Decorating for Christmas - part 1

My collection of orchids is currently counting 8 different pots of various sizes, 3 of them are in my living room, the rest are crammed next to my small kitchen window. 6 of the orchids are Phalaenopsis orchids and although I have read many places that these orchids don’t have a particular flowering time and can flower whenever, in my house they all follow a set routine and start to send up flower spikes one by one during the autumn and early winter. At one point in early spring I usually have all of them in flower and it is a spectacular sight!

Here is my window sill, with my Christmas star already up. One of the orchids started flowering 2 weeks ago, 2 of the other have spikes and buds and today I discovered one more orchid with a tiny bump on the base which I hope will turn into a flower spike.

The orchid in flower is my favourite Phalaenopsis, just look at those colours, when I discovered this one in Ikea a few years ago I thought it was just made for my kitchen!

It flowers once every year and the flowers last for months.

I have never cut my orchids and put in water, I would have loved to have a vase with flower arrangement in my living room with orchids but it somehow seems such a terrible thing to do, knowing the flowers would not last very long in a vase. The alternative is silk flowers and there are so many beautiful artificial flowers available today that look so real it’s hard to believe they are not the genuine thing.

I have trawled the Internet and bought a few flowers and some Christmassy branches and decided to make a Christmas decoration that would definitely last more than a few weeks.

For flower arrangements I use this 2" metal pin holder and some florist’s adhesive tack which basically is like waterproof Blue Tack – invaluable when making arrangements with heavy branches. I attach a piece at the bottom of the pin holder to make it stay in place and also to some of the branches.

I started with the tallest piece, an amaryllis and then continued to build around it.

And then the rest of the flowers.

To conceal the pin colder I added some gold coloured grit.

The amaryllis is really beautiful and so amazingly detailed! All the flowers and branches came flat packed and had to be meticulously unfurled and spread out.

The orchids are so natural looking, even close up.

And the details make them a piece of art.

And here is the arrangement, on a shelf in the darkest corner of my living room where no flowers will thrive – don’t have to worry about that with these flowers, all they need is a bit of dusting now and then. (click to see a large version of photos)

This post is the first one of two about decorating for Christmas, next one will come next week, but before that post we have Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th, where I will show you what’s still in flower in my garden. Oh yes, I still have some plants in flower, despite being middle of December :-) Until then, take care.