Adding food and habitat for pollinators and avoiding non-native plants that can become tomorrow’s invaders are the two main factors driving the recent surge in interest in native plants.
According to horticultural and Vice President of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Andrew Bunting, there is a third beneficial application for native plants at this time of year: gathering native plant components for holiday décor.
The fruits, seedheads, stems, and leaves, according to Bunting, produce a provocative and realistic seasonal décor piece, such as a wreath, mantle, swag, or other interior arrangement that adds winter intrigue and beauty for years to come.
And it’s all yours to take.
The Southern magnolia, with its enormous, leathery, glossy-green oval leaves, is one of Bunting’s favorite evergreen magnolias for wreaths, swags, and arrangements.
Additionally, he enjoys magnolias like Bracken’s Brown Beauty, Little Gem, and Teddy Bear that enhance the appearance with fluffy brown leaf undersides.
Bunting recommends two further glossy broadleaf options for foliage use: Catawba rhododendron and native rosebay.
Native Virginia and pitch pines are two more needled evergreens that Bunting says are wonderful for arranging, although white pines and Colorado blue spruce are common landscape trees used for holiday decorating (and frequently offered in shop displays, too). Cones from pine and spruce also work well as arrangement accents.
The most popular evergreens for border screenings are American arborvitae, whose flat, mildly aromatic cuttings go well with the more needled spruce and pines, according to Bunting.
Bunting continues, “Don’t worry about cutting a few branches off of any of the evergreens.”
He claims that because the majority grow quickly, collecting from them only requires carefully trimming the branches, which are essentially undetectable. The tree swiftly regrows itself the next growing season wherever you have cut off stems.
Virginia creeper and cross vine, two native vines, are excellent options for wreath bases, according to Bunting. It is advisable to remove the leaves before weaving them into a circle because both have malleable wood.
In particular, the deciduous winterberry hollies (which produce red or gold pea-sized berries), the native evergreen American holly (which produces red or yellow berries), and the Foster holly (a red-berried, more narrow-leafed evergreen hybrid of two native hollies) are the best choices for adding color, according to Bunting.
The American beautyberry, with its metallic purple berries, the Eastern red-cedar, with its powdery blue fruits, and the northern bayberry, with its silvery-gray-white berries, are three other natives that provide intriguing berry options, according to Bunting. (Cuttings of the blue-tinted needled evergreen foliage and red cedars are also acceptable for decorating.)
“Most milkweeds have seed pods that make interesting accents, and native oakleaf and smooth hydrangeas are good landscape shrubs that can add color to winter decorations,” notes Bunting.
Last but not least, the stems of native red-osier dogwood plants give festive bouquets eye-catching and vibrant accents. The bright red stems of dogwood Arctic Fire, the salmon-orange stems of dogwood Cardinal, and the yellow-gold stems of Flaviramea and Fire Dance are a few of the best.
Plants won’t mind losing a few chopped stems here and there, just like when a small number of branches are lost during holiday harvesting. In the spring, it will even promote the formation of fresh, young dogwood stems, which are inherently more colorful than older ones.
Berry clusters, wasted blooms, and seedheads are also easy to gather because they will fall off eventually.
Gardening with George Weigel
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