At a glance
A handmade Christmas wreath costs almost nothing if you have a garden – holly, ivy, bay, eucalyptus, rosemary and conifer all make excellent wreath foliage and most UK gardens have at least two or three of them available in December. The materials you actually need to buy are minimal: a wire wreath frame, a reel of stub wire and perhaps some ribbon. Everything else comes from outside. The result, reliably, is better than anything available to buy at the same price.
The technique itself is straightforward. A wreath is built by wiring small bundles of foliage onto a frame, working consistently in one direction until the frame is covered. There is no special skill required, only patience and a willingness to keep the bundle sizes consistent. The first wreath anyone makes always looks good. By the third or fourth, the process becomes genuinely quick.
Choosing your foliage
The best wreaths use a mix of three to five different foliage types – a base foliage that provides bulk and covers the frame, one or two textural contrasts, and something with berries or natural colour for interest. In a UK garden in December the range of available material is wider than most people realise, and the effort of gathering it from the garden is part of what makes wreath making satisfying rather than something done entirely from a shop.
When cutting foliage from the garden, take stems of 15-20cm length and cut cleanly just above a leaf node. Gather more than you think you need – it is better to have spare foliage than to run out mid-wreath. Place cut stems in a bucket of water for at least two hours before use. Conditioning the foliage this way ensures it is fully hydrated before being wired onto the frame, which significantly extends the wreath’s life once it is hanging on a door.
Cut foliage the morning you plan to make the wreath. Foliage cut more than 24 hours in advance begins to lose its freshness even in water. Foliage cut the same morning and conditioned in a bucket stays plump and vivid. If you need to cut a day ahead, store the bucket in a cool garage or shed rather than a warm kitchen.
Frames and materials
The only purchase most people need to make for wreath making is the wire frame. These come in two main types: a single-ring frame and a double-ring frame. The double-ring frame, which has an inner and outer ring connected by spokes, is significantly easier to work with because the foliage bundles wire onto the spokes as well as the rings, holding everything more securely and preventing the bundles from rotating. For a first wreath, the double-ring frame is strongly recommended. Standard sizes are 25cm, 30cm and 35cm – a 30cm frame produces a good-sized front door wreath.
Stub wire from a florist supplier or garden centre is the correct choice for wreath binding – the reeled wire sold for this purpose is thin enough to wind tightly around foliage stems without cutting through them but strong enough to hold securely. Garden wire sold for plant staking is usually too stiff and too thick. Florist stub wire or reel wire at 0.7mm gauge is ideal. A single reel is enough for several wreaths.
Step-by-step method
The method below produces a traditional full wreath using the wiring technique – the most reliable approach for a first-time wreath maker. Each bundle is wired onto the frame individually, working around the ring in one direction until the full circle is complete. The key to a good result is keeping bundle sizes consistent and covering each bundle’s wired stems with the foliage of the next.
Prepare your bundles
Sort your conditioned foliage into small bundles of three to five stems each, mixing foliage types within each bundle. Each bundle should be roughly 12-15cm long. Prepare 20 to 30 bundles before starting – having them ready prevents stopping mid-wreath to prepare more. Keep the bundles damp by laying them on a wet cloth while you work.
Attach the wire to the frame
Cut a working length of stub wire – about 60cm – from the reel. Twist one end tightly around the outer ring of the frame two or three times to secure it. You will be feeding this wire around each foliage bundle as you go, adding more wire from the reel as needed. There is no need to cut a new piece for each bundle – the wire runs continuously around the frame.
Wire the first bundle onto the frame
Lay your first foliage bundle face-up on the outer ring with the stems pointing toward the centre of the frame. Hold it in place with one hand and wind the wire two to three times tightly around the bundle stems and the frame ring. The foliage tips should point in the direction you will travel around the frame – clockwise or anticlockwise, your choice, but consistent throughout.
Continue around the ring
Place the next bundle slightly overlapping the first, with its foliage tips covering the wired stems of the previous bundle. Wire it on in the same way. Continue around the ring keeping bundle sizes and spacing as consistent as possible. Every three or four bundles, turn the frame over and check the back is also being covered – gaps on the back show from below when the wreath is hanging.
Join the circle
When you reach the starting point, the final bundles need to be tucked under the first bundle’s foliage to disguise the join. Loosen the first bundle slightly if needed, slide the final bundle’s stems underneath and re-wire both. This join is the only fiddly part of the process – work slowly and check that the join is invisible from the front before moving on.
Secure and trim
Twist the wire end tightly around the frame ring and tuck it out of sight beneath the foliage. Turn the wreath over and check the back for any visible wires – bend them flat against the frame. From the front, use florist snips to remove any stems or leaves that are sitting awkwardly, and gently adjust bundles by hand until the wreath has an even, full shape all the way around.
Finishing touches and decorations
A wreath of well-chosen foliage alone looks beautiful – the combination of textures, greens and any natural berries or seed heads provides more than enough visual interest. Decorations should be additions that enhance rather than cover the foliage. The most common mistake with wreath decorating is overloading, which loses the natural quality that makes a handmade wreath distinctive in the first place.
A wired bow makes the most significant single addition to a wreath. Use a wired ribbon rather than a fabric ribbon without wire – the wire inside holds the bow loops in place and prevents them collapsing in rain or wind. A bow with two loops of 15cm diameter and two tail lengths of 20cm is proportionate for a 30cm wreath. Wire the bow’s centre tightly, then attach it to the wreath frame at the top or bottom depending on where you want the hanging loop to sit.
Making it last
A well-made wreath of fresh UK garden foliage should last three to four weeks in the right conditions – long enough to go up on 1 December and remain looking good through to Christmas Day and beyond. The conditions that determine longevity are temperature, moisture and sunlight. An outdoor wreath on a sheltered north or east-facing door will last significantly longer than one on a south-facing door in full winter sun. An indoor wreath over a radiator or fireplace will last only days.
Do not hang a fresh wreath over a working fireplace or on a radiator shelf. Beyond the rapid drying that ruins the wreath, dried foliage near an open fire or hot radiator is a genuine fire risk. Holly, ivy and bay all dry to a tinder-dry state within days of being placed in a warm room.
After Christmas, a foliage wreath can go directly onto the compost heap – frame, wire and all natural materials. Remove any non-compostable decorations first. The wire frame can be saved and reused next year. If the wreath still has a week or two of life left after Christmas, it transitions naturally into a January door wreath by replacing any tired-looking berries with a few stems of dried seedheads or adding some early forced bulb foliage. A January wreath with dried hydrangea heads, eucalyptus and a simple ribbon looks considered rather than leftover.
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