This year I chose to decorate my winter planters using willow as the main material.
The planters at the back door each has 10 large branches of the curly willow, Salix x 'Red Corkscrew Willow' placed in the middle.
To complement the yellow and orange colours I made wreaths of Salix dasyclados and S. sachaliensis 'Sekka' and placed them on the edges of the planters.
It was easy and I like the look - although I might have added a few, small green branches had the soil not been frozen by the time I started to work on the planters - I was lucky to get the willow rods in place before the soil was too hard.
The low, black planters at the front door are filled with branches of Salix x 'Flame', a few S. sachaliensis 'Sekka' (Japanese Fantail willow), and "sprigs" of evergreens.
As we do not have Christmas lights on the house, we decided to wrap two very large wreaths and three big stars - made with fresh rods of Salix dasyclados - with strands of clear mini lights and hung them at the front of the house over the holiday. It looked great and I will have to take photos to show next year.
Salix x acutifolia is interesting with a white bloom on the dark wine coloured stems and I used it as decoration on my advendt wreath this year - looking beautiful along with light purple ribbons. As I made a couple of Christmas decorations for the table, I also added a few stems for interest.
It is the last day of 2010 and I wish you all a Happy New Year with good health and lots of laughter.
Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.
Posts
Godt Nytår Lene...Flotte piledekorationer du har lavet :D
ReplyDeleteDe er superflotte. Skøn kombination af dragepil og troldpil. Synes ikke det gør noget at der mangler grønt. Sneen giver lige det sidste :-)
ReplyDeleteOgså en rigtig god nytårsaften til jer samt alt godt for 2011. Det må have været dejligt, at have besøg af dit lille barnebarn, samt selvfølgelig forældrene.
ReplyDeleteHvor er de smukke enkle dekorationer du har lavet, Lene.
Hilsen fra Holland
Happy New Year, Lene. Good willowing in 2011!
ReplyDeleteYour planters look very nice and the willow branches add height to the display.
ReplyDeleteTak skal du have, Anne. Håber at du også er kommet godt ind i det nye år.
ReplyDeleteLene
Tak, Vivian. Ja, en smule sne fuldendte arrangementet. I dag har det regnet hele dagen, og vi har haft 9 graders varme, så al sneen er forsvundet heromkring. De lover dog frost og sne igen fra i morgen.
ReplyDeleteLene
Tak skal du have Annette, og godt nytår til dig i Holland!
ReplyDeleteDet var utroligt dejligt at have Sofie på 8 måneder her med sine forældre i nogle dage. Synd at du ikke kom til Danmark i julen; men jeg ved jo, at I af og til tager turen, så du gør det vel godt i det nye år?
Lene
Happy New Year Frances, and good willowing in 2011 to you too. I am off to a good start, as I will have you here for a few days in January - teaching me some weaving techniques.
ReplyDeleteLene
Thank you for your comment, Crafty Gardener!
ReplyDeleteSelvfølgelig skal 'Salix' da have dekorationer med salix ;-) De er meget søde.
ReplyDeleteRigtig godt nytår til dig også :-)
Ellen, du ser da også alle muligheder for at lege med ord.
ReplyDeleteLene
Det er rigtig flotte dekorationer, fin inspiration til mine påske dekorationer , jeg ved nemlig hvor jeg kan hente dragepil :-)
ReplyDeletehilsen
Birgitte
Tak skal du have, Birgitte. Du kunne jo plante et par stiklinge af dragepilen i din mark. Det tager ikke så meget plads (og jeg tror, at du har en rimelig stor mark), og så har du altid lidt til diverse pynt ved hånden.
ReplyDeleteLene
he he, jeg vil ikke nøjes med at plante et par kan jeg godt fortælle dig :-)
ReplyDeleteDer skal en hel række, for det er der nemlig plads til , og min svigerindes dragepile er mega volsom så dem kan jeg ikke klippe nok af ! :-)
Birgitte