Wreath Recipe - Town of Flowers

Preperation

1. Making a bit of mess is an essential stage to creating some Christmas magic. Make sure you have a big enough table as you’ll need lots of space to begin your bundles.

2. Lie the moss ring on a flat surface. It will help to see the size of the base when your creating each element.
3. Your wreath is made up of approximately 21 bundles. This means you’ll need 3 different bundle designs each containing 7 bundles. Bundles are groups of the different foliage in the pack that, when tied together, resemble a small bouquet.
4. As a general rule, each bundle is made of a background layer, some extra foliage to give it some volume and a decorative section. For this wreath, the background layer is made from conifer, the middle section is made of your holly, Christmas tree and pine and the top layer is your decoration.

Making Your Bundles

1. First things first, you need to choose how long you’d like each bundle to be. Around 15cm makes a good base length.
2. Rummage through your conifer and begin trimming each leaf to the correct length. Always trim from the bottom rather than the top to keep your design looking natural when it’s all assembled. Two to three trimmings of conifer should be enough for each base layer. When putting fresh produce in the wreath the stems must be freshly cut so moisture can be absorbed by the foliage.
3. Next up is your central layer. This can be different for each type of bundle. One bundle can contain just holly, another just Christmas tree and the third a mixture of pine and Christmas tree.
4. Again, from the bottom, trim your pieces of holly, Christmas Tree and pine to the same length as your conifer base before placing it on top of your conifer.
5. The third element of your bundle is the decorative items, in this case the baubles and the fir cones. These should be attached to the middle layer (holly, Christmas tree or pine) using your floristry wire.
6. Using approximately 10cm of floristry wire, thread the fir cones and the baubles, leaving the ends lose so it can be attached to the foliage. For the fir cones, it’s best to thread the wire behind the bottom layer of scales. This will help them to stand out on your wreath.
7. Attach the decoration to the centre layer of your bundle using the floristry wire, make sure you’re happy with the positioning before twisting it at the back of each branch.
8. It’s then time to complete your first bundle. Using your floristry wire, tie all of your layers together by wrapping the wire around the stem of your bundle mutlitple times! Make sure to pull it tightly to keep it secure.
9. Congratulations, you’ve made your first bundle! Repeat steps 2-8 six times so that you have a total of 7 identical bundles.
10. To create the remainder of your bundles, repeat steps 2-9 changing up the foliage and decorations you use for your second and third layer for some variation. Try grouping a different mixture of baubles together or try adding fir cones and baubles to the same bundle.

Assembly

1. Take your floristry wire and thread it around the bottom metal ring of the moss ring. Twist the wire several times to secure and leave the floristry wire attached to the base. The reel will remain attached to the ring until your wreath is complete.
2. To assemble your wreath, you need to attach all the bundles to the moss ring. Before we do this, you need to decide in which order you’ll place your three different types of bundles. Play around with which order you prefer to make sure there is an even distribution of fir cones and baubles before we begin attaching the bundles.
3. To attach the bundles, lay the first bundle on top of the moss ring so the stem is straight and central and wrap the wire around the stem of the bundle and the moss ring so it is securely fastened. Lay your next bundle below the first (it should overlap the stems of the first bundle so there are no gaps) and repeat this step until all bundles are attached.
4. After attaching your final bundle, loop the wire around the bottom copper circle and tie off as you would a stitch.
5. Identify the top and bottom of your wreath, the bottom will be for your bow and the top for your hook. A thinner area of the wreath makes a great place for the bow.
6. Place your bow on the bottom section of your wreath and loosely loop the wire around the centre of the bow and your wreath a couple of times, twisting at the back to secure.
7. Directly opposite the bow is where you will need to position the wire loop to hang your wreath. Using the floristry wire, create a U-Shape with your wire and loop both ends through the top copper circle at the back of the wreath. Twist the loose ends of the wire to the U-shape to fasten.

After Care

1. The wreath (specifically the moss ring) will need to soak in water for 5 minutes before placing outside so it absorbs water.
2. You need to keep the wreath moist by spraying or watering from time to time, this will help all the fresh items looking good till Christmas.
3. If the wreath is in a sheltered spot and does not get the natural rain then a daily spray of water is critical.

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