How to Make an Herbal Wreath

Written by Stacy Karen, Contributing Writer

My mother-in-law is very talented when it comes to arranging flowers and making wreaths. I’ve admired her skills for years, but never ventured into wreath-making myself because I thought it was too difficult or time consuming.

Recently, I asked my mother-in-law to help me make an herbal wreath and was surprised to find it quite easy.

We took pictures along the way and recorded the instructions so you could make an herbal wreath, too. I hope you will because they smell so good!

An herbal wreath is such a nice way to bring nature-inspired decor into your home and, if you have an herb garden, it could be an extremely frugal craft project.

How to Make an Herbal Wreath

Supplies

• Grapevine wreath (these come in a variety of sizes and can be purchased at your local craft store)
• Paddling wire
• Floral wire (we used the kind that comes in stems, but it would be fine to use other floral wire, you will just need to cut it each time you want to wrap a bunch of flowers)
• Herbs of your choice (we used rosemary, lavender, mint, and thyme)

Method

Rinse and dry and herbs that were cut from the garden to remove dirt and bugs.

Choose an herb for the base and tuck stems into the grapevine wreath until it is mostly covered. We used rosemary (and did it smell good!).

Try to keep the herb stems going in the same general direction.

Once the herbs are covering most of the grapevine wreath, you are ready for the next step. There are no rules, so add as many herbs as you like depending on how full you would like the wreath to be. This is how ours looked at the end of this process:

Instead of using an herb, the base could be covered with moss. Most craft stores carry a variety of moss for these purposes.

Wrap paddling wire over the herbs, pulling fairly tight.

It was difficult to get a good picture of this step, but the general idea is to keep the herbs in place and create a sturdy base for the next stage. It’s similar to putting lights on a Christmas tree, just wrapping them more tightly.

Once you have wrapped the entire wreath, cut the wire and tuck the end into the grapevine.

Next, make small bundles of herbs and wrap the stems with floral wire.

We chose to mix herbs in each bundle, but creating bundles of single herbs would work well, too. It just creates a different effect.

Tuck the bundles into the wreath, making sure the stems all face the same way.

Wrap the paddling wire around the entire wreath again, then tuck in extra herbs to cover any bare places.

Once you are finished, choose the top and wire a hook onto the back of the wreath. We do this at the end because you just can’t tell which way the wreath will look best once the flowers and herbs have been added.

A simple loop can be made by tucking five or six floral wire stems through the grapevine, forming a loop and twisting together.

Hang and enjoy!

I had a great time making this wreath and am inspired to make them more often. I’m also motivated to plant more herbs so I can simply snip a few anytime I want a pretty wreath for my kitchen.

Some herbs will dry quite nicely, which will allow the wreath to be kept for a long time, however, I used mint, which wilts quite easily and my wreath was only enjoyed for a short while. in fact, I actually fried the entire thing in my dehydrator, hoping to dry it out quickly. I turned the dehydrator too high. Oops.

Lesson learned: most herbs need to be dehydrated at around 95 degrees F, which is one of the lowest settings on most dehydrators.

If you like nature-inspired home decor, you might enjoy another simple project I made recently: dried lavender pots.

Have you made an herbal wreath before? Which herbs do you think would go well in one?