Regular readers will know that on Sunday it was the TNWC 5th birthday party, which was held at my house with 11 lovely guests – all readers of the website and blog.  I made a number of items for the party, which I hope to share with you, but to start with I wanted to share this natural hedgerow wreath I created.  All the photos are taken on my phone so nothing fancy!

My hedgerow wreath was created using hawthorn cuttings, mostly green ones, but I managed to find a few with the pretty white blossom already out.  Before I go any further I must say I wouldn’t recommend you to use hawthorn, even though it is so beautiful and so seasonal at the moment.  Why?  Because it droops incredibly quickly – more on that below.

If you like this idea and think you might create one for your wedding or a party, do a test wreath a couple of days before with a variety of foliage cuttings and see how it looks a couple of hours, even a day later – those things that have held up should be the ones you go for, as no one wants a droopy wilting wreath!

I started with a pre-made twiggy wreath.  I bought this one a number of years ago, but some places you might find them are Daisy Shop, Michael Dark (there are wicker wreaths in the ‘baskets and wicker ware’ category – thanks to BareBlooms for this tip), Ebay or Hobby Craft.

First of all I attached my ribbon with which I would hang it.  I have a big box of all kinds of ribbons that I’ve collected, so I always have a stash to raid – luckily there was this nice thick dark green ribbon which went perfectly with the hawthorn.  I simply tied it round the wreath and knotted it.

Next I sifted through my cuttings to find the pieces I wanted to use.

Before I fastened them in place, I would stick the end in between the twigs and then bend it round the curve of the wreath to see how it looked.  When I was happy, I took some green raffia and secured the hawthorn cutting in a couple of places.  I trimmed the long ends off when my wreath was finished.

I find using raffia is just right – it’s easy to poke through gaps in the wreath, it ties tightly and you don’t notice it once the wreath is finished.  If you use something thicker like string or twine its a lot more visible, which I don’t think you really want.

So you just keep building up your wreath in this way until it’s as lush and full as you want it.

I found it helped to hold it up and away from you by the ribbon, this gives you an idea of how it will look when it’s hanging up and whether one side looks fuller than the other.  Just balance it out until you’re happy with appearance.

Finally, I finished my wreath off by using a piece of hawthorn with the white blossom, which I placed in the bottom curve – it was lovely as a simple green wreath, but I think the pretty white flowers made it even better.

All that was left to do was to hang it from the front door knocker – and it looked beautiful.  However, as I mentioned, the hawthorn sadly drooped very quickly.  I made this wreath the night before, and when I came down in the morning it looked very miserable, despite keeping it in the cool porch overnight.  I had to ‘refresh’ the wreath by simply adding new pieces of hawthorn to disguise the droopy bits.

Luckily, hawthorn seems to keep quite well if you pop the cuttings in water – thankfully I’d put the rest of the hawthorn I’d foraged in water overnight so had a fresh supply to redo the wreath with.  I do recall that there is some old wives tale that says you shouldn’t bring hawthorn inside, but it was just too lovely and seasonal at the moment not to!

I know I’m not known for sharing lots of my own projects like this, to be honest I never think they’re that good to share as they’re usually just things I’ve done spur of the moment without a lot of planning, but if you like them then I can try and do more for you.  

If you’d like to encourage me share more of my own ‘how to’ guides like this, do leave me a message in the comments box below.