HOLIDAY WREATH: NATURAL AND NATIVE

THE WREATH  PLACED OVER THE FIREPLACE

ENHANCED WITH RED HOLY BERRIES AND WHITE SNOWBERRIES

Monday, 8:30 AM.  34 degrees F at the ferry dock, 32 on the back porch.  Wind SSE, mostly calm with light gusts.  The sky is mostly cloudy, the humidity 77%.  The barometer is falling, now at 29.96".  The high today will be in the mid 40's, falling to the mid-thirties with mixed skies for the balance of the week.
  Thanksgiving over, it was time yesterday to hang the holiday wreath over the fireplace.  This year Joan enhanced the balsam fir wreath with twigs of winterberry, a red-berried native holy, and white snowberry.
   Winterberry, Ilex verticilata, in the Holy Family (Aquifoliaceae), is a native northern holly.  It is deciduous, but the female plants are loaded with bright red winter fruit.  The selection 'Red Sprite' is a compact, 3'-4' tall variety that bears heavily.  It needs a male pollinator, the compact 'Jim Dandy', that of course does not bear fruit.  These are spectacular shrubs for the northern winter landscape.  The male and female flowers are, however, insignificant.

  There are other, larger cultivars of the native shrub, and this large native species of northern swamps and rivers can itself be an attractive landscape plant.  It grows in good bottom land, in wet soil, but will also do well in drier locations.  I have seen it growing along the Wisconsin River and elsewhere in northern and central Wisconsin.  The berries are not poisonous, and are good winter wildlife food but are inedible for humans.
   Snowberry, Symphorocarpos albus, in the Honeysuckle Family (Caprifoliaceae) is a large (ovef 6' height and spread) shrub native to much of Canada and the northern and western U.S.  It has opposite, orbicular, blue-green leaves and almost insignificant purplish flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.  It bears an abundance of two-seeded white berries that are very attractive (don't eat them, they will make you vomit).
   Snowberry is an important wildlife plant, the branches and leaves for browse and the berries for winter food.  It will grow in sun or partial shade, in a variety of habitats, from stream banks to forest understory.  It was popular in landscaping a century ago but is less used now, except for restoration work.  It is still obtainable, and I use it fairly often, as it is easy to establish and quite attractive, particular in winter.
   We no longer do much decorating for the holidays, but wreaths and greenery are essential, and for us the more natural and native the better.