At this time of year, a lot of our thoughts centre around the forthcoming festivities; presents, food and decorating. Although the main event revolves around the Christmas tree, it’s also wonderful to decorate the front door, hallway, and more. So why not grow your own festive foliage?
There’s a huge choice of evergreen shrubs and trees. Some produce berries and fruit, as well as dried perennial seed heads to choose from. Here is a selection that will make welcome additions to your garden for year-round interest. Plus, they can have stems cut from them to decorate the house without destroying its overall shape.
Light bright evergreen festive foliage
Holly
Starting with the famous Christmas carol, ‘The Holly and the Ivy’, both make great additions to wreaths and table decorations. Holly is a classic favourite amongst festive foliage options. And choosing variegated cultivars of each will also brighten dark spaces both inside the house and in the garden.
Ilex ‘Argenteo Marginata’ is a large, slow-growing evergreen with broad, spiky leaves edged in silvery white. Once established it also produces many red berries (provided there’s a male holly tree nearby). This makes it exceptional for both wreaths and centre-of-table decorations. It’s very tolerant of pollution and salt air and will therefore grow well in urban and coastal gardens. Position either in full sun or part shade. Its ultimate height and spread is 15m x 4m!
Ivy
A very pretty leaf ivy is fast growing, Hedera helix ‘Clotted Cream’. The frilly leaves are a light shade of grey-green, with a creamy white delicate edging.
Ideal for growing up pergolas, fences or walls reaching an ultimate height of 3m, it should survive the coldest winters. Long-cut lengths woven in between the spindles of a staircase or draped across the top of door frames create immediate impact.
Photinia
For a cheerful burst of red colour in displays consider easy-to-grow Photinia x fraseri ‘Red Robin’. Which, as its name suggests, produces bright red, shiny young leaves, a cluster of which will look stunning in a vase and/or included in a wreath.
With an average height and spread of 4m, it’s often planted as a hedge and can be trained into other strong shapes. Pruning the tops of established plants in spring, removing about 15cm, will encourage a profusion of bright red new leaves.
Spruce
Continuing the light, ‘Narnia’ theme, some conifers have wonderful silvery-blue needles. Such as the Colorado Spruce, Picea pungens (Glauca Group) ‘Hoopsii’, bringing brightness to table decorations as well as wreaths.
It’s a slow-growing conifer with a narrow, conical shape making it ideal for the smaller garden.
Juniper
Another easy-to-grow blue foliage conifer is the upright Juniperus scopulorum ‘Skyrocket’. Elegant with a narrow, upright growth habit, it grows best in full sun and needs free-draining soil as it won’t tolerate soggy ground.
However, other than that, will grow well in most soil types and, once established, is extremely drought tolerant.
Dark evergreen festive foliage
The choice is vast!
Aromatic foliage
Include plants with aromatic leaves like bay, rosemary and eucalyptus. Don’t be frightened by the height that some eucalyptus trees such as Eucalyptus gunni, can reach! Cutting the crown regularly will keep the size of the most fast-growing cultivars in check.
There are also much smaller eucalyptus that can also be grown in containers. Such as the dwarf alpine snow gum, E. p. niphophila ‘Mount Bogong’. Its white bark makes it a wonderful choice for the winter garden.
Berries
Many shrubs and some trees produce different colour berries in the autumn.
Pyracantha
Pyracantha is a thorny evergreen with cultivars producing the following-coloured berries:
- ‘Red Column’ producing, as the name suggests, red berries
- ’Saphyr Jaune’ yellow berries
- ‘Orange Glow’ orange berries
Each can be grown as either a free-standing shrub or trained against a wall. Loved by birds, they make a great addition to wildlife gardens whilst providing colourful decorations for the table and/or wreaths.
Holly
Several hollies produce berries including our native holly, Ilex aquifolium. Remember berries are produced on female holly trees.
So, the majority need a male holly tree nearby to achieve successful pollination and ultimate berry formation. However, a few hollies are self-pollinating such as Ilex aquifolium ‘J C van Tol’.
Skimmia
Female forms of Skimmia such as Skimmia japonica ‘Reevesiana’, develop closely packed clusters of red berries in the autumn. These often last well into winter.
To ensure the best crop of berries plant a male cultivar such as S. ‘Kew Green’ nearby. Both have neat growth habits and can be grown successfully in containers.
Cotoneaster
Some of the best, long-lasting berries, can be found on the plant Cotoneaster franchetii.
This is an evergreen shrub with orange berries and arching stems covered with grey-green leaves which have a silvery underside. Perfect for festive foliage. The spring flowers are much loved by bees.
Fruit
Crab apples produce their fruit during the autumn months which last into the winter. The colours are mainly red and yellow/orange with sizes ranging from 0.5cm to 4.0cm.
‘Evereste’ is a popular, red fruit cultivar but be warned, the birds love them too. And they tend to take them ahead of their yellow cousins such as ‘Comtesse de Paris’ and ‘Golden Hornet’. If you’re keen to grow this cultivar, tie a small, porous bag over a cluster of fruit. Do this as they first ripen in autumn to stop the birds from taking them.
Crab apples are an ideal choice for the small to medium-sized garden and delight with pretty white/pastel colour spring blossom.
Technically rose hips are fruit and there are many different types available to choose from. If you have the space for a large rose then the hips of Rosa ‘Kiftsgate’, produced on long stems, look like bunches of fireworks. The festive foliage they provide is an added bonus.
Dried seedheads
Dried flowers are extremely popular now, not least because they represent a sustainable alternative to imported flowers. Whilst they may not technically be festive foliage, they do add some architectural interest to your displays.
Hydrangea is particularly suitable for wreaths and mantlepiece displays as the flowers of many cultivars retain a faded colour. The luminous white/grey shades of honesty (Lunaria) and old man’s beard (Clematis vitalba) seed heads perfectly capture the essence of winter interior displays.
Many allium seed heads work well in wreaths and mantlepiece displays. Try rounded seed heads of cultivars such as A. ‘Globemaster’, or A. cristophii.
Dried bracken, love in a mist, sea holly, and globe artichoke seedheads are other choices for sustainable dried flower wreaths.
Find a use for your festive foliage in a Christmas wreath:
Or check out my Pinterest board for more ideas:
David Domoney is a Chartered Horticulturalist, Broadcaster, and Author. David has worked with a number of the UK’s leading garden retailers as a plant buyer and strategic consultant. With more than 30 years experience, in horticulture, David is as passionate about plants now as he was when he bought his first plant at a village fete.
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