Festive rosemary and blood orange wreaths

Brought to you by Jane Byrne, our Kids’ Corner Contributor.

Over the autumn, I collected cuttings from my ornamental grape vine and wrapped and wound them into wreaths for Christmas. I then left them to dry. Wreaths can also be purchased in craft stores if you haven’t made one of your own.

In preparation for making my Christmas wreath, I dehydrated some slices of blood oranges. Dehydrating oranges is easy and can be done in the oven on a very slow heat or in a dehydrator and then stored in an air tight jar for many months.

To make your Christmas wreath you will need:

• Wreath

• Rosemary cuttings

• Dehydrated blood oranges or dehydrated oranges

• Jute string

• Scissors

Strip some stalks of rosemary of the lower leaves and thread them through the wreath, working your way around the shape, threading the rosemary through in the same direction. Rosemary is very flexible and will be easy to thread through.

Using slices of dehydrated blood orange, thread the jute string through the orange and tie the string onto the wreath.

Lastly tie some string to the top of the wreath for it to hang.

The fragrance of the rosemary is just wonderful and it will dry well.

You could tie a bow at the top or add any sort of plants that dry well such as Billy Buttons, or maybe some seed pods or gumnuts. Most importantly, have fun and send us some photos of your wreaths to operations@opengardensvictoria.org.au