Robert Waite - Decorating with Evergreens

Decorating with Evergreens

Robert Waite

Photographs by Zac Williams

Decorating with Evergreens

Digital Edition 1.0

Text 2011 Robert Waite

Photographs 2011 Zac Williams

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portions quoted for purpose of review.

Gibbs Smith

P.O. Box 667

Layton, Utah 84041

Orders: 1.800.835.4993

www.gibbs-smith.com

ISBN: 978-1-4236-2251-2

To LeAnn Arave and Anita Heaston for their invaluable help and their creative talents. And to my beloved Rocky, my feline friend who brought such joy into my life.

Nothing says holidays like decorating with live evergreens.

This book will inspire you to celebrate the holidays in all their glory with the look and fragrance of evergreens. You will learn to combine different kinds of greenery including fir boughs, princess pine, juniper, and cedar to bring the holidays home. Whether it is a beautiful wreath for your front door, a magnificent centerpiece for your holiday table, or the Christmas tree by the fireplace, evergreens bring an ambiance and sense of celebration to the occasion. Their fragrance says holidays in a way nothing else can, and the live greenery in the midst of cold winter adds warmth and cheer and a hope for green growing things.

Author Robert Waite, owner of Designer Associates, shares his secrets of combining fresh flowers, fruit, and live greenery to create beautiful wreaths, swags, garlands, centerpieces, and more. These unexpected pieces incorporate juniper berries, fresh pomegranates, holly, ribbons, lotus pods, clementine oranges, pinecones, and wire spirals to create just the look and feel needed for each setting.

Designer Associates Floral is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream of the owner and designer, Robert Waite. Visitors to this shop can quickly sense his unique style of doing business.

The front window boxes are changed several times a year to reflect the seasons and add a welcoming touch to this quaint little shop.

Waites style is organic and inspired from the local and seasonal things at hand. He may include ivy from his backyard, sheaths of wheat from a nearby field, or crabapples from a neighbors tree. Vases, pots, baskets, and unusual containers of all kinds help shape the arrangements. An old fishing creel or an antique milk pitcher lend their own unique style to a piece. His work and style encourages you to celebrate the slight imperfections and asymmetry in nature that allow the natural beauty to shine through. These arrangements show how different textures, weights, colors, and shapes can combine to create a feel from formal to casual, from cheery to reverent. All the arrangements evoke a sense of home and tradition, of holiday celebration, of joy and good will.

From antique ornaments to elaborate ribbons, from artichokes to fresh roses and berries, these beautiful, unusual arrangements will inspire and impress you. Bring the lushness of evergreens into your home for the holidays.

Inside Designer Associates you will find an eclectic mix of memorabilia and all the requirements of a working flower shop in a minimum of space. During the holidays the traditional Christmas box comes out. The box contains odds and ends that reflect the holiday themes waiting to be implemented into many arrangements.

A beautiful Jingle Bell poinsettia blossoms next to other fresh greenery and flower accents in this beautiful centerpiece.

Counters laden with a variety of floral arrangements awaiting delivery to the beautiful homes in the area, where they will add color and fragrances to the festive holiday dcor.

Evergreens, fresh flowers, gourds, seed pods, pinecones, sticks, and berries are but a few of the items that might spark an idea for an arrangement.

Wreaths are one of the simplest of creations that can make a focal point of hospitality for a home. To hang a wreath on a door or house front is a warm and welcoming sign to greet both friends and family. Wreaths make a kind of bulls-eye for putting your home on the neighborhood map of friendliness. We hope that some of the ideas shown in this section will help inspire you as you begin your holiday decorating.

A wide variety of evergreens can be used to create unforgettable wreaths, which are so hearty they can survive harsh winters. Evergreen wreaths hanging outside in winter weather should last months and never need watering. Contrast that to an indoor Christmas tree that must be watered and will only survive weeks. In fact, evergreen wreaths hanging outside in cold weather will likely last longer than its owners may even want them too. They will probably outlive their welcome, as the seasons change.

This grapevine wreath is in its simplest form, highlighted by a few evergreens and a whimsical polka-dot bow. Add some glass balls and you have an easy-to-make wreath.

Did someone say Mardi Gras? A grapevine wreath can be dressed up for any occasion. With a little bit of glitz and bling you are ready for the party to begin!

Some people dont like the idea of holiday decorating before Halloween. But you can start looking around for items that you will be able to use in your holiday decorations ahead of the season. Keep your eyes open all year long, in fact. Have you ever heard of Christmas in July? There are many plants and flowers that you can pick in the summer and fall, and then hang them up to dry. Yarrow, statice, rose hips, pyracantha, sunflower pods, and black-eyed susan pods are just a few of numerous options. You need only to look right outside your door. A quick trip to the grocery store will provide nuts and fruits to give your creation color and interest. Some fruits can be sliced and dried, others give character just dried and shriveled.

The variety of greens you can use in arrangements is numerous as well. Fir, balsam, juniper, pine, and cedar are great standbys, as well as things like boxwood, magnolia, holly, eucalyptus, and salal, which can make great accents. We encourage you to use a combination of these materials in traditional and nontraditional ways.