Seedhead decorations

I’ve been storing the dried seedheads of my alliums (Allium ‘Globemaster’ and Allium ‘Mount Everest’) since the summer, and finally the time has come to spray them for Christmas. Yay! Globemaster, which was a big purple thing in May, has quite a feathery dried head which sheds at the merest hint of a breeze. And if two of them touch they attach like velcro, and become inseparable. So storing them has been challenge.

I’m hopeful that spraying them with metallic paint will make them slightly more robust, so I can pack them away after Christmas, but we’ll see. Mount Everest, which was a compact white ball at its zenith, has a more defined structure in its dried state and looks a bit more Sputnik-y. The difference in them makes a nice contrast; I’m glad I planted two varieties. I bought ‘Azureum’ and ‘Graceful Beauty’ this year to add to the mix for next Christmas.

Anyway after experimenting with a lot of spray paint, I think I’ve decided the full-on shiny metallic stuff works best. I used silver, gold and copper and of those three I think copper is probably my favourite, although the three are nice together. I’ve kept the long stems; that way I can either put them in a vase or thread them through the branches of the tree. With sprayed cones and tiny lights I think they strike a good balance between natural and festive, non?

Drying outside post-spray. The big ones are ‘Globemaster’ and the little one is ‘Mount Everest’.

Looking extra metallic on the tree