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YORKTON - As the song says, it’s the most wonderful time of the year! For gardeners, it is—now that winter snows have arrived, we can truly tell ourselves that the garden season is over in terms of actual garden work. We can relax a bit with our seed catalogues and garden readings that we never had time for just a few weeks ago.

This is the time of year where any homestyle magazine or television show is all set to inspire us with breathtaking displays of holiday greenery. You know what I mean—the show host will have an array of cut greenery, just waiting to be arranged into a stunning swag or floral display. There is relaxing music playing in the background, the host makes a lovely arrangement of spruce or juniper branches, all the while assuring us that we can do the same thing at home and it will last into the new year.

Okay, now let’s switch to the ‘reality’ channel. Getting spruce, pine or cedar branches is a whole different ballgame on the prairies than it is in warmers climes like Ontario or BC. By now we’ll be wading through deep snow, and our branches will be cold and dormant when we bring them in. And for many of us who have tried to make an arrangement or display using real spruce branches, it doesn’t seem to take long until it is drying out, and needles begin to fall.

So can it be done and continue to look good and last for a while? Yes, it can, but certain steps are needed for success. For those who purchase live Christmas trees, you know that they have to be brought indoors or to a warm garage, and have the trunk in a pail of water for a day or so that the tree thaws and begins to drink in moisture again.

So it is with coniferous branches. We can’t go out to the back yard, cut a few branches, and bring them in to start styling. They, too, need time to adjust and come out of hibernation.

That means that step one is to cut our branches, trim the stems at an angle so that they can drink in the most water possible, and put the stems in a pail in the basement for about 24 hours to drink in some moisture. At the same time, put a block of floral foam to soak. (FYI--Be sure that you are using the floral foam designated for wet use, meaning it will absorb water. That is why that type of foam is often called “oasis”, like the place where water is. And guess what the foam for dry or silk arrangements Is often called? “Sahara”. An interesting little factoid!)

Step two: okay, now it is the next day and we are ready to go. Once we have our container, soaked oasis and branches ready, snip each stem again before inserting it into the foam. We may have to slide the needles off the stem so that a clean stem is going into the foam. Once we have made our arrangement, water the container again and be sure to check the water daily, topping up as needed. We should be careful not to have the arrangement near a heat source which will cause them to dry out. If it is possible, we can mist the arrangement as well.

No guarantees that this will last till New Year’s day 2025…but it certainly has a better chance of surviving till Christmas! I have also read about preserving the stems with a water and glycerine solution before use, but I haven’t tried it myself. From what I have read there might be some success with this, but it takes more steps and the branches will not stay green, so we might want to go with the motto of the stems being here ‘for a good time, not a long time” and savor their beauty and fragrance for as long as it lasts naturally.

The Yorkton Hort society will not be meeting again until March 2025. Keep up with the group at www.yorktonhort.ca Thank you to our friends at YTW for their great work; have a good week!