Easy DIY Evergreen Wreath with Dried Oranges

Do you love those faux evergreen wreaths but feel priced out? Good news! You can make your own! It’s easier than you think! Click to see how to make a live evergreen wreath + ways to fancy it up with dried oranges and other festive embellishments!

DIY Real Evergreen Wreath Coming Right Up!

It took me many hours of lurking on Pinterest and Instagram to decide what kind of theme I wanted to go with for Christmas this year. We moved to TN last year from New York and had just gotten into our new house 2 weeks before Christmas. 

That’s to say, there wasn’t much real decorating going on last year, and we hadn’t brought too much from New York. So, I sort of had a clean slate to get started.

It was a lot of trial and error with the decor I had, how I could repurpose it, and what might have to wait til next year. However, when I saw this mantel garland from Liz Marie, I knew that was what I wanted to do: the evergreen garland with ribbons and dried oranges. {Below is my version!}

Making a wreath was actually plan B, but to be honest, I’m so glad it worked out that way. The original plan was to drape garland around my mirror. But when I tried to do it, I just couldn’t get it lay right – it was too heavy, it was bending it all the wrong places. Something just wasn’t right about it.

In the end, I decided to spread out the garland on the table tops in the living room and make a wreath instead. I wanted to use the same materials for all of it, so it all blended together. 

And that’s how the wreath was born.

Faux or Real Greens: Still a Beautiful Wreath

To be honest, I would really have loved to use the faux evergreens or cypress branches for the wreath. You totally could do that. But I was trying to save money and well, tree branches are free, so that was the way I went. You could totally do this with faux stems.

As for tree choices – most evergreens would be fine: cypress, cedar, arborvitae, juniper, etc.

This is a super simple wreath to put together. Waaayyy easier than the garland.  Here’s a list of what you’ll need:

DIY Live Evergreen Christmas Wreath with Dried Oranges

Supply List

Evergreen branches (real or faux – cypress, arborvitae, cedar, juniper, etc.). I probably cut about 10-15 decent-sized branches and trimmed what I needed.

Wire wreath

Floral wire

Ribbon of choice

Oranges or clementines (depending on your size preference)

 

There are a few steps to making the wreath, so we’ll start with the oranges first.

 

How to Dry Oranges

1| Set the oven to 250 degrees.

2| Cut oranges in 1/4 inch slices 

3| Pat the oranges dry with a paper towel and try to get out as much excess moisture as you can. I put them on paper towels and covered them with paper towels and blotted. Did it several times.

4| Place on parchment paper, on a baking sheet and bake for 2-2.5 hours. It’s a good idea to check on them periodically, because the slices could dry at different rates.  Some could burn if you keep them in too long, so just pull them out individually as they get done.

 

 

Assembling the Wreath

1| Start putting the wreath together as the oranges are in the oven. There really is no right or wrong way to assemble. You’re going to start by laying the first branch on the wire wreath and securing with floral wire. 

2| Just keep overlapping and adding branches until it’s the fullness you want. You may need to stick a few rogue branches in here or there to fill in some spots. 

3| Depending on how full your wreath is at that point, you may not even need to wire them them. They may stick in there by themselves.

4| Continue until the wreath is as full as you would like. I would recommend more full than less full, as the branches ‘settle’ after a day or two. If that happens, just keep adding branches to the wreath as you see it start to flatten (if you’re using real branches, that is).

Attaching the Oranges or Other Embellishments

Once your wreath is the way you want it, you can begin to attach the oranges. I did six bundles of oranges, 2 in each bundle. You can do more or less. You can add in pine cones or cinnamon sticks. It’s entirely up to you as far as how much you want to embellish.

I wanted to keep mine simple this year, so just those few oranges were enough.

To attach, just poke the floral wire through the orange slices and attach to the wire wreath by securing to the branches. Be sure to stagger the orange slices when you attach the floral wire, or you’ll just end up with stack of oranges on top of each other.

If you add cinnamon, you can attach the sticks to the orange bundles with floral wire as well. Or, you can bundle cinnamon sticks and intersperse them in between the orange slices. You can do the same with pine cones as well.

Once it looks the way you desire, take ribbon and pull it through the middle and secure. You can hang it on a cabinet door or on a window pane. Or you can just leave off the ribbon and hang on the front door. It will look beautiful indoor or outdoors!

For my wreath, I just thumbtacked it to the back of the mirror.

All in all, I’m so happy with how it turned out. Kinda sad it will only last this season, but it gave me a ton of inspiration for wreath creations going forward!

 

Pro-Tip: If you have extra oranges and greens, you can stick them in a bowl or pail for some extra decor to tie in with your evergreen-and-orange Christmas decor theme!

Maintenance for Your Dried Orange Evergreen Wreath

When you have the heat on in the winter, these real wreaths can dry out. To preserve them as long as possible, spritz them with water 2-3 times a day.

Be sure to keep them away from direct heat as well as direct sunlight.

The wreath may flatten out over time.  You can give it a turn 1/4 turn in the direction of your branches. For instance, if you’ve faced your branches counter-clockwise direction, turn your wreath 1/4 turn counter-clockwise. You can also add in some fresh branches to liven it up. You can usually just stick those branches in without the floral wire.

You will probably have a good week with it looking fresh as the first day, but using these tips can help extend the life.  But even when it’s drying out, you can still keep freshening it up until Christmas. Depending on how early you make it (I recommend the 1st or 2nd week in December, but not before), it should survive.

When Christmas is over, you can throw the whole thing out if you want. I don’t ever throw out things I can repurpose, lol, so I’ll be saving the wire wreath, the dried oranges (and cinnamon and pine cones, too, if I had included them!).

A Beautiful DIY Project

This DIY evergreen wreath with oranges was one of my favorite projects to date this year! It was easy and it looked just beautiful! I’m excited to see how I can change it up next year!

Thoughts I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below!