Dec. 15, 2006
Recent warm temperatures, punctuated by a evanescent snow dump, are influencing holiday decorating trends, according to garden design enthusiasts and retailers.
Homeowners spent more time prepping their abodes for winter as tepid weather carried through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Some got an early start on their Christmas decorating, but others had a hard time easing into a holiday mood when the weather was more suitable to a golf course than ski hill.
Mere hours into December, a snowstorm blinded southeastern Wisconsin with blizzard conditions, and a cold front kept weather frosty through the first week of the month. The snow quickly evaporated, but left residents with a reminder of the season as temperatures returned to well above freezing.
Laura Henke, an organizer for the Hartford Garden Club, said the last few months were a time for tiding up gardens.
“A lot of times you have your planters and once your annuals die out you want to put something in the planters,” Henke said. “So people find things like small trees, just to fill the pots.”
Henke said the branches of red osier dogwood, or red twig dogwood, was becoming an intensely popular winter planter-filler and holiday adornment.
“We had an exceptional year with that stuff because of the warm temperatures,” said Laurie Bodden, a design manager at Stein’s Gardens and Gifts in West Bend. “They’re using the red willow branches or dogwoods. There’s lots of taking around containers of them to different spots in your yard.”
Henke explained the appeal of red twig dogwood, which sports green leaves and white flowers during summer months. Its vibrant red branches are exposed when it loses its foliage in autumn, making it a type of plant with a specific “winter interest.”
To exploit other organic “winter interest” while beautifying Hartford, the club has not cut down fountain grass incorporated in the landscaping of the Schauer Arts Center, the recreations center and Veterans Park. The grasses stick out above winter snow cover, adding giving height to the garden beds.
Pairing the red twig dogwood with evergreen branches easily conjures an organic-themed, Christmas-colored display.
“Lots of people are starting to do the evergreens with red twig dogwood. That’s what we have done in downtown Hartford. This year we added white lights to it,” Henke said, to add extra illumination.
Red twig dogwood flair fits well into a natural style of decorating. Henke said simply adding bows and decorative pine cones to existing pot displays and shrubs can accent the greenery’s natural beauty.
“If you light a tree from below, it shines up and just illuminates some of the branches. I think it’s very classy and it just makes use of the natural beauty of the tree,” Henke said.
Bodden said people were buying floodlights for just that reason in red, the traditional Christmas color which has been dominating decorating schemes this year. Palates of black and silver have also been popular, making Christmas trees look like shimmering metallicized chess sets.
Copper ornamentations have also been selling well, according to Bodden, and not because the recent high prices of the malleable metal have made it a status symbol.
“Copper was really hot this year. With decorating trends being with the browns and earth tones, copper is a complimentary color to a lot of home interiors,” Bodden said.
Bodden designs Christmas trees to fit in with interior design and purposes. This year she did a tree with a Tuscany theme, which incorporated a wine bottle and corks as ornamentation.
The most popular theme in the West Bend area, however, has always been a “lodge” theme. The rustic look appeals to area residents decorating Up North cabins or their own homes, which might be set back in woodsy surroundings.
“We do so well with the lodge theme, just being at this store versus maybe some southern stores,” Bodden said. “There’s antlers and feathers and stuff in some of our wreaths.”