Decorating for the Holidays with Live Potted Plants

The holidays are an extremely busy time of the year. We go from Halloween with spooky decorations, to Thanksgiving with autumn harvest styles, then to finally to Christmas. For those who enjoy decorating (and have the storage space for all that stuff) it can be a great deal of fun, but for others who may enjoy the holidays much more than decorating for them there are options – especially if you are a gardener! This week I potted up some live plants that will be decorating our front entryway all the way through Christmas. Once Christmas is over they can be planted in the garden to add to the landscape as evergreen plantings. (All the materials for this planting project were provided by Lowe’s for Lowe’s Creative Ideas)

I selected several different types of plants. The main plants are evergreen trees and shrubs that can serve as privacy screens and winter color in the future: Arborvitae and Blue Spruce. I also selected a couple heucheras because they retain their foliage throughout the winter. After buying a couple 9 packs of ornamental kale I was all done with selecting the plants.

I needed a few pots for the plants to go in so I bought 4 larger ones for the arborvitae and 4 smaller ones for the spruce trees. I paired the heucheras with two of the arborvitae pots and some kale. The other two pots of arborvitae have kale. The spruce trees would go solo in each pot.

When planting shrubs, trees, and perennials always check the root systems. Often the root systems have been inside their pots for a while and need to be loosened to encourage good growth. If you don’t loosen them the roots can circle the pot and become girdled. Usually the roots are easy to loosen by rubbing around the root system but you may need to cut them with a sharp knife if they are too pot bound.

After planting I mixed the pots up with pumpkins from our Halloween decorations. When the pumpkins begin to fade (or rot) and Thanksgiving passes we’ll remove them and add Christmas lights to the trees and a few little decorations that my kids will enjoy setting up!

As long as the ground can be dug this winter we’ll be able to plant the trees in the ground. If you have fall berries, like holly, you could add a little more color to the design that will last all the way through the winter!