Christmas Holiday Decorating ideas with Poinsettias

2007 updated

We'll be adding current images and the latest updates before November ends.

2007 This years centerpiece baskets are just as nice as a basket could ever be. We have red, red/white and red/white/burgundy combinations and a few of the newest pure pink Dulce Rosa	These are the Visions of Grandeur poinsettias. The most beautiful poinsettia I've ever seen. The colors are unbelievable! So soft and delicate. Ready by our Open House Tours
You don't need to break your budget at Weidners. We try to have arrangements from the really big special ones like below to the less expensive ones that are great for giving. This is the group for teachers, hostess gifts etc. Priced at around $15.00 to $17.50All different and pretty.	Debbie took a very nice white container and added touches of ferns and other white flowered plants around the base. Perfect for the front door and it will last!
This is a really large super luxury arrangement.	The poinsettia trees last year were incredibly good. The best we have ever grown. This years trees are going to be smaller and a little later but they will still finish off very well They are in large pots so they won't fall over. The trunks are straight and strong and the canopy of poinsettia blooms is perfect. $65.00 is a bargain.

This is our super big grande tub poinsettia. Bernice our pretty office manager, friendly voice on the phone gives you an idea of the size. Measured with the tape, 3 feet from the floor and more than 3 feet wide.
This is the one of the newer Ecke Introduction this year. It is called Cinnamon Star. The color will go great with the burgundy shades so popular this year. Add greens for the best contrast
These are smallest poinsettias available. Called Mini-Stars. They come with self watering clear plastic wells for a small extra charge	The longest lasting choice. The Dish garden has a wonderful self watering well. Won't leak on your furniture and lasts for ever.

We've gathered together some of the pictures of Poinsettias and other Holiday plant arrangements. Many of them are shown in Evelyn's home because a greenhouse setting doesn't make the best background.
You'll find arrangements very much like these at the Weidners Gardens that you can buy ready to go or feel free to copy the ideas yourself. We'll keep adding more as I have them so keep coming back.

This is the simplest of arrangements. Two 4 " Pixie Poinsettias in simple white urns with a bow on each. I added the colored bowl with candles inside and the two tall green candle holders along with little tea candles.

Hints. Cut greens are so useful. You can find them around your neighborhood or at the Christmas tree lots. Take a walk with clippers in hand. the twisted Hollywood Juniper is great because it drapes well. Stone pine or other pines are good. Use Oasis blocks in your arrangement to hold the greens. You will probably have to change them out once during the holidays.
Candles, candles, candles.
Look around in your cupboards or at Thrift shops for containers that would hold a poinsettia. You might put some empty plastic pots of the most common sizes in your trunk, ready to double check that wonderful old Soup Tureen that you see in the thrift shop for $3.50. Even if it is a little too short you can often cover up the top of the pot with moss.
I love candles and they really make your arrangements come together. Use Oasis to hold them in your arrangement. Scatter them around your arrangements.
The easiest table arrangement or over the fireplace arrangement is Greens, small poinsettias [Mini-Stars in self watering containers ] and candles. Be sure the candles don't burn down and catch your greens on fire! I don't have any mini-stars yet so that arrangement will have to wait.

This is one of the arrangements that our guest florist made one year. We have empty and planted copper planters like the one you see here. They are very nice and not too expensive. The one here is a little longer than what we have this year, but still good. You'll notice the same tall green tea candle lights in this setting. I use them at home all the time. The green vases at the sides are easily found at Florist's supply and are just holding mini-stars.

There are lots of greens that make decorating easy. One of my favorite greens for any time is the plant called Mirror Plant or Coprosma. Shiny green or variegated leaves. The branches lay nice and flat. Camellia, Ivy, pine tips, holly are all useful and you can scatter candles and small plants or flowers amongst them. Easy, quick and pretty. We usually have the coprosma plant in our shrub section and every single home should have at least one.

When you make your own arrangement here is a handy hint, Line the container with plastic sheeting unless it already has a liner. Try out our simple planting plan described under the Learning page see 'Re-potting made easy' to see how you can use this for other garden transplanting jobs.
Start by deciding where you want your poinsettias or other main plants to be. Take an empty pot of equal size [you can carefully remove your plant and set it aside. ]
Plant that empty pot by surrounding it with a light planter mix. You can't break any branches because there aren't any there!!!

[That's what we did here with this 6 Inch Ecke Winter Rose Poinsettias. We put in the empty pot, then the ferns, then the Winter Rose and last of all the decorative bows and pine cones. Looks great! ]

Then begin to build in the component plants like Ivy or Ferns.
Put in your blocks of wet oasis at that time too. If you are using bigger candles or ornaments it is handy to do the oasis early on and tape it down with the narrow green Florist tape. Nothing is worse than having the candles slowly tip over after you are all finished.
After you have all of your greens, plants, etc. in place then you put your poinsettia back into its pot. Points break so easily that his is the safest way.
If you are very short of room you can squeeze the wet root ball of a poinsettia to make it fit.
Pine cones are wonderful. Pick them up in the mountains or in the neighborhood or buy them. Give them a spray with either clear, brown or gold to enhance the look.
Oh yes, bows and green florist picks. the florist picks usually have a thin wire attached at one end and you can use them for fastening and inserting all sorts of accessories. We always have them. florist supply places do to, but you have to buy a bundle.

Now take a look at the pictures. remember that I am not a florist. A florist can make the most wonderful arrangements because that is their skill.
Anything that I make you can make too. Actually you are probably better at this than I am. I just have the website and control this keyboard!

Use a tall pot by the door, fill in the bottom with plastic popcorn and use one nice big poinsettia.. This is an Ecke three plant, [means 3 single plants in one pot] poinsettia. Add Ivy or some greens and you are set to go. Cost. The pot is about $35.00 . The poinsettia is around $17.00 Those are our prices. The soil and the planting if we do it cost too. You could do it yourself!

A little word about container costs. Least expensive containers are wicker or woven baskets. Next up the line are clay pots. The bigger the pot the more it costs. Duh!! Ceramic clay costs are all over the map. They are coming in from overseas and often are quite reasonable. If you want your plants to live check for good drainage holes. the light weight plastic composite containers are very good, look like clay , cost about the same as clay. For bargains, hit the estate sales and thrift shops. Spray paint can do wonders for old containers. Big pots sometimes crack with age or accidents. That's ok. Lay the half pot on its side or on an angle and plant it up. That makes you a "DESIGNER"

This is a big basket with 3 poinsettias, a pink, white and red. We added in a Caladium and a maidenhair Fern. A palm gives height to the back and a big red and gold bow finishes it off.

One of the baskets we almost always have on hand. You can make this with greens like in the picture of fill with ferns or other live green plants.

Sometimes simple is so effective.
The Rieger long planter is perfect for when you don't want to do a Poinsettia Holiday. You can do this planter with Azaleas, Begonias, Kalanchoes, any blooming 4 inch plants will work.
The single poinsettia below with the plaid bow and the bit of gold berries goes anywhere. In the guest bath, by the telephone or on the side table.

This is another fireplace mantel arrangement or for a long sideboard or any long table. We just took one long copper planter put in three 4 inch Pixies and added those same tall green candle holders. A small poinsettia here and there, drape some greens and pine cones and it is finished. Oh yes, long swags of ribbon to accent the corners.

Here we have a footed bowl to be the base for this spectacular arrangement. The big poinsettia is set on and taped down to a Oasis foam base. Then you have plenty of room to put in all of those glorious mixed greens, pine cones and artificial berries. Lots of ribbon too.

You have to make the front walkway or the front entrance look Holiday pretty. It is easy to do this with a great big poinsettia tree or a big poinsettia tub. Add a wreath to the front door and you are all done. But if you want to be a bit different and maybe save some money here are some other ideas. They all use the standard 6 inch pinched poinsettia. Now we did spend some money on the wrought iron painted and rusted stands but we can use those over and over again. Let's take a look at what we did and the different treatments each time.

Each time we took a 6 inch poinsettia and did something different. The first problem you have when you are using 6 inch points is how to make them different heights. We could do that with clay pots and I'll post that look later but I chose the iron stands.
The back stand is the tallest and we took an Ivy Ring pot at $15. this is a big Ivy pot with a 6 inch empty pot that always stays inside. All we had to do was slip the poinsettia inside. Then we added a big bow, some pinecones and we were finished.
On the next one we had a different stand where we had a base of moss. Putting the 6 inch point directly in that looked very awkward. We took an artificial wreath and set it on the stand with the poinsettia inside. the stands cost around $39 to $49. For the lowest one we had another problem. We didn't have the same stand in a low size. Oooops! We did have the one you can see, but it's made for a much larger pot. We finally took a plastic clay colored 14 inch bowl, sprayed it black. It looked to bad in a clay color. Here we used the same handy way to keep from breaking the plant that we talked about earlier. Plant one empty 6 inch pot. Surround it with Ferns and some bright yellow pansies. The poinsettias were only $8.50 each and are super big and nice. the ferns and other plants added a bit more but not bad. Here is another picture of the same trio right at the entrance. who can resist putting in the picture of this big shaggy dog and the sweet granddaughter [forgot her name]

The next picture is our ever so typical Palms in the front yard. Beautiful palms all we did was put 4 6 inch red poinsettias around each tree. We would normally bury the pots but since this wasn't my house and the owners weren't even home we just set them there to get the visual effect. 8 poinsettias is all it takes to set the stage for he Holidays.We have one more to show you. We took that same $3.75 14" Bowl that we sprayed black and put a 6 inch and a 4 inch red point in it. Added some foliage on the sides and presto...it looks great.

We'll add some more as we swing into the full poinsettia season. Don't forget to bring your camera for the Photo spot.

email us your decorating ideas or jpg photos and we'll add to this page.

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