5 Reasons to Love Fresh-Cut Holiday Greenery

Live Christmas trees, wreaths and garlands fill your home with the crisp, inviting fragrance of evergreens. The moment you smell fresh cedar, pine and noble fir, you’re put in holiday mode.

Hang a wreath on the door you use most often to catch a whiff of evergreen as you come and go. Drape garland over the staircase banister for more fragrance during the day.

Tip: Keep a spray bottle of fresh water on hand and mist your evergreens to keep them smelling fresh during the holidays.

Versatile fresh-cut greenery adds sophistication to your holiday decor. You can line a mantel with greenery. Create a swag and drape it over windows and door openings. Arrange a group of vases on a table or mantel and fill them with branches and sprigs of greenery.

Traditional types of greenery include prickly needles of noble fir and cedar and glossy leaves of holly and magnolia. But you can clip boxwood, ferns and other types of greenery from your yard for a similar effect.

Tip: The fresh-cut greenery sold in The Home Depot's Garden Center is sourced from local suppliers to ensure the freshest greenery for your home.

Garlands and wreaths can be made from all kinds of evergreens. Noble fir, holly, juniper, magnolia, even trimmings from shrubs, like boxwood, can be incorporated into your Christmas decor.

It’s easy to embellish a fresh cut wreath with greenery from your own yard, such as sprigs of holly and rosemary. Use floral wire to attach pinecones to wreaths and garland.

When foraging for evergreens, keep in mind that some types of greenery will last long after they're cut. Pines, firs and cedar dry slowly and hold their needles, even in warm indoor temperatures. Glossy magnolia leaves, with their velvety brown undersides, hold up well in outdoor arrangements.

These evergreen plants in your landscape can be used in your holiday decor:

• Arborvitae
• Cryptomeria
• Gold mop cypress
• Hemlock
• Leyland cypress
• Ligustrum
• Magnolia
• Nandina
• Pittosporum
• Podocarpus

Live greenery requires little care to last through the holidays and beyond. Before displaying, fill a galvanized utility tub with water and quickly submerge the evergreens. Pull them out and let dry. If your garland or wreath has bows or embellishments or lights on it, do not submerge. Instead, gently mist with a spray bottle filled with water.

Before bringing your greenery indoors, keep in mind that some popular plants for holiday decorating may present poisoning hazards for small children and pets. Berries on hollies and mistletoe are toxic, for example. Keep these plants out of reach of children and pets. For more information on plants and pets, check with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

When you buy a live Christmas tree that's cut (instead of a balled-in-burlap or tree intended for planting), there are always a few branches near the base that need to be cut, in order to fit the tree in the stand. Save these branches and make your own displays by trimming them and placing them in pots with decorative sprigs and festive ornaments.

Tip: Look for discarded cut Christmas tree branches near the live Christmas tree display in some Garden Centers.