Making an Eco Friendly Christmas Wreath

There’s no doubt floristry is ‘getting greener’. I’ve been to find out how to make a Christmas wreath that’s kinder on the environment.

I’ve made my own Christmas wreath for many years, ever since I joined a charity fundraising workshop run by a mum at my children’s primary school and that’s a long time ago!

More recently, I’ve made wreaths with a friend either at classes run by local florist Hans Haverkamp or latterly picking up materials from him and assembling at home, a system brought in at the height of Covid.

New to Hans’ timetable of Christmas wreath classes this year is one for an eco friendly wreath – no plastic and using as many sustainable materials as possible. We decided to find out more.

The difference started from the first steps. These wreaths weren’t assembled on moss-covered rings – sphagnum moss is protected and eventually breaks down to form peat, helping to alleviate flooding and trapping carbon. Nor were we using rings made of compacted straw as these are, unfortunately, bound with nylon. Instead, we had to make our own by weaving pieces of willow, a sustainable crop from Somerset.

The willow was woven around a piece of copper, not entirely environmentally friendly, as Hans admitted, but necessary if the ring was to have some strength and not twist under the weight of foliage into an egg shape. The upside was that the copper can be reused for many years.

It proved to be the trickiest part of the whole process, despite Hans making it look easy. Still, I was pleased with the more or less round shape I managed to make.

Having all mastered making the ring, Hans went on to demonstrate the next stage of constructing our Christmas wreath. This stage was pretty much like previous years apart from one crucial element – we were using hemp twine instead of wire to fix the foliage onto the ring.

String doesn’t natually ‘bind’ the foliage to the ring in the same way as wire and we had to ensure that each piece was firmly anchored while not pulling so hard that the string broke and making sure it didn’t roll onto the floor where it quickly unravelled away from the table.

As with any wreath, the first thing to do is cut up all the foliage – a mix of different conifers, holly, and ivy – into smaller pieces. Grouping them in order of size also makes it easier to pick out bigger pieces for the outside of the ring and smaller for the inside – covering all around the ring is important to get a good result.

The beauty of doing a class in person rather than making a wreath at home is that Hans was on hand to offer advice, tackle bits you can’t manage – I found it impossible to get the string under a piece of willow to make a hook – and suggest ways of making the foliage perform to its best. We all found the holly prickly and difficult to place but Hans showed us an easy method of putting two pieces together to get a better effect.

Finally, when we were happy with the covering of foliage, it was time to add some decorations. In keeping with the eco friendly nature of the project, there were no baubles – although we were free to add them if we wanted. Instead, the decorations were all natural, including dried lotus flowers, cinnamon sticks, dried fruit slices and, of course, pine cones.

Naturally, Hans’ own finished wreath was beautiful and much fuller than the one I managed to assemble. I took heart though from his comment that making a Christmas wreath is the most technically challenging thing you can do in floristry.

I just need many more years of practice.

Hans runs regular workshops at his flower school at Twyning, Gloucestershire, and has more Christmas wreath classes this month. More information here.

You can read more of my plant and flower-related posts here.

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