holiday and winter decor | Deborah Silver & Co.

The 2021 Winter Pots: Take Your Pick

Amassing a collection of beautiful materials for winter and holiday containers and home decor at our place usually begins at least a year in advance of the season in question. Behind the scenes, ideas are tested, and those great ideas become prototypes. Orders are placed from the prototypes, and manufacturing is based on orders taken by the manufacturer’s reps from shop owners like us. This is a highly simplified sentence describing a very complicated and labor intensive process known as commerce. The big idea is that any gardener wishing to persist gardening into our winter season will have the materials to do so. This means potted hellebores and cyclamen, and a substantial variety of amaryllis bulbs. It also means fresh cut branches, mostly dogwood and willow. But the floral picks, the likes of which are pictured above, make it possible to create winter arrangements for containers. Pots placed on a front porch or at a side door asked to be filled, no matter the season.

Rob handles all of the buying for Detroit Garden Works, and he buys beautifully. Everything he purchases for his seasonal collections bear witness to his astonishing eye for fine design, beauty, utility, and serendipity. There may be those who would suggest that seasonal containers and decor have little to nothing to do with the garden or the landscape, but I disagree. The process of designing/creating and fabricating winter and holiday containers has everything to do with a need for an individual expression of appreciation of the beauty of nature. Creating winter container gardens have their roots in the living landscape, and those who garden with a passion – no matter what materials are chosen. Rob makes sure every gardener so inclined to garden on through and past the holiday and winter season has plenty of materials available to express that inclination in beautiful detail. If you shop at Detroit Garden Works, you can take your pick.

Rob’s work as a buyer has been defined by his travel both in the US and abroad – for decades. The event of the past two years made it all but impossible to travel to shop anywhere in person. But the steady and sincere relationships that he developed over the years with suppliers, product reps and manufacturers was the saving grace of this winter season. Rob was able to shop person to person, door to door, and from one continent to the next – over the phone, and via email. Amazing, this. Most all of our materials came late, and some materials never materialized. But what we have available now is terrific. As in lots and lots. By and large, this is the most product rich winter season we have ever had.

Ordering materials for containers on line or from a print catalogue is incredibly difficult. I have tried it, and I have had plenty of materials delivered that were not great. As in, did I buy this, no kidding??? I have tried to avoid shopping on line. I shopped the holiday and winter materials in person with Rob for 5 or 6 years. I liked being able to hold a pick in my hand. I could see the color. I could assess what its durability would be in a container. I could see the finished height-and the width. I could see how it would read. I could see how the shape, mass, and color would work with other elements under consideration. I could see what picks would be investment caliber, and which would be a one season fling. My shopping days are over now. I am happy to turn over the shopping for the winter season materials to Rob and Sunne. I have confidence that their choices will work for a wide range of my projects. And I respect and am intrigued by what materials they chooses from their own individual aesthetic. It is up to me to put what they buy together in such a way that my clients feel their taste is represented. If you are thinking that my design for holiday and winter container arrangements is fueled by beautiful materials- you are right.

In person buying was not possible in January of 2021, so Rob did the next best thing. He bought very long and very wide. He bought what seemed perfect and appropriate, and he also bought unusual materials. Everything he spoke for he hoped would be great. That is how he works. He crossed his heart and hoped to die. OK, just kidding – but how he buys is a serious business. Consider this. There are numbers of blueberry picks from his buying from which to choose-each one different. Some capture the texture and the color of blueberries honestly. Other picks describe the color of blueberries in more poetic ways. Deep purple muscadine grape berries, or blue speckled bird egg berries. Some picks are spare. A few berries sparsely populate long stems. Still other blueberry picks feature berries that are short and chubby and not at all like how blueberries grow. It is astonishing how realistic some faux materials can be now. But the idea is not to attempt to reproduce nature. That is not possible. The purpose of the materials is to allow gardeners to create seasonal arrangements that represent their individual interpretation of nature and its forms. The intent is not to fool the eye, but rather to appeal to one’s love of the garden.

These chubby wine red berry stems do not replicate any plant that I know of. But they are indeed reminiscent of the bounty and largess of nature. They would be beautiful, paired with pale sage green picks. Or noble fir. They would be lovely, encircling a stand of pussy willow stems. They would provide a rich and warm addition, punctuating a fresh evergreen garland. They are the berries-ha. They represent the lush scenes in the garden of my imagination. You get the idea.

Good looking and good quality materials can suggest a scheme for an arrangement. These picks have the lush green color and texture of broccoli. The stems look good enough to eat. Some winter arrangements do indeed have the aura of a feast, at a time when the landscape provides only the barest visual sustenance.

Snowball picks on chocolate seeded stems

frosted red berry picks

brown and white picks

gold berry picks and stainless steel spheres on rods

berry picks

These pale green/gray fuzz ball picks have a distinctive glow when back lit.

Paired with fresh cut branches and greens and lights, a winter container will please the eye and the spirit all winter long.

See what I mean?

Posted on: November 24, 2021 24 Comments

Sparkle, Anyone?

My first introduction to sparkle may have been a dress my Mom wore to a New Year’s Eve party at the Whitney in the 50’s. The fabric was woven from metallic thread in white gray and black. The dress was shimmery. At some point I would have seen a sequined ball gown, or black patent leather shoes. Sparkly fabrics and materials were reserved for formal evening events, when the daylight had vanished, and the party lights were dialed down low. Sparkly materials pick up and reflect whatever light there is available. Sparkling materials seem to glow or shine from within. In any event, all things sparkly, metallic, shimmery and glittery suggest celebration. Sparkle at this time of year is a pleasure to the eye.

The transition from the fall to the winter season is marked the coming of the cold, and the dark. If I drive home from work at 5:30, it is dark. If I drive in to work at 7am, it is dark. November and December cold is bearable. But the dark can be daunting. Winter container arrangements and outdoor holiday decor that incorporates a little sparkle will read better in low light. This is a holiday season, meaning there is cause to celebrate. The copper curly willow, magnolia and boxwood in this arrangement have a glossy surface that reflects the light. The poly mesh fabric is shot through with a gold thread every so often. Arranging it in multiple curves and layers present lots of metallic surface area to the available light.

Most of the green in my garden is long gone, but for the evergreens. Needled evergreens present as little in the way of surface area to winter sun and winds-this helps them to conserve whatever moisture they have stored to survive the winter. I don’t expect or get sparkle from evergreen boughs, unless I have sprayed them with wilt pruf or vaporgard. These waxy antidessicants will impart some shine to your cut evergreens. Burt there are other ways to introduce a little sparkle. If you use artificial holiday picks in your outdoor containers, test them first. A dunk in a glass of water will tell you just about instantly whether the material is suitable for outdoor use.

Poly mesh is not a natural material. It is just what the name says it is. It will have the same springy shape in March that it has now. Plenty of companies make plastic ornaments for outdoor use at the holidays, but glass ornaments are fine. We all have windshields, don’t we? If I use glass ornaments outdoors, I glue on and seal the caps. As long as you can keep water outside of the ornament, you should be fine. Natural Michigan holly is notorious for dropping its berries fairly quickly. A thorough soaking with vapor gard will add lots of gloss to that gorgeous red, and help prevent berry drop.

Sparkle comes in an incredible variety of textures. Glittered picks reflect lots of light. Plastic sprayed with a metallic coating glows. Ornaments coated in glass or plastic beads refract an incredible amount of light. Anodized aluminum wire comes in a wide variety of colors. Some paper wrapped metallic picks will survive the winter outdoors-as long as there is no rain. Only snow. Snow resistant is much different than water resistant. Should you have lots of rain in November and December, an acrylic sealer might help you out.

We did this pair of Branch tapers for holiday and winter today. The topiary forms were wound with lights after I took this picture. The big leaves of preserved silver eucalyptus reflect a lot of light. Lots of black picks with rhinestone dots will reflect the natural and artificial light. Lots of the frasier fir boughs have small shiny gray ornaments wired to the tips.

There are lots of opportunities for sparkle here. Located at the end of the driveway, these will transform and reflect the available winter light many times over.

This third pot is located under the under hang, and will never get much in the way of light. The silver glittered sticks in the center will make the most of whatever light is available. I have clients for whom natural materials are the materials of choice. Others like a little sparkle. The best part of decorating the garden is that so many materials are available, anyone can assemble a group of materials that perfectly expresses their own individual idea of the holiday.

The pale gold metallic picks in several heights, the cream and gold sinamay, and the pale gold pine cones in this pot are rather subdued in this pot during the day. Come dark, the garland lights on the topiary form will create a whole lot of sparkle.

Glass is a highly reflective material. There are enough shapes, sizes, and colors of glass ornaments to inform countless different holiday designs outdoors.

In a dark interior room, glass ornaments will gently shimmer. The plastic bead garlands pictured here come in a 30 foot length for 6.00. They can create a lot of holiday cheer, for not so much of an investment.

I have yet to see a landscape visually harmed by a little sparkle at the holidays. This is the time of year when a little celebration seems just right.

My favorite part of this magnolia holiday wreath? The pale chocolate string ribbon-shimmering.

Posted on: November 28, 2014 6 Comments

Filed Under: Winter, Holiday Tagged With: sparkly materials, holiday sparkle, holiday and winter decor, holiday arrangements, holiday containers

At A Glance: Detroit Garden Works Holiday

For everyone who lives too far away to visit, to follow is a collection of pictures of the shop decked out for the winter and holidays. The snow this morning-appropriate to the occasion.