Christmas Decorations

Christmas STYLING

with Shane Connolly

The florist by Royal Appointment creates seasonal arrangements at Bridget Elworthy’s Wardington Manor, explaining his creative process to Jacky Hobbs

Opposite Bridget Elworthy’s Wardington Manor near Banbury.

Clockwise from right

The cutting gardens o er rich pickings even in winter; a soft wreath of garden moss; Wardington’s boat house; Shane Connolly carries cuttings to the house; Shane with mistletoe from Netherwood Estates.

Wrap up warmly and a winter forage for nature’s seasonal decorations will always be most rewarding. The traditional trappings, holly, ivy and mistletoe, come gloriously gift-wrapped in Christmas custom, but there is a wealth of more imaginative and ethereal pickings to be gleaned from nature’s larder. A hedgerow interwoven with drifts of old man’s beard, teasels and downy thistleheads is a real treasure trove. In the garden, scented or colourstained twigs and stems and salvaged, desiccated seedheads will provide additional alternative decoration.

These are the finds that Shane Connolly, florist by Royal Appointment, values the most: “Making beauty out of things we find rather than things we buy or which come at great cost,” as he puts it. Shane works in tandem with the seasons and his artisan-style is “led by nature”: loose, organic and freeflowing. Underpinned by environmental consciousness, he campaigns for more sustainable floristry (#nofloralfoam and #sustainablefloristrynetwork) employing alternative solutions, composting spent flowers and replanting living plants worked into arrangements. Even the living native field maples and hornbeams he orchestrated, a oresting the aisle of Westminster Abbey for the wedding of Catherine Middleton and Prince William in 2011, were replanted at the royal couple’s Anmer Hall residence afterwards. Shane’s creativity incorporates the language of flowers and Catherine’s bouquet was brimming with symbolism: lily of the valley signifying ‘the return to happiness’; sweet William for ‘gallantry’; and myrtle as an ancient symbol of ‘a happy marriage’.

The Land Gardeners, Bridget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld, invite Shane, a regular client, to plunder their cutting gardens and vessel-filled Flower Room at Wardington Manor in Oxfordshire to show us how to make wreaths, garlands and arrangements, that ring with the spirit of Christmas and chime with Mother Nature.

Make a Wreath Hedgerow Halo

‘ The Christmas wreath symbolises the cycle of life, its circular shape being without beginning or end – a ring of eternity,” explains “ fern fronds gilded with gold, silver or copper spray paint: “Less is more!” he maintains. Heavier heads must be tied in at the base with garden twine, but

Shane, deftly intertwining coloured delicate elements can simply be inserted dogwood stems coppiced from his own between the dogwood stems. “Arrange garden to create a loosely woven wreath rhythmically, don’t regiment. Dress base. Shane has used tip clippings of the circlet with flurries of old man’s

Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ and beard, woven casually through the fixed ebony Cornus alba ‘Kesselringii’, their cardoon heads, mimicking its habit in colours rich and glossy. “Pre-soaking the hedgerow,” Shane explains. the stems makes them more pliable and Indian braid is used here to bring easier to work with,” he advises, and he together the halo of colours, but any leaves a third of each stem free, radiating natural binding will work: think jute, outwards for a more handcrafted feel. hessian or ra a. This mantelpiece or

Shane adds cardoon, thistle and door wreath is potentially everlasting other dried seedheads, with filigree and can be revived every year.

Clockwise from top left

Shane starts with a circle of pre-soaked dogwood stems; cardoon heads are tied in with garden twine; soft texture comes from the wispy heads of old man’s beard; Shane hangs his finished wreath with colourful Indian braid; the wreath can be reused and refreshed every year.

Shane at work in The Land Gardeners’ Flower Room, where buckets, vases, urns and dry flowerheads are stored.

Wardington’s Minstrels’ Gallery becomes a seasonal spectacle with the addition of Shane’s woodland garland.

Tie a Garland Winter Woodland

Shane’s creativity is spontaneous and fluid – he was due to dress the manor’s fireplace but was drawn instead to the Minstrels’ Gallery. Here he allows the unleashed, natural gait of branch and bough to fashion a garland that sweeps across it. Taking his lead from nature, he harnesses the inherent organic movement of each incorporated element, explaining that “there’s no preconceived, fixed design”.

This woodland garland was forged through layering to create a natural canopy of foliage. “Begin by tying in a loose framework, binding tight with twine (or reusable cable ties for really heavy boughs) airy lengths of lichened larch and weightier boughs of fragrant fir and scented spruce,” he explains. Shane aims for movement rather than symmetry. Variegated holly, which gives more lift, and long trails of ivy are symbolically woven into the seasonal design, whilst living pots of false holly, Osmanthus heterophyllus ‘Goshiki’, straddle gaps, tied securely to the base of the gallery’s balustrading.

A bough of berried mistletoe, gifted from his neighbour’s farm on the Netherwood Estate in Worcestershire, takes lofty centre-stage. “Druids held mistletoe as sacred, never letting it touch the ground,” he notes. There are no wires, cables or lights: instead, Shane organically illuminates the gallery with light-catching sprays of silvered honesty and glints of gilded bracken fronds. Bolder, brighter garlands can be created by adding orange or red berries and hedgerow hips, tasselled catkins or large flowerheads like hydrangeas. Complement with small living pots of shrubs, such as winter-flowering heather, viburnum or skimmia.

Clockwise from top left

The garland is built around branches of lichened larch and evergreen cedar; long trails of ivy are woven into the design; bracken fronds are gilded with copper paint; a bough of symbolic mistletoe takes centre stage; natural ‘lights’ are created with silver honesty seedcases.

Lay a table Simply and Seasonally in Silent White

Shane raids Bridget’s Flower Room, claiming the array of silvered candlesticks and assorted tarnished vessels, sugar bowls, sauce boats, tankards and trophies for table decoration. Non-prescriptive and adept at improvisation, Shane encourages using any similar assortment of small containers, linked by colour or material, such as white china or glass bottles.

Simplicity is at the heart of Shane’s creative process: “It’s the idea that fewer elements can be used abundantly, using the most beautiful seasonal flowers and letting them shine,” he explains. Just a handful of flowers of each type can be used to create a stunning and versatile display that can shrink and grow in accordance with its setting. “Lots of low vessels facilitate maximum decoration with minimal social interruption – you can talk over or about them,” he adds.

The winter-white Christmas rose, Helleborus niger, brings simple elegance to scattered silverware and can be floated in wide-mouthed bowls or held in the woody crooks of perfumed winter honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima. Scented narcissi, wintersweet or witch hazel are good alternatives. “Scent adds an unexpected dimension, but use it in moderation, since it can taint the taste buds,” explains Shane.

The hellebores are pre-conditioned, a day ahead, to prolong the display. To do this, stand cut stems in an inch of just-boiled water. When it cools, top up with cold water to condition overnight. Growing hellebores, which will be planted outdoors after Christmas, spill from larger vessels, urns and ice buckets, decorating the room’s sideboards and sills. The dining room’s dark wood is blanketed in Bridget’s snow-white linen sheets, although “a decorator’s dust sheet will do,” argues Shane. White candles add the finishing touch: random in spacing and height, they illuminate Shane’s almost reverent, made-inminutes, seasonal table setting.

Seek inspiration in Shane’s books, Table Flowers, The Language of Flowers and A Year in Flowers, and Bridget and Henrietta’s The Land Gardeners Cut Flowers.

Clockwise from top left

White linen cloth and silvered candlesticks on the Wardington dining room table; pots of living Christmas roses will be replanted in the garden; silver vessels filled with Helleborus niger and winter-flowering honeysuckle; candles of random heights add the finishing touch; vessels have come from Bridget’s Flower Room.