30 Festive Winter Arrangements

For this Western take on a holiday standby, bend three pliable curly willow tips into a circle and wire the ends together. Weave two more willow tips through them, then wire all twigs together in several places. Tuck in eucalyptus clippings and tillandsias. Set on a table, or wire everything into place and hang.

Tip: Place tillandsias so they hide the wreath’s wire.

Design: Amoreena Herbage of Seattle's Midnight Blossom floral shop (midnightblossom.com)

Small jars of dusty miller foliage and Brunia laevis berries make frosty-looking place settings.

Design: Amoreena Herbage of Seattle's Midnight Blossom floral shop (midnightblossom.com)

To create this oversize arrangement, bunch together silver tree branches (Leucadendron argenteum) with tightly coiled fern fronds and Brunia laevis sprigs with white berries. Finish with an African mask leaf (Alocasia x amazonica).

Tip: Keep stem ends steady in a layer of sand.

Design: Amoreena Herbage of Seattle's Midnight Blossom floral shop (midnightblossom.com)

For an entryway decoration that’s almost as easy as hanging your coat, tie together bunches of silver dollar tree (Eucalyptus cinerea) and silver tree (Leucadendron argenteum) with twine. Add a Tillandsia xerographica as a velvety bow and hang from a hook.

Tip: Hang swags in unexpected spaces, like on a porch.

Design: Amoreena Herbage of Seattle's Midnight Blossom floral shop (midnightblossom.com)

Arranged together on a tray with a glass cloche, even humble twigs and stones become art. Mix various textures and heights to keep the display interesting. This one includes a river rock, a trough of bark holding a tumbleweed twig, thyme in a wooden planter, and a pinecone on a bed of moss.

Get the look: Cheese board (similar to one shown, $89; williams-sonoma.com); glass cloche (8 in. high, $15; potterybarn.com); aubergine grasscloth placemats ($5.95 each; crateandbarrel.com)

Sure, it’s what’s inside that counts, but fresh gift toppers make the presentation unforgettable too. Just tuck bouquets of houseplant leaves (like peperomia and pilea), juniper, and silver tree leaves under ribbon, or glue fern curls and lichens right onto packages.

Tip: Use floral glue to adhere without ribbon; it dries clear.

Design: Amoreena Herbage of Seattle's Midnight Blossom floral shop (midnightblossom.com)

Use tree trimmings, sprigs, moss-covered twigs, and seedpods, to elevate your gift-giving game.

You’ll need

• Scissors and pruning snips
• Three branches, 12 to 14 inches long, for each large wreath. For smaller wreaths use two
• 12- to 14-inch pieces. (Alternatives include cedar, bay leaf, and rosemary.)
• Twine
• Winterberries, pinecones, acorns, and moss (optional)

Steps

1. Lay the branches end to end, overlapping the ends by 1 to 2 inches, and tie ends together with a piece of twine.
2. Form a circle, allowing the needles to feather out. Tie with twine.
3. Build a small bouquet of berries, acorns, and moss. Tie with twine and fasten to wreath.
4. Use twine to tether the wreath to the gift.

As festive as an evergreen bough but less expected, a cypress-tree door decoration will see you through the holidays and beyond. Set a potted mini cypress on a plastic saucer, wrap in a burlap bag, and nail the drawstring to your door (adding a twig of barberry if you like). Keep the tree well watered, and plant it at the end of the season.

Get the look: Natural burlap round-bottom bag (3 in. high, $8.88/10 bags; papermart.com)

When cut to the length of your dining table, a piece of weathered barn wood can function as a runner (no ironing required). Use the plank as a stage for seasonal produce, such as plums, pears, apples, figs, and pattypan squash. Weave crabapple branches throughout for added texture, and stagger candles nestled in pebble-filled votive holders for ambience.

Get the look: Barn wood (from $5.95/ft.; old-barn-wood.com); Galej tea-light holders ($1.99/4 holders; ikea.com for store locations)

A bar is more than a place to mix a drink—it’s a decorating opportunity. Freshen it up by repurposing empty bottles as vases for vibrant cuttings, such as amaranth (near right) and variegated barberry. Wooden pedestals resembling tree stumps create different levels of display within the bar, and a lamp shows off the scene in the evening.

Get the look: Tava rattan tray (20 in. wide, $49; potterybarn.com); Wedge acacia servers ($22 each; crateandbarrel.com)

This wreath is made from “bits and bits” of items picked up while walking after a big storm. Pine, fir, rosemary, magnolia leaves, succulents, and berries are wrapped into the wreath.

Tip: Supplement the wreath with items found at a floral market, then follow our complete wreath-making directions.

Use a piece of found driftwood as a rustic backdrop to moss, small evergreens, and succulents.

Tip: Fill crevices in the driftwood with enough soil to anchor your plant tableau firmly.

In a season that’s often predictable, mix it up with a rosemary-nest place setting and ​a centerpiece of forest finds (take care with wild mushrooms; many are poisonous). ​

Tip: Rosemary stalks should be long and tender enough to curve into a bowl shape. Add kumquats for a splash of color.

Recycle a wooden crate into a front-porch planter box; for a statement, use plants of differing heights. This arrangement includes fruiting citrus, lavender, rosemary, and large and small succulents.

Tip: Before planting, arrange plants still in their pots to see if the symmetry works.

Instead of decking the halls with boughs, use felled branches to make your own right-size Christmas tree. Buy a piece of cone-shaped floral foam and insert branches. Once the tree looks full enough, add succulents, berries, and leaves. Ornaments not needed. ​

Tip: Water greens daily to keep them look­-ing fresh. save-on-crafts.com/foamcones.html is a good source for foam cones.

Shown at left:

1. lavender
2. wild mushroom
3. magnolia leaf
4. kumquat
5. echeveria
6. birch twig
7. pine
8. berzelia
9. berzelia
10. sequoia
11. juniper
12. rosemary
13. echeveria
14. juniper
15. privet

12 other items we love to forage:

• bamboo
• berries (try coffeeberry or Pyracantha)
• cactus
• chestnuts
• cotoneaster
• dried chile peppers
• eucalyptus
• heather
• manzanita branches
• pinecones
• rose hips (from unpruned rosebushes)
• seed tassels from grasses like Miscanthus or Pennisetum

This 2-foot-long snowy white ceramic “canoe pot” from Bauer Pottery Company (888/213-0800) is a mere 4 inches tall. The low profile won’t block guests’ views.

Select plants with foliage that looks as if it’s dusted with snow.

Tuck stems topped with silvery buds―such as leucadendron buds―or white flowers into the foliage, spreading them along the vase’s length.

Bigger photo and more details

Vases of varying heights contain conifer sprigs sitting in an inch of water.

Strips of inch-wide paper ribbon (secured with double-sided tape) wrap the cylinders and serve as plant labels. White votives add soft lighting behind.

Show off a vibrant mix of berries, seeded eucalyptus, and flowers in a pedestal bowl.

When arranging, think triangles: Start by sticking three of the heavier branches into the bowl at an angle and evenly spacing them, then continue layering branches within this frame, turning the bowl as you work and interspersing smaller sprigs for balance.

We used blackberry cuttings, grape hyacinth (Muscari), nandina berries and leaves, red viburnum, [urplish Viburnum tinus, and seeded eucalyptus.

Anchor heavier branches by loosely tying together their stem ends with a piece of twine.

Champagne flutes and evergreen sprigs form a centerpiece when interspersed with forest green tea lights in clear votive holders.

Prunings from some junipers stay fresh for a month or more in water. Other short-needled conifers for this use include Arizona cypress, Atlas cedar, Douglas fir, and noble fir.

Violet anemone and hyacinth blooms, seeded eucalyptus, and green winter berries are displayed like rare specimens in bell jars below a wreath. The large glass-cloche terrariums are from Campo de’ Fiori (from $147; campodefiori.com for stores). We used anemone, berzilia, hyacinth, pepperberry, seeded eucalyptus, and Viburnum tinus.

"Small, white-flowered arrangements are like little snow bouquets indoors," says floral designer Kate Holt.

"I like to place them all around the house for a more intimate kind of welcome. Also, using vessels like sugar bowls or silver creamers feels much cozier than a generic vase."

Here, narcissus blooms, commonly available at florist shops in winter, join berzelia berries in a pewter creamer.

White cyclamen appear to flutter above silvery dusty-miller foliage and eucalyptus pods. Arrange the woody pieces in a triangle ― one stem to the right, one to the left, and one across ― then tuck in flowers.

Jewel-tone vases highlight these fragrant, sumptuous roses.

Anemones nestle among juniper branches in a vintage sugar bowl.

White ranunculus look extra-snowy against a cream-colored container.

The arrangement shares space with candy dishes ceramic pots and other pieces that Holt uses as vases.

A row of white lanterns and vintage red sap buckets adds spark to the entryway. Protect a non-watertight container by dropping in a small plastic container (an empty yogurt tub works well).

What we used

• Geraldton waxflower

Style tip
To maximize the life of your bouquets, clip 1 inch off stems before putting them in water

A row of white lanterns and vintage red sap buckets adds spark to the entryway. Protect a non-watertight container by dropping in a small plastic container (an empty yogurt tub works well).

What we used

• Geraldton waxflower

Style tip
To maximize the life of your bouquets, clip 1 inch off stems before putting them in water

Plain white acrylic paint and a small foam brush are all you need to transform a pile of humble pinecones into a snowy centerpiece that will be welcome this hectic season.

Just touch the tips of the pinecones with the brush, let the paint dry, then place the cones in a simple white bowl.