Whether it’s Valentine’s Day or not, winter is a great time to prune red twig dogwood shrubs and make some sticky hearts.
Each heart takes two stems, about 4′ tall, cut from a cane-growing shrub such as red twig dogwood or forsythia.
You need a spool of craft wire, a pair of pruners, wire cutters and two stems for each heart. Leave all the “twiggy growth” on the top of each stem.
Tie the bottom of the stems together with a short piece of wire, wrapping it tightly about three or four inches from the bottom of the canes.
Next gather all the twiggy growth at the top of each branch together. Bend the bunches toward each other to make the top of the heart and hold with one hand so you can grab the spool of wire with the other hand.
Wrap the wire around the bundle you’re holding, but don’t cut the wire off of the spool just yet.
Bring the wire up and over where you’ve tied it so that the wire goes between where the two bunches meet. Run the wire down toward the bottom of the heart.
Pull the wire so that the top of the heart is drawn toward the bottom and tie the wire around the stems on top of where you’ve tied it before. This will hold the heart in shape.
Twist the longest fine twigs around the wire to hide it.
Clip off the excess length at the bottom.
Done! hang your hearts inside or outside.
They make a great winter addition to containers.
And always remember to be on the lookout for opportunities to spread love.
Every Friday on Coffee For Roses we post a weekend project. These will be filed in the Crafts and Garden Sections.
