Children's Garden Club
Holiday Plants & Decorating
Sherwood's Forest

Today, Dave and I would like to wish you all the very best for the Holiday Season!!! At this holiday season there are many options of things to do and projects to make and which plant you want to give as gifts or receive.

Our enjoyment of all the holidays throughout the year has December as the grand climax with all stops pulled. We do deck the halls with boughs of holly - Tis the season to be jolly, we all get dressed in gay apparel. The landings dressed in bows, all the malls are filled with shoppers and the station bustling too. Chestnuts roasting, a turkey and some mistletoe help make the season bright. Christmas caroling, holiday baking, entertaining, decorating, and a visit to the Winter Wonderland at St. Louis County's Tilles Park, McKnight & Litzsinger Roads, all are part of the Holidays.

This year Dave has selected as his gift to you, a Christmas Cactus. Does anyone know where the Christmas Cactus is native….meaning the Country where it came from originally...Bolivia.

You can decorate using evergreens, plants, herbs, and fresh flowers, blending their colors and textures. You need to remember texture, contrast, compliments, tones, fragrance, and Christmas colors or combining the colors of your room with the season greens - traditional holly with red berries or variegated holly, balsam fir, noble fir, Douglas fir, silver fir, Fraser firs - all have their own color of green or blue-green or silver-green or the white pine for its long needle airy feel. Incense cedar, or regional juniper with berries, hemlock and boxwood. Also to be considered is the magnolia and eucalyptus, red berry hawthorn, with twig for the natural look. There are so many extras to work with such as a wide range of cones, hemlock, red spruce, white spruce, sugar cone, lodge pole cones, white pine, Norway spruce, Jeffrey, Ponderosa.

The use of herbs are a natural grown outdoors mixed with the Eucalyptus for example the Artemisia ASilver King grown by many St. Louis gardeners mix with some holly, boxwood, apples, orange and of course the pineapple (the symbol of welcome), can enhance any entry or porch gable. For added touch buy some pomegranates keep some natural, and/or spray the other gold.

Other herbs that add to a wreath or swag are sage, lavender, thyme, lamb's ears - for a rustic or country effect, combine a sunflower, ears of corn, wheat, holly, white pine or cedar, barley, millet, some white birch branches and a bow makes a great lamp or back yard swag or wreath for holiday cheer and feeding the birds at the same time. Any and all acorns, nuts, berries, unique twigs can be incorporated into your interior or exterior magic holiday spirit of your own.

A project that is also fun is that of taking Sweet Gum balls and making them into ornaments. (See example). Take a Sweet Gum ball, take a toothpick and dip into glue and put into holes through the ball. You now have a star, dip into paint or spray paint and then if you wish (recommended) put glitter over the paint.

Another larger project is that of making a wreath from greens from your yard or from a garden center. This is a very personal thing of your own likes.

Many families have different traditions. Some go out the weekend of or after Thanksgiving to cup down their own tree.

Many natural traditions are recycling - a Scandinavian tradition of hanging a -Jule Neg - bundles for the birds. In Norway at harvest time several of the best bundles of grain were stored in a special place until Christmas Eve. When the long-anticipated time for us/children/and birds/wildlife were also given a gold sheaf of grain securely attached to a pole outdoors and were called AJule Neg which means a Christmas bundle. Now this loving custom has been revived with fall/harvest time and makes a great gift to give or receive or use a gift for your Thanksgiving hostess, the reason for Thanksgiving and general remembrance of the upcoming holiday season of giving to all including our feathered friends.

Another tradition is that of having Mistletoe for friendship and love. The reason you see it many Pines with fake/plastic berries is they are poisonous. So, if you are out in the County, beware of the berries...such as a Mistletoe.

I think the most common plant of the Christmas Holiday season is the Poinsettia.

Since 1919 stories unconfirmed circulated about the Poinsettia - according to the tale, a 2 year-old child of an army officer stationed in Hawaii died from eating a Poinsettia bract. There was never any medical documentation to back up this story. After years of testing the Poinsettia was exonerated as a poisonous plant. In December 19, 1975, a commission issued a statement denying (the tale of poisonous plant) the petition to require caution labeling. But, as with many plants may cause varying degrees of discomfort if eaten and of course should be kept/placed out of reach of small children.

With this being the Holiday Season, and one of the traditions is that of showing your appreciation, friendship, love for someone is by giving a gift. We need to thank Dave Sherwood for all he has done throughout the year, but especially for the Norfolk Island Pine plants he has for each of you.