Pretty, Fluffy, Green

The picture to the left is a vase of branch tips from a Douglas fir tree. I love this time of year when all the evergreens are sporting new, lime green growth. I especially love how the tips of the fir trees are this lush green and the new growth is very soft to the touch.

Don't they look pretty in the vase? See how the tips curl inward. The smell is divine. When I pick them, I strip off the needles from the stem before placing them in water. By the time I'm finished stripping off the lower part of the stems, my hands are sticky with pitch and the house is filled with the Christmas scent of evergreens.

I often put Doug fir branches in tall vases and scatter them about the house. They will last a long time as long as you don't let them run out of water. (They're thirsty and will drink half a vase of water in 24 hours)

I used to pick huge armloads of salal and stick them in a bucket of water, and then stick the bucket in a decorative basket on the floor. It looked like I had an expensive house plant, albeit a large one. I did that when I was too poor to afford house plants. Salal will last a very long time this way. I've had some last as long as 6 months in a bucket or vase of water. Every once in awhile I'd change the water completely when it got gunky, but aside from keeping the vase filled with water, that's all I did. I used to receive numerous compliments on my salal "house plant."

And because I'm in a green mode, I've tossed in a few more pictures of things green. The upper picture is a close-up of a dock leaf. The lower picture is an ivy close-up.

That's all. Just a short post because I wanted to share my pretty picture of the Doug fir tips with you. As I type this, the fir tips are on my desk, wonderful smells emanating from the vase.