Lavender Wreath

This year my little flower garden lavender patch went above and beyond the call of duty.  It circled, hugged, and kissed duty, leaving roses and chocolates in its wake.  Over the summer I have been collecting and drying the sweet, fragrant lavender stems, and I figured it was high time to make a lavender wreath.  If you don’t have much lavender you can substitute in some other dried or faux flowers or stems of your choice.  Of course, I suppose if you don’t have any lavender, you don’t want to make a lavender wreath.  But never say never!  Anyone can do it!

What are we waiting for?  Let’s do this!

Lavender Wreath

If you are new to gardening, never fear!  Sadly, you will kill some plants.  Yes, this happens to the best of us. Don’t let a few brown, wrinkled plants destroy your gardening attempts forever!  Even professionals kill plants sometimes.  Get back on the horse and try again.  Wait.  A horse would trample the plants. Forget the horse. (*Rawhide plays in the background . . . a tumbleweed drifts across the screen . . .*)

Lavender really is a low maintenance plant once it gets established.  It has beautiful, silvery leaves and gets cute little lavender stalks on it that smell like heaven.  You pretty much can’t kill it, and it comes back year after year.  I mean, how much easier can it get?  You should definitely give lavender a call.  Tell her I sent you.

When the lavender plant matures, the buds will come out as stalks that will bloom, if you let them.  But the lavender for the wreath needs to be picked when the stalks are still buds. I like to snip off about 5 inches of stem, gather the lavender into bunches, and hang it upside down to dry.  Be a honey and let a few bloom for the bees.  They love it.  You’re so sweet.  I love working with you.

After a few weeks the lavender will be dry enough to use.  It will also smell beautiful and soft and fragrant, and you will want to just stash it everywhere so that your entire house smells like a beautiful villa in the French countryside with the windows thrown open and lace curtains dancing in the warm breeze.  And since you are a master gardener and have a small treasure trove of lavender now, you probably have enough extra that you can do that AND make the wreath.  You’re so smart.  And you smell pretty good, too.

Take the lavender bunches and use floral wire to arrange them on a wire wreath form.

There isn’t really any rhyme or reason to the pattern– just try to cover the previous bunch’s stems with each new bouquet.  Think deep thoughts.  Make sure that you tie each bunch separately, just to make sure nothing unravels.  If there’s one thing we can’t have, it’s a plot unraveling.  Or, you know . . . a wreath.  Whatever works.

While you work, make yourself a nice cup of tea.  Slowly wrap up the beautiful, fragrant little bundles and think about how cool it is that you basically GREW this wreath.  Like, from the EARTH.  You’re amazing.

If you find that you don’t have quite enough lavender to finish, you can just wait until you grow enough (awkward coughing.  Don’t ask me how I know this), or you can substitute another dried flower or plant (such as boxwood) to fill in some of the empty spaces.  Personally, I don’t mind working on the wreath through the summer.  It’s neat to see the progress you are making.  Take the wreath out and show the lavender plants.  Give them a goal.  😉

On the very last row, you can kind of tuck the ends under the first row of flowers. That way, hopefully, you can’t tell where the lavender begins or ends.  All you will have is one gorgeous row of flowers that smell amazing, and that you GREW too, by the way. Don’t forget to tell the wreath it smells amazing.  Girls like to hear that kind of thing.

Oh.  How do I know the wreath is a girl?  Um, ask your mother.  *awkward throat clearing*

Pick a very special place to hang this wreath, or a very special friend to give it to.  A lot of time and work went into this, and it deserves to be savored and adored.

You did it. And I’m just so proud of you.

 

 

 

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