Festive Foliage

Long lasting leaves

Many evergreens are suitable for bringing into the house and some will stay looking fresh long past Christmas Day. Some useful garden evergreens:
Holly - very traditional, but can be a bit prickly and hard on the fingers, so wear gloves when handling.
Ivy - is still one of the best Christmas evergreens, as it has pliable stems, attractive leaves, flowers and fruits (small clusters of black berries). The variegated forms add a touch of white or gold and look good against other dark leaves.
Spotted Laurel (Aucuba japonica) - can be used as a wreath base, or to line a plain bowl piled with  nuts or clementines).
Conifer foliage is wonderful as a wreath or swag base and many varieties are scented (Christmas is about the only time of the year when I don’t curse the huge conifers that tower behind our house).
Viburnum tinus - is completely overlooked in the garden for much of the year: a dark green blob that blends into the background, but it lasts very well inside and often has flowers too which look effective on wreaths and in table decorations.
Herbs - are lovely fragrant additions and the leaves of Bay and Rosmary dry well.
Other long lasting leaves to try: Ruscus, Pittosporum, Osmanthus and Euonymous - these have small leaves and are useful as fillers in table decorations and on wreaths or swags.

Natural Decorations

While you’re out on your foraging trip, look around at some of the other plants. You’ll find that there are plenty of other living (and dead) things to make decorations with; berries, seed-heads and interesting twigs (just watch out for anything sharp or poisonous).
Skeletal forms and the tracery of stems and seed-heads make delicate and understated decorations that last really well. Look out for the faded bracts of Hydrangeas, which can look impressive on wreaths or just in a vase. The flowers of ornamental grasses can be used to good effect too.
Husks and cones are particularly effective: Beech nuts and Alder cones can be left on the twigs and added to vases of flowers or Paperwhite narcissi.
Some twigs and branches are very effective tied loosely together with a few bauble or fairy lights hung from them, especially those with coloured or dramatic stems, like Birch, Willow or Dogwood.

Seedheads from Poppies, Alliums, Honesty, Physalis and Teasel make brilliant decorations, either lightly sprayed with metallic paint, or left looking beautiful and natural.