Decorating for Christmas at Ladew Topiary Gardens

Decorating the historic Manor House at Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, Maryland, in festive holiday splendor has been going on for 42 years by local designers and Garden Clubs. I was honored to be asked to decorate a room this December and chose the Butler’s Pantry, adjacent to the kitchen, where normally food would be held for parties and glassware stored in glass-fronted cabinets. Collaborating with my daughter Laura and my friend Gretchen, we decorated the pantry in two morning blitzes. Using many items we already owned or borrowing from friends, we only needed to buy some fresh flowers to complete the room.

The Pantry had dark colored countertops with pull-outs and a sink area under a window looking out into the topiary gardens. Glassware of all kinds were stored in the cupboards and that made a great backdrop for my planned decorations. The existing green tile floor wasn’t that attractive but we could dress it up with a floral rug. For my color scheme, I chose grey, glittery silver, sage green, white, and copper.

Starting to decorate with lamb’s ears trees, a pine cone tree, and rosemary tree

In keeping with the grey-sage green scheme, I made up some lamb’s ears trees pinned with pearl straight pins on a Styrofoam base. Using artificial lamb’s ears made the process easier and I will be able to keep these from year to year. Placing the trees on footed grey containers elevated them to make them more prominent.

Since there was a lot going on with the counters, I decided to keep it simple for the two windows that were in the room and used simple boughs of cupressus ‘Blue Ice’, which is a wonderful silvery blue conifer. I hung a square moss wreath decorated with painted ‘billy balls’ spheres stuck into the wreath base.

The oasis base was covered with reindeer moss, cones and pods, and cabbage leaves on the outside edge

The spheres were colored copper and silver and stuck into the moss: The Blue Ice conifer was suspended around the wreath

The sink area was the focal point and I covered the ugly plumbing with a piece of grey flannel so that didn’t detract. The sink arrangement was silver painted eucalyptus, white lilies, and a piece of white washed manzanita – very simple. I started with a twig tree with ornaments for the sink area, but it wasn’t bold enough.

Fresh greens surrounded the sink arrangement and I placed fresh magnolia, umbrella pine, and some more of the Blue Ice cupressus along the counters. Fake food, a nut bowl, glittery trees, more lilies, a punch bowl filled with Christmas balls, and some real marzipan under a glass globe filled up the countertops.

The rug’s base was oasis in 2 oversized cookie pans with an ornamental cabbage as the focal point

The finished rug: I changed the pine cones to go around the edges

Below is a short video of the room. I ultimately switched the twig tree in the sink to an arrangement of manzanita, lilies, and silver eucalyptus.

We finished everything off with starburst lights, silver painted eucalyptus, and antlers.

A Ladew Christmas sold out this year weeks in advance, but if you become a member you get first dibs on tickets for all their special events and it gives you discounts on other happenings and classes. Go to Ladew membership to become a member. It makes a great Christmas gift!