Maintaining Fresh Balsam Fir Centerpieces

Keeping Fresh Balsam Fir Centerpieces Vibrant

A centerpiece sits in the house. A wreath can live on a cool porch. This one is on a table, a mantel, or in a foyer, often next to a candle and a bow. The balsam is the same fir we cut in Rockdale Forest. The room is warmer, so the care is the part you have to stay on top of.

When the box gets to you, open it the same day. The carton is for the truck. Leave the arrangement in there and the greens flatten and dry. Set it on the table and let the branches loosen. A few needles on the cloth after shipping are normal. Brush them off.

The smell should hit you when you open it. If the fir looks pressed from the box, ease the branches back out with your hands and give them room.

Mist the greens

Use a clean spray bottle and cool water. Mist the fir every 2–3 days. A short pass over the needles is enough. You want a film of water on the greens, and a dry table when you are done.

A heated room needs it a little more often than every 2–3 days. The air in the house pulls moisture out of cut balsam faster than a cool porch does. Morning works well, before the heat has been running all day.

Aim at the fir. A bow picks up water spots if you soak it, and a candle cup full of water is a mess. The greens are the part that dries out.

Keep it away from the stove, the fireplace, and the radiator

Heat is what finishes a centerpiece early. A stove, a fireplace, a radiator, or a vent blowing across the table will crisp the needles, and the scent goes with them.

A mantel over a fireplace you actually use is a hard spot. When the fire is going, move the piece to the table. Put it back when the room cools down. Sitting over a working fireplace, the fir can dry out in a few days.

Find a cool spot

A cooler room holds the balsam longer. A dining room you do not heat as hard, a spot off the sunny window, the foyer by an outside door. That foyer is often cooler than the room with the wood stove.

These are made for a table, a mantel, or a foyer. Put it where people will see it, and where the air on it stays cool. Shade still matters indoors. Sun sitting on the leaves all afternoon makes them droop.

Maintain adequate water supply

Most of ours are a bed of balsam with a candle and a bow. Water goes on those with the spray bottle.

If your centerpiece came in a vase, the water in the vase is part of the care. Check it when you mist. When the level drops, fill it so the stems stay wet. A dry vase in a warm room is what browns the tips.

Limit direct sun

A bright room is fine. Hours of sun on the leaves are what hurt them. A south-facing window in the afternoon is the usual one. The tips soften and lean toward the glass.

Pull the centerpiece back from that window, or off to the side of the light. Bright room, sun off the fir.

If it has a candle

Some of these have a candle, or a cup for one. Blow it out before you mist. Light it when you are in the room. The balsam is what needs the water.

Enhancing your decor with Rockdale Wreaths

We cut the balsam in Rockdale Forest and make the centerpieces on the farm in Jonesport, Maine. Holiday accents go on them. A bow, sometimes a candle, the fir doing the work.

Open it when it arrives. Mist every 2–3 days. Keep the stove, the fireplace, the radiator, and the afternoon sun off it. That is the care. The ones we have this year are the fresh balsam Christmas centerpieces.