With the holidays right around the corner, many families are decorating their homes with festive planters and wreaths. Here at Solar, it’s no different. We love the smell of fresh pine in our corporate office during these cold months. We believe in using local shrubbery from our own 36-acre campus to supply for the planters and wreaths we display for holiday décor.
In order to keep a supply of greenery available, we do not prune all our shrubs during the regular pruning season. Instead, we leave a few healthy ones that will grow and branch out. Though they appear overgrown in the meantime, they serve an important purpose of eventually becoming our holiday decorations. Come December, we select prune these shrubs and make our planters and wreaths from their branches. Through this process, we are able to bring the great outdoors inside at little to no cost.
Cultivating your own supply of winter decorations starts with selecting the right plants for the job. Try selecting varying colors of evergreen for a colorful and festive decoration, including many shades of green, some yellow, and even some red berries. Try to select your plants in early summer and keep them well watered and fertilized during the growing season to ensure healthy and beautiful growth. This also helps them be able to adapt to the pruning in the off season.
When making your planters early in the season and bringing them indoors, be sure to lightly mist them on a regular basis to keep them from drying out. If you decorate outdoors, no maintenance is necessary as Mother Nature will provide sufficient moisture with rain and snow. When decorating your home, be sure to remember that some plants and berries are toxic to animals and children, so always be careful when placing these decorations. With local, homemade holiday decorations, your home can look as festive as ever.