Foraging and Preserving for Christmas

Be proactive!

Instead of waiting until the last moment, be proactive and search for the plant product for the holidays. When the holidays come you get an idea to decorate a wreath or mixed greens for a vase and all you can find outside is a bunch of dried up foliage. You go to a florist or garden center and you find greenery but wonder, if you use it today, will hold up until the first of the year?

I stumbled on a article on preserving leaves with their fall color for art projects. The article gave a bunch of different ways to preserve the leaves and I started wondering if you could preserve Christmas greens.

When all the Christmas greens arrive, I start daydreaming of what in my yard I could use to make something unusual and different, but all I usually find in my yard is blue spruce, Euonymus, holly, and pine. Everything I mentioned has that dull Colorado winter look. Nothing beats that beautiful, humidity driven, rich color of Oregon Christmas greens. If only I could start earlier in my yard, I could find things that would be beautiful for a Christmas decoration.

I started digging and found a bunch of articles on using glycerin as a great preserver. I’m not going to make my entire wreath but buy a plain wreath and decorate it so it will look different and unique. Preserving a whole wreath would take about 3-4 weeks. By the time I tried to do that the holiday season would be over.

Glycerin is non-toxic and available at craft centers. To make the mix, pour one part glycerin and two parts water into a pot. Next heat the mixture until it reaches a boil, and remove it from the heat. Let it cool before you use it. The reason for heating the mixture is so the glycerin mixes with the water better. The amount to mix should be enough to submerge the greens you are trying to preserve.

Mix up your solution and pour it into a flat pan, place the leaves in the solution and place a smaller pan on top weighted with a rock so the leaves will stay completely submerged.

Keep the leaves submerged for 3-5 days. Take the leaves out and gently dab them with a paper towel to dry. The leaves will be pliable and should still have some good fall color in them. Not all of them will look like we wanted but all of them can be used to decorate a favorite fall decoration or mantle!

There are many ways to preserve greenery, from pressing to waxing to drying. Preserving with glycerin is unique, however, because it keeps the leaves supple and soft and preserves quite a bit of color. I have seen people cut branches and put them in a vase with the glycerin mixture and I have seen people submerge the whole plant. I feel that submerging will be quicker and absorb better.

You need to pick your greenery before it enters its dormant stage and the new growth has hardened off. The plant has to be in the stage that it will uptake water. If you cut it too early the new growth will not be strong enough to hold the glycerin and the tips of your stems will droop. If you cut it too late the glycerin solution won’t be pulled up through the stem in an effective way. You are preserving the plant by replacing the moisture in the plant with glycerin to preserve it.

Within a few hours you will start to notice brown shading on the leaves of your greenery as your glycerin makes is way through the structure of your stems. Your stems won’t stay green, but will change various shades of brown.

Once they have changed color completely, remove them from your glycerin solution. If you leave your stems too long the glycerin starts to ooze out of your leaves and leaving your leaves sticky to the touch. Once they are preserved, take them out, and let them dry or use a paper towel to dab the moisture of the greenery. I am going to try spraying the greenery afterwards with a hairspray to see if it will help preserve it a little longer and give it a shine.

If you want to preserve greenery that you have bought at Christmas time try using a product called Wilt pruf or Wilt stop. This is a short time preservative that I consider to be like using chap stick on your lips. It helps seal the moisture in and help preserve the plants for a few extra weeks.

There are lots of things you can use this for even in the growing season. Unfortunately, it works better on foliage, not so much for flowers, but it is worth a try.

Plants that are easy and fun to try with younger people are Ladies Mantle, conifers, hops, holly, and leaves of all sorts. Working with younger people, leaves might be easier and faster. It gets everyone outside on a beautiful day collecting leaves that they think are unique or different. Fall is a great time because you can collect different ones with fall colors of oranges, reds and yellows.