How To Make A Perfect Herb Wreath
Whether you use fresh herbs or dried herbs to make your wreath you can create a festive scented wreath for your door.
Making a wreath is a welcoming gesture to visitors and guests to your home. Using herbs just gives it that little bit extra in terms of aroma and warmth. You may want to change your wreath for each season and using natural twine will allow this with ease.
Nice and easy ideas for beginners and experts alike, also for those of us who aren’t particularly artistic!
How To Make A Fresh Herb Wreath
You will find a lot of ideas for fresh herbal wreaths and it is always a nice idea to go with what your heart tells you looks best and easiest to work with. Look for strong malleable stems and a vibrant color to the flowers. You may also want to think about the symbolism and meaning behind the flowers and herbs you use!
- If you are looking to make a lavender wreath you will need a lot of flowering stems. Take a visit to an online nursery like Lavender World who are dedicated to getting people growing and using lavender!
- The best time to harvest your flowers or stems is early morning. Once the dew has dried off in the sunshine, but before the heat of the day. Essential oils are not lost yet and the aroma is at it’s finest.
- Cut stems and flowers longer than you may need, if you cut down to where the stems naturally branch out it will also encourage new growth. We are all about next year’s harvest!
- You will need to wash away any bugs or pests from your fresh herbs. Rinse under the tap and then dry on a paper towel or in the sunshine. Don’t leave for too long as we want to retain as much freshness as possible.
- The wreath above was made using a Natural Willow Twig Wreath, which you can purchase via the link. It means that you need fewer stems as this one is chunky and just needs filling in. So you get that look of abundance and fecundity without cutting down all of your lavender!
- Tie bundles of around 12-15 stems together and tie on to the willow wreath frame, work backwards to cover each bunch. Use your fresh lavender. You can skip all of the above stages by buy lavender in bunches! No shame in this, especially if you buy from a reputable company!
- The very last few bunches will need to have their stems pushed back into the first few sprigs. This will conceal the twigs and make it look more continuous.
- Once you have filled the wreath with lavender, use your twine to wrap around it. This is the chance to lay and spread out the lavender to ensure it has that full look.
- Perfect as a gift for a loved one, a lavender wreath has hidden meaning. The color of purple is associated with royalty and regal greatness, whereas the herb itself has a meaning of purity and serenity. Perfect for a new home that you wish to bless with happiness.
How Long Does A Fresh Herb Wreath Last
This depends on which herbs you use and where you intend to hang your wreath. To increase longevity I recommend that once hung up, you leave your herb wreath where it is, this will limit the amount of drop off you will see.
I love an indoor wreath, hung on the back door of the kitchen or even a lavender wreath on the bedroom door. These will last well and if you have used herbs that are cut as softwood but tend towards hardwood then you will get a good drying out time on them.
Dust your indoor wreaths with a feather duster, do not use a cloth one as it will often take some of the flowers off. The scent should last well with most herbs as long as your don’t leave in extreme heat.
The color of dried herbs lasts well and you are probably likely to keep them looking vibrant for a year or more. This depends on aspects such as central heating if hanging indoors and amount of direct sunlight they receive if hanging outdoors.
TOP TIP- tie herbs together in bundles then you can tie them into the herbal display in a fast and efficient way. Meaning you can shift a Summer wreath into a Christmas wreath with removing a few dried flowers and adding a few festive baubles and rosemary sprigs.
How To Make A Rosemary Wreath
If you are interested in growing Rosemary we have an article about propagation and how to get the most from your plant, here.
Follow this step by step guide for how to make your own rosemary wreath from fresh softwood cuttings.
- You will need wire cutters, secateurs, twine, floral wreath frame
and plenty of Rosemary sprigs.
- The larger the wreath the longer the sprigs you need, so if you want to create a mini wreath out of rosemary go for cuttings around 6 inches in length.
- Choose the softwood cuttings from your Rosemary bush, this is very easy to achieve in Spring. However if you want a Winter wreath take cuttings and leave them to soak overnight, this will soften them up considerably.
- If you are using fresh softwood rosemary cuttings, do still soak for half an hour or so to get the bugs and dirt off. You want to be able to hang your wreath inside without fear of a bug infestation.
- Leave the sprigs to dry in the sunshine or on paper towel for a few hours. Not overnight though as they are at risk of drying up. Your wreath will benefit from flexible sprigs.
- Take a bunch of the rosemary sprigs and using the floral twine, tie them to the frame of the wreath.
- Layer the next bunch to cover the first tie on point of the wreath. This way you will have a continual coverage of sprigs. If you have selected sprigs with flowers on then you can position them within the bunch for best display purposes.
- Carry on filling the floral wreath with your rosemary sprigs, working backwards to cover the tie on points. Around 50 sprigs will make a very full wreath.
- You can now add any extras that you like, ribbons, lavender etc. Rosemary makes a great base for any additional flowers or foliage.
- Bunching your extras together in little parcels works very well and it makes it cute to add them back in at a later date. Meaning an Easter herb wreath can be transformed into a Summer wreath without having to take it all apart and start over.
and plenty of Rosemary sprigs. How To Dry Herbs
We have a full guide to drying lavender that you may find useful here. It will outline how easy it is to dry in stalks, however they are then nowhere near as malleable as fresh herbs. Therefore unless you are bunching lavender and indeed rosemary or any other hardwood shrub like herb we would not recommend drying first. More likely than not they will dry in the wreath, this is true for hanging indoors, some wetter locations outside may struggle.
Dried herbs that work well in a wreath tend to be annuals or the flowers of perennials. Hyssop dried retains its color wonderfully, as does echinacea and even mint flowers. I would recommend air drying as you are sort of getting a tow for one here. You can enjoy the beauty and fragrance of these herbs as they dry in a cool, but airy part of your home. Choose somewhere with little to no direct sunlight. Group the flowers with around 4-5 inches of stalk remaining and ‘tie together’ with elastic bands. This will allow the stems to breathe and get air around them, reducing the risk of mold build up. You may want to leave them for around 3 weeks and then they are ready to go!
Consider using seed heads in your herb wreaths as well. We find that this helps to keep the display seasonal and tiny birds may well visit your front door to feed from them!
How To Make A Dried Herb Wreath
For your wreath you may wish to use fresh herbs for the main body, or even plump for the classic pine as you can see above. This way you can then bundle your dried herbs together to make bunches that can be tied on. Using the dried herbs you have grown is a great way to being that Summer feeling into your home all year round.
Once you have the herbs dried you can lay the wreath out and decide on your design. Move your flowers around before attaching and then you can attach with twine or by slotting into the existing wreath.
What Next
- Herbs That Sell Best – Making A Profit Selling Herbs Herb wreaths are a great way to show off your creativity and this can be turned into a profit making idea.
Obviously here at Homegrown Herb Garden we love to grow and dry our own herbs and will always be trying out new ways to improve our techniques. So if you are interested in learning more and growing a wider variety of herbs in your garden, then why not subscribe?
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