Home&Real Estate Home Front PLANNING AHEAD ... Holiday Traditions at Filoli, with a theme of “Ice Fantasy,” takes place from Friday, Nov. 29, through Saturday, Dec. 7, and includes the opening night premiere shopping event ($75-85), daytime and evening holiday shopping boutiques ($25-35), lunch buffet ($60-75), Bistro in the Cafe ($50-55) and a Children’s Party ($55-65 adults, $35 child). Advanced registration is encouraged since some events are already sold out. Information: 650-364-8300 or www.filoli.org
a sign of something special
During Hidden Villa’s hands-on class students will create wreaths from organically grown flowers by Carol Blitzer s a child, Lanette Anderson’s mom would hang a wreath on the door around Thanksgiving, “a symbol in our house that something special was happening.” Today, as the horticulturist and flower farmer at Hidden Villa, Anderson will be teaching a class on Nov. 16 on how to make floral wreaths from organic raw materials,
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A floral wreath begins with a frame, made of pruned grape vines. Then dried flowers, including statice, strawflowers, poppy-seed heads and lavender — all from Hidden Villa — are added.
ECO-FRIENDLY CANDLES ... Lori Stoia will teach a class on “Eco-Friendly Holiday Candles” from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2, at Palo Alto High School, Room 106, 50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto. The class will cover candle safety, equipment, natural materials (including soy and beeswax) and various candle-making techniques. Expect to take home a container candle, a rolled beeswax candle and a votive candle. A handout will be provided on how to make candles at home. Cost is $40 plus a $20 materials fee. Information: 650-329-3752 or www.paadultschool.org NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT ... Deva Luna, horticulturist, garden coach and garden designer, will offer a class on “Herbs and Natural Remedies for Colds and Flu” from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9, at Common Ground, 559 College Ave., Palo Alto. The class will cover herbal teas and tonics and include recipes in an interactive class. Cost is $31. Information: 650-493-6072 or www.
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SHAPING UP ... UC Master Gardner Roberta Barnes will offer a free workshop on “Pruning Shrubs to Maintain Natural Form and Beauty” from 10 to 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Palo Alto Demonstration Garden, 851 Center Drive, Palo Alto. Focus will be on choosing the right-sized plants, understanding thinning and shearing and knowing when to prune. She will demonstrate pruning techniques and talk about rejuvenating over-sheared shrubs. The talk will be followed by an open garden tour. Information: Master Gardeners at 408-282-3105, between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., Monday through Friday or http://mastergardeners.org
Wreaths:
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Lanette Anderson, Hidden Villa’s horticulturist and flower farmer, will be teaching a class on creating floral wreaths, using materials from the educational farm.
all grown at the Los Altos Hills farm and education center. Participants will begin by constructing frames from 8-10-foot lengths of grape vines, which were pruned from the small vineyard. The grapes are grown for distribution through Hidden Villa’s CSA, community-supported agriculture. The vines need pruning around now anyway, Anderson said. “It’s a nice value added for the farm” to re-use them as wreath frames. The class begins outside where they have room to move their “whole body around to get it into shape,” she added. Because the crafters aren’t starting with ready-made frames, each wreath will be unique, in both size and shape, she said. Then they’ll add dried flowers, which Anderson has been collecting throughout the season and drying (at home, she suggests cutting longish stems, tying a cluster together, then hanging them upside down in a dark closet, to prevent the sun from bleaching out the color). She’ll be offering fragrant lavender and Sweet Annie, with its citrus-y scent, as well as strawflowers, amaranth, papery statice, safflowers and poppy-seed heads. “Here at Hidden Villa we have so many flowers, from asters to zinnias. We’re a small, organic farm so diversity is key. That’s true for flowers as well as vegetables,” Anderson said. She points to the strawflowers that she harvested today. “They’re already quite dry and easy to work with because they’re not brittle but dry — and they come in gorgeous colors,” she added. Most of the flowers can be woven into (continued on page Î ®
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