Wreath making workshops are already underway here!  I know it seems a bit early but we are already preparing for our courses for this Fall/Holiday season. I’ve adjusted my wreath process many times over the last 25 years and I love sharing my new practices with students. I normally make an autumn wreath and then reinvent it for the Christmas season that follows. I bring the bases into the rest of the year, recycling them with fresh seasonal ingredients. I also compost many of my wreath samples as the designs I make are 100% compostable.

Wreath making is the perfect activity for groups, virtual team building, employee resource groups, or just to do on your own (join our public class here). I recommend foraging as many ingredients as you can, and looking around your home, garden, and neighborhood for interesting bits of nature you might feature.

Wreath Supplies & Ingredients

I now make seasonal wreaths with all-natural bases, and I don’t use wire or moss. Sadly as much as I love moss for wreath making, it’s not a sustainable or renewable resource. We need to leave our moss in the forests!

Don’t fret though, that leaves plenty of other glorious and creative ingredients for wreath making, and I promise you have them right in your backyard, or at least easily accessible! If you can access vines like ivy, grapevine, willow, or a natural wreath base and evergreen branches like pine, fir, or cedar you are all set! You just need some twine, extra vines, and clippers. And be sure to accessorize your wreath with pinecones, berries, seedpods, fruit, and ribbon. I like to use cotton or silk ribbons.

If you’d like to have a peek into my wreath making process, you can watch this video where I walk you through one of my natural Christmas wreaths. I always love seeing the different ingredients students find in their regions. How can your wreath reflect the climate and landscape you live in? If you book one of our group classes (with a minimum of 10 people) we can send you wreath kits from our partner farm tovmake it easy.

Alternatively, if you need help with foraging and finding ingredients, you can download our foraging guide right here. If you don’t have access to foraging or a garden, you can normally procure wreath making supplies through your local plant nursery or Christmas tree farm. For fall ingredients, check out your local florist or farmers market.

Unusual Ingredients

What grows where you live? One of my favorite wreaths I’ve made was a combination of olive branches, lavender stems, rosemary, and ivy. All ingredients that grow profusely during the fall and holiday season where I live. You can include dried flowers like strawflower or dahlias, fresh or dried fruit like oranges, apples, pears, or lemon. Herbs are often overlooked but add an element of fragrance. Some of my favorites to use in winter wreaths include thyme and sage. both dry beautifully as well. Adding a colorful ribbon in a bright, contrasting color to finish it off always feels festive.

Why I Love Making Wreaths

Every year, the process of wreath making brings me into a slower rhythm, even at the time of year where it feels that life is speeding up. Crafting a wreath brings me into each moment, clinging to nature’s textures, bringing my heart rate down, and engaging with those serotonin-inducing bits of the natural world. It’s another way to restore our relationship with green spaces and engage in that reciprocal relationship between humans and nature. If you can make your wreath outside, it makes for easy clean up and offers an extra dose of nature.

Fall and Christmas Wreath Making Courses for 2025

Would you like to join me for wreath making this year? The communities in our classes always inspire me as each wreath created will be a reflection of that person’s natural environment. We learn from each other whether you are a beginner or a working floral designer.

Below, you’ll find opportunities to join me for wreath training this year. We are keeping the classes early in the season so that you can start your practice early, especially for those professionals here who need to get a head start on their wreath making skills and routines. Though, for our private classes, which are part of our virtual flower arranging for teams and groups, you get to choose your date! Find out more wreath making details below.

How to Prepare for Class

If you plan to join one of our virtual wreath classes this season, I recommend clearing a space right before class, where you can make a mess. A kitchen, porch, or garden works great! Be sure to keep a compost bin nearby to toss any scraps (wreath making includes a lot of trimming!). Turn off all your other distractions and focus on creating.

2025 Wreath Workshops

WREATH SCHOOL 2025: Grab a group of friends with some tea (or wine) and treats, and hop on our live workshop to make wreaths with students from around the world on October 11th (sign up here).You’ll get lots of practice in both the virtual live session (through Zoom) and the pairing of two on-demand, streaming classes. We will start by learning the wreath base, the sustainable methods, compostable and renewable ingredients (available worldwide), and simple tools. At the end of the class, you’ll have the skills to make luxurious and yet sustainable fall and holiday wreaths. This wreath making class is open to the public. You can register here.

PRIVATE WREATH MAKING COURSES: Choose from 5 different classes for your private group or corporate team. We ask for a minimum of 10 students. We can send you wreath kits straight from our regenerative farm that has been partnering with us for many years, so that you have all the supplies you need so you’ll be ready for the virtual live class. We ship directly to you and we can cover most international areas as well through local suppliers. Our wreath kits are sustainable and where possible, are shipped from an organic farm or the best local alternative. We can even ship clippers to you in the kit so that you have absolutely everything you need. Learn more about our private wreath making classes here.

All classes are live through Zoom or on demand streaming, so you can join from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Wreath kits are only available for our private group workshops. If you sign up for the live session of Wreath School, but you are unable to make the class, you will receive a recording to watch via email. 

In this free Large Floral Arrangement Class, you’ll learn how to make a large scale flower arrangement with foraged flowers including wildflowers like mallow, wild grasses like oat, and alexander flowers. Learn about scale, proportion, flower conditioning, composition, and design in this free flower arranging class online right here on the blog. 

Recipe:

4 large stems of mallow

4 large stems of alexander flowers

5 large stems of wild grasses like oat grass

Directions:

Condition the stems

Edit the stems

Create your shape

Fill in

Stand back and make adjustments

Once the arrangement is in place, make adjustments as necessary

Download my free foraging guide here

18th century palace gardens.

🌿Celebrate, ART, FLOWERS, & GARDENS IN LISBON  on the LISBON GARDENS FLORAL RETREAT happening October 2026!

🌿J​oin the October floral retreat to arrange flowers in pop up workshops in the city, take hands-on workshops with artisans in other mediums like ceramics, and fragrance, and walk hidden but alluring formal gardens that hold centuries of Portuguese history🌿

Preview this experience by viewing the images below of the places we will visit and workshops we will engage in.

Arrange flowers in secret artist ateliers. Enjoy October-blooming bougainvillea.

Arrange flowers in a secret garden. Discover historical spaces off the beaten track.

Pineapple greenhouses adjacent a palace.

Walk centuries old gardens and enjoy flower bedecked treats while choosing from an array of locally grown flowers.

The luxury boutique hotel where we will stay.

Take your breakfast under olive trees and enjoy private, luxurious accommodation.

18th century formal gardens.

• Take floral and art workshops in secret artist ateliers
• Walk historical gardens (off the beaten track and way from mass tourism) with plant experts
• Immerse yourself in flowers, gardens, and Portuguese culture for an entire week
• Get creative with flowers, ceramics, foliage, and foraged materials
• Learn sustainable floral arranging with Chelsea Fuss
• Be led through Lisbon with locals who live and work in the city
• Be part of a culturally sustainable and planet-friendly trip to Portugal

Pop-up floral workshops in local artist ateliers.

You’ll return home with more knowledge about flowers, gardens, and sustainable floral design, well rested, with a full creative cup, and inspired to bring more beauty and balance to your life.

Learn more about this special retreat here.

​Sign up now to book your place!

-Chelsea

P.S. Make the most of summer flower arranging from home with our online flower workshops to go at your own pace.

We just wrapped up our 2025 May Floral Retreat here in Portugal! Wow! Each year is slightly different and equally abundant in flowers, good energy, and beautiful people. This year we had 9 guests from 5 countries spanning ages 29-70. It felt extra lovely at this time in the world to be able to sit to down together with strangers from very diverse backgrounds and come together over flowers, gardens, and nature. I have so many photos and details to share! I am usually either teaching or bopping about with the camera so I never have many photos of myself but you can see the joy here that the guests experience, and that is what it is all about. Thank you so much to our participants for traveling all the way to Portugal to share this experience. I’ll share more details in a few posts but here is a highlight.

Karina with her freestyle wildflower arrangement.

Native strawberries from João Cunha Ferreira’s workshop and the guest baskets which include hand printed herbariums, handmade programs, floral scissors, locally made aprons, and olive flowers.

Karla with her terra cotta pitcher arrangement. The vessels are custom made by the José Franco studio nearby the village.

Sue with her flower crown at the Casa do Vinho where we hold most of our activities.

A lush plant-focused lunch made by Marta Toscano Rico.

A floral bedecked dessert.

Roh with her spacious wildflower creation.

A visit to a flower garden which operates as an organic flower farm in Colares, Flores Daqui.

Flower crown making time!

A cozy traditional dinner while wearing our festive flower crowns.

Our table was simply decorated with traditional dishes, slate blue linen, and wild roses.

Time for another dessert sprinkled with flowers!

After foraging for edible flowers and herbs with Fernanda Botelho, we created this flower salad and a nasturtium and linden pesto together with Marta’s lunch.

Wild roses and foraged flowers.

Lavender wands and a surprise lavender cake!

The magical flower garden down a hillside at Flores Daqui.

Paula helping me set up our flower studio.

Our outdoor floral studio for the week.

Ebtihal with her lace-like floral composition.

We laid the mix and match picnic table with Portuguese linen, wild roses, hypericum, wild campanula, and native strawberries.

Kathleen and her hand-tied bouquet at the village.

Jonah at her adorable cottage! Each guest stays in a cottage in the village.

Karla and Shannon’s aubergine compositions.

A low bowl centerpiece made with compostable techniques in a custom made bowl that each guest took home.

Catarina teaching a traditional Portuguese craft.

Our Dia da Espiga bouquet and table set by Constança Cabral and myself.

Look at our beautiful group!

We received some lovely unsolicited feedback that I wanted to share below:

Thank you so much for such a wonderful week. I’ve never done anything like this so I had no idea what to expect but the entire week was absolute perfection. The flower activities, the food, the field trips, the guest speakers, the location…there wasn’t a single thing I would change. (Which is saying a lot because I make a living telling people how to improve things.) you not only taught us about flowers, but also about the Portuguese culture, and about ourselves. I can’t put into words how thankful I am for the experience but hopefully you get the idea.

-Lisa

This is the most beautiful, considered, relaxing, interesting and thoughtful retreat one could ever imagine. It’s stunning in the most unpretentious way, so genuine, so truthful… I was in awe of Chelsea’s and Paula’s dedication and hard work. So if any of you are considering it for next year and aren’t quite sure yet whether to take the plunge or not, I’d say do it!! You won’t regret it.

-Constança

Thank you for the flower retreat of a lifetime!

-K

A huge thank you to all of our collaborators! The retreat would not be the same without the contribution of these art, garden, flower, food, and event experts!

Paula Guimarães: Co-host and event production (and all around good energy booster!:) Check out her Portugal rental properties at The Fig Collection.

Aldeia da Mata Pequena who goes above and beyond and lets us forage on the property.

João Cunha Ferreira: Native flower and herbarium instructor. Forager for all of our floral ingredients. 

Catarina Seixas: Herbalist instructor

Tomás Tojo from Jardins Abertos: Lisbon garden guide

Helena Loução: Watercolor instructor

Flores Daqui: organic flower farm in Colares

Fernanda Botelho: Herbalist and foraging guide

Constança Cabral: Floral history instructor and all around wonderful contributor to production! Constança taught us all about the Dia da Espiga tradition. More on that soon!

Paula P. Production assistant who helps make all of the meals happen. We adore her!

Marta Toscano Rico: Creates most of our meals with a beautiful light, plant focused touch.

If you would like to book in for 2026, we are already taking bookings! We have 7 places left. Click here for details.

A little sample from class with sweet peas and native snaps, and madeira vine from my garden, and peony, dianthus, statice, snapdragon from my local florist.