Decorate your home with the glories of your garden this Easter
In a few short years, Easter decor has boomed. At John Lewis, customers are shopping earlier and more fervently than ever before. Sales of Easter decorations have almost tripled compared with figures from 2022, and sales of garlands are up 500 per cent this year. Wreaths, baskets and tabletop decorations are not far behind. At the party decor firm Meri Meri it’s a similar story; since launching in 2019 it has doubled its seasonal offering and sales of Easter products have grown tenfold.
But Easter decorations don’t have to be artificial: this is also the most wonderful time of the year to decorate using plants. “During the pandemic, Easter – and the start of spring – became a reason to decorate and celebrate,” says Liz Mobbs, founder of the Southwold Flower Company.
It’s an idea that has stuck. Like many florists, she has now introduced spring wreath workshops (hers sold out in a week). There are similar workshops up and down the country.
At the start of April, with abundant emerging foliage, spring blossom and bulbs, it’s easy to create your own magical adornments that are both beautiful and sustainable, bringing some of the spring joy of the garden right up close to the house with living wreaths, kokedama bulbs and outdoor arrangements. And you can find everything you need close to home.
“Early spring can yield treasure by foraging from your own garden and nearby hedgerows,” says flower grower Gillie Shaw, who along with Fi Dykes runs the Hampshire-based florist Hortus Poeticus. “If you really look with a completely open mind it is just wonderful what you can find. The relative sparseness of flowers at the moment, far from being difficult, is a blessing.” In an arrangement, says Shaw, fewer flowers can mean a better overall effect. “There’s more empty, negative space around them and nothing enhances flowers more. So we see this time of year as a time of opportunity, not want.”
No matter what size garden you have, there is treasure to be found – the zingy green of emerging leaves or blossom buds about to spring open make the perfect foil for spring’s prettiest bulbs and flowers. In this spirit it’s time to cut some branches and dig up some bulbs. Or buy small pots of small spring bulbs (narcissi, muscari, scillas, frittilaria, primroses), which are easy to find in garden centres and local shops.
An outdoor display
By mixing up flowering plants with cut stems and branches, you can create pretty outdoor displays to greet Easter visitors. At Hortus Poeticus, this gathering of everything close to hand is second nature. “We love an arrangement outside our kitchen or sitting-room windows, so you see it a lot from the inside too,” says founder Gillie Shaw.
Using mismatched urns, pots and jars, Gillie and Fi make a living arrangement. They use their own bulbs and primroses dug up from the garden (all of which can be replanted once the flowers are spent) along with a few primroses from a local plant centre, which can also be added to the garden at a later date. They cut blossoming branches – wild hawthorn, early prunus (which is one of their specialities), as well as honeysuckle, raspberry, amelanchier, early rose foliage, and finally some cut flowers. “Enjoy playing with scale,” advises Gillie. “This time of the season is all about the tiny treasures and the great arching stems of shrubs and trees.”
Step-by-step: Make your own living spring wreath
1. “Just use everything that’s out right now,” says Liz Mobbs of her living spring wreath, which is packed with spring blooms to create the prettiest welcome for Easter visitors. She begins with a vine wreath base (which is not only compostable but will also help create a substantial base for the flowers and bulbs) and securely knots the end of the twine around it (the twine will be used in one continuous piece to secure everything). Start with handfuls of moss all the way around the wreath, wrapping the twine tightly around each clump as you go to secure it to the base.
2. Take a small clump of bulbs, or just one bulb – if you use them in the green, the flowers will slowly emerge while your wreath is in situ – and wrap the rootball and soil in a handful of damp moss, then secure this clump on to the wreath. “This is the trickiest bit, so take time to get them in the right place,” says Liz. The soil around the bulbs, along with the damp moss, will keep the bulbs moist. Continue adding clumps of bulbs until you feel you have enough on the wreath, being mindful of the overall weight. This is why she cautions against using anything with a substantial root system such as hellebores, which become too heavy and bulky once they are wrapped in the moss.
3. Next, take small sprigs (around 10-15cm long) of foliage (flowering viburnum or daphne, euonymus, brachyglottis or choisya) and continue tying these in around the bulbs. Tuck the ends into the moss or cover them with more foliage as you go.
4. Then, if you have some, push some pussy willow branches or blossom branches into the moss. “Make it look loose and go with the way the stems go, curving around the wreath,” says Liz. “The leaves or blossom will start to open while the wreath is hanging.”
5. Finally, if you like, add decorative eggs and feathers with a dab of glue. The beauty of the mossed base is that you can decorate as much or as little of the wreath as you choose – leaving a large area of the moss base unadorned creates a more naturalistic design. To hang, Liz suggests keeping it simple with twine. Ensure that the moss is kept damp. In warmer temperatures the wreath will need to be spritzed with water daily or lightly soaked to keep the plants hydrated.
