Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education.

Let’s look at simple ways to dress up our homes for those of us who have great aspirations and little time.

Around the holiday times we like to brighten up our homes with flowers. If you buy a nice bouquet of roses you can gussy them up for the holidays with a few simple tricks. An easy way is to hide the stems with a cranberry frog. Take a bag of cranberries (hard ones) and wash them clean. Remove any that are soft. Pour the bag into your vase and fill with water. The cranberries will keep the stems in place and create a pretty effect in a clear vase. They will float a bit at first but then settle down. The cranberries last for about a week. This is best done in a nice wide clear vase to show off the cranberries.

When filling your vase think beyond flowers. Often people embellish our floral arrangements with ferns or magnolia leaves. At this time of year substitute holiday greens in for the traditional greenery. White pine, incense cedar and hollies make three good options.

You can also place holiday ornaments into the mix. In craft stores you will find wired stakes of different sizes. Wire the ornament to the stake and stagger the ornaments throughout the greenery.

Last year, I decided to fix some lady apples onto small green stakes and add then to the arrangement. While I was breaking the rules for good arrangements (fruit and flowers don’t mix well because the ethylene gas emitted by fruits will cut down on the life span of the flowers) it certainly looked nice and lasted long enough to make me happy.

Here are a few tips to make your life easier. Search the florists, craft stores and supermarkets for interesting decorative supplies. Pine sap can easily be removed from clothing with rubbing alcohol. For your tools and hands try hand sanitizer, baby oil, WD-40 or anything oily.

Roses are wonderful but so many times you bring them home and they droop within the first few days. Cut the roses at a 45° angle with either your pruners or a sharp knife. Place immediately into lukewarm water. Floral preservative increases the longevity of flowers by up to 75% so it is worth the small investment. If you don’t have floral preservative handy there are many homemade recipes. Here is just one:

Take 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of bleach and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and 1 quart of lukewarm water. The bleach keeps the mixture clean and free from bacteria, the sugar feeds the flowers and the citrus helps the flowers to take up water by making it slightly acidic.

There are many methods for reviving drooping flowers. One that works effectively for roses is to heat water up so that it is very hot (almost but not quite boiling). Dip the stems of the drooping roses into the hot water for 30 seconds keeping the flowers away from the steam. Re-cut the stems and place them back in a clean vase. They should revive within 15 to 30 minutes.

Rustin Dwyer is Visual Media Production Specialist at The New York Botanical Garden.

Don’t miss your chance to walk through a miniature New York cityscape, teeming with garden-scale model trains. Running through January 9, the Holiday Train Show offers New Yorkers (and visitors too!) a chance to see their city in a completely new way. Lose yourself among 140 beloved New York landmarks as the trains zip along over a quarter-mile of track in this miniature world inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.

Your trip to the Garden doesn’t end with the trains though. Performances of Tootle the Train™ and the Little Engine That Could™ along with Gingerbread Adventures in the Discovery Center run daily. Grab a bite in one of our two Cafes, get in some holiday shopping at the Shop in the Garden or just marvel at the 250 acres of natural beauty.

Get you tickets today!

Botanical Crafts with Madeline Yanni — A Centerpiece for All Seasons from The New York Botanical Garden on Vimeo.

Madeline Yanni is an instructor of Botanical Crafts in NYBG’s Continuing Education program.

With autumn and the holidays at hand, it’s an inspiring time to bring the outdoors inside by creating botanical centerpieces, topiaries, wreaths, gifts, and more. Handmade items can save you money and even time—I like to make crafts that, with some interchangeable elements such as candles or ribbons, can be used in more than one season.

The Continuing Education program offers a number of hands-on crafts courses to help you decorate your home with your own creations throughout the year, including this Saturday’s Holiday Crafts all-day program. Even if you’ve never done this before, don’t be inhibited. No experience is necessary. Come take a class or two.

I want to draw out your creativity and whet your appetite for this fun way to decorate with a step-by-step guide to creating a simple, inexpensive, wreath for your table. It can be changed from season to season and can also be used on your wall. It is made from a grapevine wreath adorned with parchment roses, seeded Eucalyptus, other botanicals, and pillar candles—materials available at a crafts store. Feel free to improvise and use other types of botanicals.

As with any crafts project, first read the instructions and collect the necessary materials.

Are you ready? Let’s begin!

See the materials checklist and detailed, step-by-step instructions for creating this seasonal holiday table wreath after the jump.

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