Deck the wall with greens

Giving outdoor walls a festive look for the holidays is as easy as gathering greens from your garden. This striking arrangement is made with prunings from cotoneaster, deodar cedar, and juniper.

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We used a flat-backed terracotta wall planter (8 in. deep and 16 in. wide). The planter is securely mounted to a stucco wall with masonry screws. The greens are simply tucked into the planter. For a strong vertical punch, we placed several upright stems of gold-tipped juniper at the rear. As a horizontal accent, we added a few boughs of deodar cedar. We finished by tucking sprigs of berry-laden cotoneaster around the edges.

Even without water, the prunings lasted more than a week. Other good greens for fresh display include camellia, citrus, eucalyptus, holly, nandina, pine, pyracantha, red-wood, toyon, and Western red cedar.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Sunset Publishing Corp.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group