it is overwhelming I am going
to have to go back to the drawing board on this one and reconsider its position

Better, but ribbon placement is really not
working...its overwhelming and it  needs to be
adjusted

Not too bad, maybe it needs a little bit
more fussing to be just right

Please note that in the first finished arrangement photo I tied the bow to the vase with a very thin wire. It did not adhere well and was visible. I would normally attach this florist's bow to a stick to put into the vase but I didn't have one on hand. I improvised by using a straw and it worked fine. My alternatives were chop sticks and a plastic spatula...but the straw did the trick. Any port in a storm when you want to get something done!