Garden Art: Create a Beautiful Living Succulent Winter Wreath

1. Welcome to Succulent Wreaths: Hi, everyone. My name's Kelly Newbury and I'm from Potato Plant. Now, today I'm going to show you how to put a bit of a twist on an old tradition. We're going to add succulents to our Christmas break and just in time for the festive season. So today I will show you how to create your very own succulent free. Now these rates are made up from they're reef itself, succulents, moss and beautiful flowers. They're really easy to make, and I encourage you to enroll now so that you can learn how to do this yourself. And the best thing is, you don't actually need to use it as a wreath. If you don't have somewhere to hang one of these because they can be quite large, you can use it as a beautiful centerpiece for your Christmas table. There's such a beautiful eyepiece, and I do encourage you to enroll now and learn how to make your very own succulent wreath 2. Materials: all right, So before we get started, it's a good idea to get all the materials who will be using together. So we're gonna get our hands dirty. You don't want to be trying to find things As you go first up. You need to decide what sort of a wreath you're going to use. So I've got two varieties here. This 1st 1 is it's got a lack had finished you. We have to get this from any craft store. They're really easy to come by, but they're no longer alive. Where is this one is also, it's a more natural looking race that's a lot larger. Uh, you probably need to get this from either a florist or flower markets or some garden stores have them as well. If you can't find either of these, there's also metal wreaths available. If you use a metal roof, you'll just need to jam pack up full of sphagnum moss. So it's really up to you. What sort of a style you want to use next up? The key focal point off our succulent rate is, of course, our succulent, so you need to pick out a few succulent plants that you'd like to use. Pick the more hardy versions. Don't look. Use any of those really delicate succulents because they are going to go through a bit to get them into the race. So we want to make sure they survived the process. These are all established plants that I selected, but you can also actually use cuttings as well. Next up, we've got a couple of different types of moss. We've got our green living most. Now you can get this again from Flores and we've got asked Bagna moss. Now sphagnum moss comes in a compressed brick like this. It's super light. It doesn't weigh anything, and then you need to moisten it to get it all to spread out like this. You can get this from hardware stores and nurseries. We need out scissors and fishing. Line these two very important utensils. When you're selecting your fishing line, make sure you pick one that sort of fish that are 5 to £8. Anything more than that in the fishing wires just gonna be too thick, so we only need a really nice like thin fishing line. And finally, this last material is optional. If you'd like to include any sort of dried flowers or Berries or anything like that on your wreath, you can add those in now. It's not necessary. I want to focus on the succulent side of things. So if you do decide to add in the flowers, that's just a personal preference. All right, let's get started constructing out wreath. 3. Preparing Your Wreath: Okay, so let's get started constructing our rate. The first thing that we need to do is prepare the reef. Today, I'm going to use this bigger, more natural one. I really like the natural look of rates, so that's why I selected this one. As you can see, though, it's got a lot of bits of n paces sort of straggling around. What we need to do is trying to weed them into the race, or we can cut them off. So where possible, weave them through the read. This will give you more to secure your college to annual flowers, too, so tuck them in. But with these short of it, it's just going to be a bit tricky, so I'll just cut them off instead. The other thing is, some people prefer a really natural looking wreath if that the case feel free to leave them on. So once you've prepared your rate, you've got most of your it's sort of tucked in or cut off. Now we need to decide where we're going to put our succulents. Today I am going to use three succulents, and I think I'm going to feature them at the bottom of the wreath. I really do like how that looks, so I'll put them sort of here. Yeah, and here, when you're ready, you get a large clump obvious bagna. Most bring it out if it's too wet, and then we need to shove it into the wreath in the three spots where you want your succulents to bay the most bagna must you use, the better. This is what your succulents will grow from way. Don't put any soil into our rate so they will grow through the sphagnum moss. Once you've got your three spots ready, the next step is to secure the reef. To do this, we use fishing wire. A fishing line. Basically, what you need to do is wrap it tightly around each bit of sphagnum moss. So this does take a little while. But you want to really make sure that there's planning of fishing line around your reef because this is what we will use to secure the's succulents with and whole story. If you decide to use flowers, will secure the flowers then, so you do it really heavily around the bits of sphagnum moss and then a little bit more lightly around the rest of the ring. 4. Attaching Succies: Okay, So now, as you can see, we've got the fishing line away around the Great. So what we now need to do is cut it and tie it off. So I'll just read, right? It's really important that you do this, apply tightly as you want. We even wind your way around because this is what we will be securing our succulent with and also our flowers tied off with a double knot. And now it's time to a touch the succulents. So this is by Father Trickiest step in the process. So do bear with me and do keep at it because it is really rewarding. So I've got my succulents out off their pots. I need to decide which ones I want to put where I think I like ones like this sort of in the center and then with these other larger ones on the edge. So to get started, what we need to do is make a nice hole through aspect, the most throughout wreath that we're going to thread out succulents through. So this is the tough part if you need to, you can use scissors to get through their careful that you don't stab yourself on the other side, open them up a little. There we go. There's my whole now, and we are literally going to shove our succulent through. So succulent have very hardy root systems, which is, and I did specifically want you to use the more hardy version so we don't use lose too many of their leaves as we go, and we have shoving it through the hole that we've created. As we go. Use bits of your sphagnum moss around the edge of succulent to secure in place, and then we'll use more fishing line to secure even further. If you lose leaves along the way, don't worry. You can actually use them to propagate the succulent propagate. More succulents. If you'd like to learn at how to do that, I have a whole class on propagating succulents, so check that out as well. As you can see. I've now put the sphagnum moss around the edges off the secular and I'll be using. I will cut the fishing line and I'll use fishing line to secure this. It's easier to work with shorter bits of fishing line. As tempting as it is to cut back on your cutting it is much easier. And as you're securing it, working a sort of X shape. So you're coming from both sides off succulent and you ask curing it to the moss. Make sure you tie it off. Is you guard now? You'll probably have to do this a few times because, like I said, this is how succulent sort of attached to the rate. So it's really important that it's done nice and tight and that your succulent is really secure. As you can see, the roots haven't actually come through on the back here, but it doesn't hurt to put some sphagnum moss at the back Now, the reason we do that is so that if the roots do grow through, they've got something to hinge on, too. So will now work to secure that, and then we'll move on to our next succulent again. Make sure you tie off your fishing line nice and tightly. Okay, Now we're going to do exactly the same thing for the remaining succulents. We're going. Teoh, poke a hole through the reef, shoved the succulents in and secure them with both sphagnum moss and fishing line 5. Adding Moss: Okay, now we've secured as succulents. It's really important to pick up your reef and make sure that nothing falls. So we've got something dangling That's okay. It depends on the look that you're going for. It's important to remember that gravity will work on these these succulents, and they will slowly start to droop over time. But that's fine. You just want to make sure you get a little bit of a shake and nothing comes out. The next step is using green moss, so this is an optional step. You don't need to use green moss on your on your wreath. It's really just a personal preference. I'm going to use it just to demonstrate. But like I said, if you prefer the brown rustic look, you can all mostly your wreath as it is now with justice succulents. But I'm going to show all the steps. So here we are going to attach some green living moss. Most most you'll find has got this sort of back layout. We don't really want any of this on our rates, so I try and just peel it off a much as you can and then use the top leafy green. Now, as you can see with this, Moss says lots of twig lee bits. I quite like them. I'm going to leave them on. But if you want, you can just pull them out and they come straight out like that. I'm going to use Moss in between the succulence. So mapping it out where I wanted to go and then you guessed it, we're going to secure it with fishing line. Okay? And make sure you tired off at the end like I've just done so and they have your green moss on the rate. The next step is to start attaching flowers and any sort of college that you'd like to add . Now, this is an optional step again. You don't need to do it. It's up to you. How rustic you want your right toe look 6. Flowers and Foliage: okay. And the last step is to add flowers to your wreath. So I've picked mostly flowers that will quite dry. The flowers aren't going to keep living. So you do want to make sure you pick ones that will dry out quite easily. Pickle stands like this as I want my succulents to be the rial focal point off the reef. I'm not going to use lots of flowers. It's going to be quite a light touch for me. But again, this is a personal preference. So what we do is we start weaving them through the rate that this is where all that fishing line comes in handy and position them as you guard. So we're just waving the flowers through the fishing line. Something's not working. Simply rip it off. Break it off, I should say and wave the short of it through to get the desired look. So, as you can see, I'm using quite a light touch. I'm being quite spots with the flowers that I am using to ensure that my succulents remain that really Cento center, focal point and the flowers used just to sort of break up a wreath. I also have some natural Berries here that I'm going to add down the bottom just to give a bit more interest to wear the succulent sauce. I'm simply just breaking them off and just poking them through the sphagnum moss and trying to catch a couple of pieces of fishing line on the way through to ensure that they stay secured. There we go, so I am actually very happy with that. Like I said, I don't want to take away from the succulence. I want them to be the rial center of attention. Now all I've got left to do is just to cut off these couple of black bits. My wreath just has one that's exposed, so I'll just cut that off as the finishing touch. And there we have an AL finished succulent rate, just in time for Christmas. 7. Caring For Your Wreath: Okay, now we've worked so hard to create our beautiful, succulent rate. We want to make sure that it lasts as long as possible. Now, if you're in a hot climate like Australia and you're having a really hot summer like we are , you need to be spraying your succulent at least once or twice, if not more awake. You'll notice the muscle starts to go yellow and brown if it's starting to dial. So if you notice that, give it a nice good soaking. If you're in a cooler climate, I will say you don't want this out in freezing conditions, so you may need to use it as a centerpiece rather than a wreath that goes on your door. If you've got snow outside, please don't put your succulent outside. Instead, use it as a nice, beautiful centerpiece for your Christmas table, and you'll only need water once every 1 to 2 weeks. So simply just give it a nice good spray, and that's it. After the Christmas period, you want your beautiful succulents to continue to grow. You can either remove them from the reef and replant them. Alternatively, you can put the whole race in the backyard, and it will actually start to grow. One final word you may have collected a few casualties along the way leaves offshoots those sorts of things. If that's the case, make sure you watch my course on propagating succulents because I'll take you through how to care for those succulent so that they flourish and grow into their own plans. We don't wanna be wasting any precious lays. 8. Thank You!: thanks so much for joining me for today's class. I absolutely cannot wait to see your finished read. So make sure you upload some photos into the project section of skill share. I would love to see them and that some progress shots along the way as well. If you have any questions about wreath succulents or caring for your reef, make sure you hit me off in the discussion section. I reply to every comment. Sorry, thanks so much for joining me, and I hope you have a really happy holiday season.