Getting Started

A sign of the season, this circle of green beckons holiday guests to the festivities within. It will stay evergreen until spring and retain its piney perfume if given an occasional spritz of water.

• A sturdy 12- to 20-inch wire ring
• 10-gauge florist's wire
• Fresh spruce, cedar, white pine, and fir boughs
• 3-inch-wide red ribbon for a bow
• A sturdy pair of pruning clippers
• Pinecones, cranberries, pink pepperberries, seed cakes for the birds, gilded nuts, lotus pods, twigs, or other embellishments

1. Assemble boughs. Gather an armful of evergreen boughs -- Douglas and balsam fir, spruce, pine, and cedar. Cut into even 10- to 12-inch lengths and trim off smaller side shoots to bare about 4 inches of stem. Make a bouquet of four stems of each green. Bind them together with 10-gauge wire.

2. Add greenery. Hang the wire ring with a rag strip to work with it easily from all angles. Start with the Douglas fir (the thickest green) and attach the bunches to the ring with additional wire. Cover the bare stems of each bunch with the greenery of the next so that all bare spaces are filled.