Even if you’ve been diligently watering, as time passes, some of the fresh cut greens in your outdoor containers may eventually start to dry a bit. (The unseasonably warm and dry weather we had earlier was no help either.) And you might be ready to pack up some of the festive and glittery embellishments in favor of a more natural wintry combination to take your containers through the rest of the season. The holidays may be winding down, but the good news is that with a few adjustments, your fresh cut greens containers can continue to provide beauty and fragrance for weeks to come.
First Steps: Thaw, Evaluate, and Water
The first thing to do is determine whether the soil in your outdoor container is frozen. If it is, move the container – hopefully the arrangement is in a convenient fiber pot – to your garage for a few days to let it thaw out. This will make it possible to pull out ornaments and other décor you no longer need plus any cut evergreen boughs that may be fading. After the soil is soft again, take the container back outside and water it thoroughly. If the soil was completely dry before you watered, it’s a good idea to remove each fresh cut stem and give it a new cut on the end before placing it back in the wet soil. This will restore the boughs’ ability to draw up moisture and help them stay fresh a lot longer.
Next: Refresh and Rearrange
Once that’s done, it’s time to refresh and renew your arrangement. At the store, we have bundles of fresh cut greens that we bring straight from our own on-site cooler where we store them at the perfect temperature and humidity for long-term freshness. When you get your new greens home, it’s a good idea to give all the branches a fresh cut at the bottom then place them in a bucket of water for a few hours to let them get well-hydrated again. Then, use them to replace any boughs you may have removed or add new textures for a post-holiday change. This can be a fun opportunity to switch from one design style to another too. For instance, if your thrillers – like birch poles, dogwood branches, or red huckleberry – were placed at angles in the arrangement, consider gathering them all together in the center instead. This creates an upright and bold statement in the middle. Then, surround the branches with a ring of red or white lifelike berries followed by another ring of large pine cones around the berries. The fresh cut greens can fan out around the base of it all, like a full and fluffy skirt. We showed something similar at our DIY: Custom Holiday Planters demonstration in November – it’s a natural, eye-catching arrangement that really pops on your doorstep.
Finally: Maintain Moisture
To keep everything fresh and beautiful in the weeks to come, continue watering the soil until it freezes solid, and resume watering if it thaws again. We also recommend spraying Wilt-Pruf on fresh cut greens and broadleaf greens like red huckleberry. Wilt-Pruf is an anti-desiccant spray made of pine oils that protects the foliage of some landscape plants – like evergreens and rhododendrons – from over-drying during the winter. Wilt-Pruf works on fresh cut greens too by providing an invisible coating that traps moisture in the needles and significantly lengthens the time they stay fresh and green. Just avoid spraying it on your lifelike berries and other decor. Wilt-Pruf may be invisible on natural items like greens, branches, and red huckleberry, but it can make your decorative additions look cloudy.
It might be time to take down most of the decorations, but our fresh greens containers don’t have to go. With the addition of new fresh cut greens and consistent moisture, they can keep your outdoor pots full and beautiful for several more weeks – and if Mother Nature helps a little with some cold and snow, maybe even until it’s time for pansies. If you have any questions, just ask one of our team members – we’re always happy to help.
