The growing season is most definitely over here in Massachusetts but there are still many materials in the garden and meadows that can be harvested to augment seasonal decor.

My garden club decorated the local Historical Society for a benefit house tour last week.  Epimedium, sage, leucothoe, fruit, rhododendron, grasses and a few mum blossoms tucked in made for a beautiful mantel display.

I used cattails, grasses, smokebush, rhododendron, leucothoe and milkweed pods in maple sap buckets to brighten our doorway for Thanksgiving.

I gathered some of these materials on a walk one misty morning

I left these lichens and mosses right where they were but couldn’t resist photographing them.

The beavers seem to be doing a bit of remodeling.

I’ll be out and about collecting greens, winterberry, grasses, wild rose hips, fallen birch branches, pine cones  and other treasures as I plan my Christmas decor.  Stay tuned….

Six years ago, I purchased a tiny Brugmansia from Logee’s Greenhouse in Connecticut.  The cultivar is “Jean Pasco”.   It has grown and grown and, every winter I bring it into the basement and let it go dormant so that I can continue to keep it alive for the next year.  I think I pruned it back improperly last year because it was very late in setting buds.  But it did set buds.. tons of them  and then the frosts came.

We covered the “Brug”  with sheets and placed a light bulb under the canopy and the plant didn’t freeze.

We moved the large pot around in the garden hoping to give it more sun during the day. The frost came  3 – 4 different nights.

We  finally lifted the massive thing into a wheelbarrow and wheeled it in and out of the garage every night.

Finally we were rewarded, and the Brugmansia buds blossomed.  The flowers are gorgeous and the perfume is intoxicating.

I am going to try to propagate it this year.  I may even have some plants to give away.  Any takers?