Christmas Components

Supporting plants add the finishing touch to arrangements for the holidays

At Christmastime the Big Red Guy gets all the credit and so do poinsettias. Well, Santa has his elves and we have our components that help shape our poinsettia arrangements into special displays for the holidays. Here is a list of supporting plants we use and what they bring to the table:

Spicy ‘Sangria’

FESTIVE

We’ve talked about ‘Sangria’ ornamental pepper recently, when we recommended it for Halloween décor. This pepper looks like it’s strewn with strings of holiday lights in shades of orange, red, and purple, so it’s already dressed for a party. We use spicy ‘Sangria’ during the Christmas season to add an unexpected festive touch—and a dash of hot, non-traditional color—to some of our unique holiday displays.

‘Diamond Frost’

SILVERY-WHITE

For the illusion of snow, white adds an appropriate wintery touch to a design. We have a few plants we rely on for adding a little natural frost to our holiday arrangements. ‘Diamond Frost’ euphorbia is one—it looks like a cloud. An airy clump of light green foliage is covered with tiny white flowers. 

Dusty miller

Dusty miller is another old standby when we need to add some silvery foliage; in this case it looks like we’ve tucked in some dainty lace handkerchiefs. Shades of green and red pop against the silvery-gray. 

‘Icicles’ 

Helichrysum ‘Icicles’, or licorice plant, adds classic holiday texture with long, needle-like silver foliage—as if a mound of Christmas tree branches got caught in an ice storm. It’s very elegant and very silvery.

‘Silver Bush’

Now, we introduced you to ‘Silver Bush’ a few weeks ago in Field Notes—you might remember its tiny, scale-like leaves of silvery white. This cushion of downy foliage looks more like a tree we’d encounter in the woods on a snowy evening. It’s becoming a fast favorite. 

Elegant ‘Glacier’ ivy

TRAILING

Low, trailing vines and ivy add flow to our holiday designs. ‘Glacier’ is an elegant English ivy with variegated leaves of silvery cream and green. It acts as a subtle complement to both bright red and white poinsettias. Notice the texture of the pointed leaves—they look graceful spilling over the edges of a planter. 

‘Needlepoint’, or birdsfoot ivy

Needlepoint ivy has a similar effect but with a brighter green, somewhat pointier leaf. Sometimes you’ll hear this referred to as birdsfoot ivy. 

Creeping wire vine

Creeping wire vine is another low trailing plant that we use for a different type of festive look. Leaves on this plant are small, round, and glossy light green; as they catch the light they almost look like bubbles overflowing or a hail of holiday confetti. We like the extra interest we get from the contrast of the dark, wiry stems. 

‘King Tut’

VERTICAL—GRASSES

To draw the eye up we use ornamental grasses; at around a foot tall they do the trick, plus several have interesting shapes as well. ‘King Tut’ is a prime example: it looks like umbrellas are opening at the top of these tall stems. We’ve painted some of this green grass silver for even more dramatic contrast in our Angel Frost arrangement. 

Juncus ‘Spiralis’

Juncus ‘Spiralis’ is another grass that ups the interest in a design considerably. We like the lighthearted unpredictability of this plant—we never know which direction these curly blades will choose to go. ‘Spiralis’ adds an important ingredient to our holiday designs: fun. 

Fiber optic grass

Fiber optic grass has a distinctive, interesting effect. Yes, the tiny white flower heads make it look like a bundle of fiber optic cable, but the gentle arch of the blades gives the impression of falling snow. Pretty cool. 

As you can see, we have a number of components to choose from when putting together our unique seasonal planters, bowls, and baskets—too many for all of them to appear in any one combination. Our goal is to give each beautiful arrangement its own distinct personality, so when we’re in the creative mode we choose carefully from our wide range of supporting players.