How to make a Foraged Autumn Wreath

With the hedgerows bursting with the seasons bounty now is an opportune time to explore the countryside and indulge in a spot of foraging to make an Autumn wreath. Hang on the front door or put on an outdoor table complete with hurricane lamp and candle, the wreaths are a lovely way to decorate the home and garden.

It's not until you really start looking in the garden and hedges that you can really appreciate what is available this time of year, and there's always more than you think. Beech with beech nuts make a great starting point and add some colour with hawthorn berries, rosehips, spindleberries and blackberries (mind those thorns though!). Old mans beard, seeds heads and ivy add some great texture too. Shrubs in the garden are also laden this time of year with berries too.

So to make your wreath you need a base, and this could be a woven willow base for example or a round wire base with moss wired onto it to create your foundations. 

Next make sprigs of greenery with a mixture of foliage to give it some depth and texture rather than just one type of foliage. Then wire the sprigs of foliage pointing at 2 o'clock all the way around the base so that your base is then covered in foliage and you have a foliage ring. The bigger and longer you make your sprigs of foliage the bigger your wreath will be.

Next take stems of your berries or rosehips and push them into the foliage or into the moss base so that they are secure. Keeping adding your berries, seedheads old mans beard etc until you are happy with the wreath. And remember anything goes, there is no right or wrong, its your Autumn wreath!

What you will need

- Secateurs 

- Florist Wire or string 

- Base  - wire base with moss wired on or woven willow base 

- Mixture of foraged foliage 

- Stems or berries such as hawthorn, blackberry, rosehips 

- Seed heads and/or old mans beard 

- Ribbon for hanging

Published: October 2023