6 Tips for Taking Care of Your Live Christmas Decor

6 Tips for Taking Care of Your Live Christmas Decor

Have you ever got live greens and only to have them look bad before the holidays? While we can’t guarantee that these tips will prevent the greens from turning brown and losing needles before Christmas, here are a few practices that can help prevent it from happening.

There is nothing worse than buying a live arrangement or wreath only to have it dry out, turn yellow, and/or lose most of its needles before Christmas. But the good news is that there are some things that you can do to help prevent this from happening.

Consider these options:

1. Consider what type of greens that you are buying:

   This is something that is not often thought of but one of the best ways to make sure that your greens last has to do with the greens that you choose. Consider for a moment two of our most popular greens. Most of the wreaths that we sell and most of the greens we use in the arrangements that we use are Douglas Fir. The second most popular green that we sell is Fraser Fir. Of these two greens, Fraser Fir tends to have better needle retention and lasts longer. Beyond this, we have found that Fraser Fir is becoming increasingly popular in the past several years.

2. Make sure that they look fresh when you buy them:

   This is something that is common sense, but something that is easily overlooked when you go to purchase your decorations, but you want to make sure that the greens look good when you get them. If your greens don’t look good in the first place, they won’t last as well.

3. Placing outdoors vs. indoors:

   One thing to consider is that the live greens will not last as long indoors as they will outdoors. The reason for this is that indoors is warmer. This is made worse if the air in your home is dry. There are some that even recommend placing a humidifier in the house when you have the greens to allow them to last longer.

4. Consider where you place the greens:

   Where you place the greens matter. Indoors you don’t want to place near vents. Outdoors, your best bet will be in the shade and where the greens can get rain. Even something like wind can dry out the greens faster. Another thing that is worth noting is that real wreaths do not last between storm doors, because it gets so warm. Even artificial can be a problem if it gets warm enough to melt the hot glue if the wreaths have it.

5. Water or mist them:

   Though it is not always necessary, there are benefits to watering and misting the greens. This should be done once a week to every day to help keep the greens fresh. Another thing that you can do if you buy a blank wreath or greens is to immerse the wreath or greens in water either overnight or for 24 hours. Arrangements in floral foam also need to be watered. This becomes less important once the floral foam freezes if the arrangement is outside.

6. Consider using an anti-wilt spray:

   This is another good option that some may not know about. But there are sprays that you can buy that help prevents wilting. Top brands are Wilt-Pruf or Bonide Wilt-Stop. Theseanti-transpirants can also be used to prevent Rhododendrons from wilting in the winter and other types of wind burn. They also can be used to help prevent transplant shock or winter salt damage.

Have you ever tried any of these practices? Do you have any tips that you would add? Comment below!