This morning's walk with the dog led to the local garden centre, where I searched for greenery for the Christmas holiday window planters. The selection was extremely underwhelming. Luckily, there was more than enough in my own garden to make up for it.
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| Empty window planters waiting for a seasonal touch |
Having a yew means always having enough greenery to build a solid backdrop for your winter planter. Yew is very hardy. A few snips now to steal away some branches will mean the shrub will just come back better in spring.
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The dark green needles of yew make
an excellent background for a window planter |
I made two purchases at the garden centre: boxwood and winterberry branches. Boxwood provides a nice, light-green contrast to the dark green of the yew. The berries provide the eye-catching pop of red that makes a window planter scream "festive", "holidays", and "Christmas". I hope one day that my Ilex verticillata "Red Sprite" Winterberry produces more berries than it does. Until that day, I'll have to supplement with purchased branches. |
Boxwood stays evergreen and provides
a contrast to the dark green of yew |
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The eye-catching red of berries is a must
for a holiday window planter |
Because fresh, berry-laden branches can be quite expensive, I added a branch of fake decorative berries (I pull it out of basement storage every holiday season) to add a little more colour. |
From a distance, no one will ever know
that these berries are fake |
Like yew, euonymus is a shrub that just keeps on giving. I cut a few branches from a shrub that has been growing in my garden for twenty-three years. I chose branches that best showed off the orange berries that appear each fall. |
| Some orange berries to go with the red |
I don't particularly have a designer's eye, but I find a foolproof method of creating a successful window box planter is volume. The more, the better. I put the yew, boxwood, winterberries, and euonymus in the box in as pleasing a way as I could. Then, I grabbed some smaller bits of yew and filled in all the empty spaces. The result is pleasing, if I do say so myself.  |
| Holiday window planter looking festive |
Years ago, I hired a garden and landscape company to create festive planters to welcome Christmas and to add a touch of colour through the bleak winter months. Thanks to an abundance of evergreens in my own garden, I can now create these festive seasonal decorations on my own and at a fraction of the cost. |
| Ready for the holidays and winter |
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Holidays to you and yours.
Most important (in my humble opinion)—Happy Gardening!
