I say yes until Spring. I just hung a plain pine and pinecone wreath on my door; no bow. It will stay there until end of Feb.

yes indeedy.

Absolutely.....and when spring comes, if theya ren't brown, add some spring things like a little bird, or small bird houses, or a wooden bunny....IF they aren't brown!

Yes you can keep them up, but if they are still nice by next Christmas, you will probably want something new. I don't like just throwing a bow on my year 'round things and calling that Christmas. So, I would probably take them down and save them for next year.

absolutely!! i leave them up every year til spring...usually by then they are turning alittle brown-
occasionally, in years past, i 'dressed them up' for valentine's or mardi gras, but usually i leave them up unadorned!

Definitely. I keep mine up until March unless they start dropping needles or turn brown as Linda said. Mine usually last just fine, though. I like the touch of green on the doors.

I vote to leave them up, nix the bow. Is the boxwood treated so it stays soft and doesn't drop leaves? ;o)

Well, boxwood smells like cat urine, really. Our daughter
moved her boxwood away from her gazebo for this reason.

I bought a pretty green boxwood wreath for Christmas 2010. After Christmas I hung it on the door in the breezeway that goes into the garage. Over time it aged to a pretty wheat yellow. It's still on that door.

So I say, of course you can leave it up!!!!!

I'm on my way outside too.

I am in the camp that it definitely smells like urine but the dried might not. Google it, lots of people think so.

So what's the verdict? I don't even know what a boxwood is.

It's also called the 'litter-box shrub' because
it smells like cat pee.

on my front door I keep a grapevine wreath with a little
bit of silk flowers and baby's breath.
I spray it almost every day with my favorite
fragrance, like asian spice or fresh linen spray... (I keep a spray bottle
by the door so it's convenient to give the wreath a spritze.)
Everyone that enters comments how devine the house smells,
they actually don't realize they caught a wiff of the wreath on the way in.

Hmm. Never had problems with boxwood smelling like cat urine, but juniper certainly does! I wonder if it's a particular kind of boxwood that's problematic.

English boxwood smells horribly.

Yikes, those were scary words! Even though it's dark and raining, I raced outside and broke off a couple little stems of my boxwood lining the front walk. It's True Dwarf Boxwood (max ht is about 2-3 ft--nice round ball shape), purchased from Lowes or HD, and I'm happy to report that there is absolutely no cat urine smell...in fact really not much odor, if any. Perhaps it's because we've been having rain for the past couple days, but I hope not. Whew!! Who wants their friends to be surrounded by cat urine as they arrive!

BTW--I also agree that the wreath can stay up without the bow...lovely!

Funny, I've always loved the smell of boxwood because it was by my granny's porch and is a very nostalgic scent to me. Have read that others do think it smells like cat pee, but not me, so I don't care!
natal...good grief girl! For real? That's almost akin to not knowing ivy!
Does boxwood really last that long....months after cutting?
Go for it for sure.

re-read and see that my last looks like a slam, and want you to be sure it's definitely not the case...just a real shock, as it is as familiar to me as a maple or a camellia. You are fer sure not into English gardens!

LOL! Years ago when I'd go visit my Mom in Texas, I kept washing her front porch knowing that cats were marking their territory on it. It was bordered by a short boxwood hedge. :)

Leahcate, maple and camellia I know ... boxwood no. When I Googled I saw a lot of perfect box shaped and meatball shaped shrubs. Not my thing.

I have two planters at my front door and I'm taking the bows off and keeping them until sSpring, or they turn brown whichever comes first. So yea, take the bows off and keep them.

No. Not because they are boxwood, but because wreaths are passe.

ducking to avoid the arrows, lol....

Hmm, I am hyper sensitive to scents but I didn't smell anything.

I know what you mean about wreaths being passe. Like most things, I think it depends. These wreaths are square and very full and I like the way they look on my barn doors. Whatever they may be, I don't think they are passe.

The round pine wreaths on the entrance gates i bought under duress and they are kinda passe. But I like the way they look on the white wood. I may have to think of some other decorative element there. I think it makes the entrances look more welcoming.

Mtnredux, do you have lights on your gate posts? I think that makes an entrance look very inviting, in day or night. A white gate is just naturally welcoming :)

We put Christmas wreaths of fir on our front gates and had to go back and wire the bottoms so they wouldn't flap wildly in the wind as they opened for cars. They looked great for about two weeks, but when the holiday season is over they just looked an afterthought.

I did not realize you had a barn on your property. Is that where you are keeping the square boxwood wreaths? And fwiw, I have always LOVED the smell of boxwoods, especially in summer, and never once thought they smelled of cat.

I couldn't smell the boxwoods either, but my daughter
and hubby sure could...get the family involved on this smell test...:)

I agree with you mtnrdredux, go by what I like not what's
in or what's out. I learned a long time ago, nothing
is passe if you like it, besides eventually in comes
back in style...and besides as Ricky Nelson said in
"I Went to a Garden Party"...you can't please everyone,
but you've gotta please yourself."
J

...and a wreath on the door is welcoming and festive, and
that's a good thing. :)

we have quite a bit of boxwood because it is one shrub that the deer don't touch!! haven't once thought of cat pee while near it--can't remember it's variety.

it's a great shrub, nice deep green color, grows well in our area/soil, and can be pruned into perfect little boxes or meatballs, but doesn't have to be!!(i'm not into that look either!)

Some varieties stay green in the winter, btw. No browning or yellowing.

We keep our mixed greens wreath up until it looks bad... usually some time in March.

Although I don't have any, boxwoods are very common here. I do like the boxwood wreaths and I thought the square ones you posted looked great! I'd leave them up through winter. I have an antique copper boiler on the front porch - I filled it with fir, magnolia and holly right after Thanksgiving. I also tucked in some large pinecones and some of those shatterproof, glittered ornaments. Last week I pulled out the ornaments and put in new magnolia and holly clippings. I plan to leave it out at least through January. It's nice to have the greenery through the winter months.

tina

I bet the smell of Boxwood is in our DNA like Brussel Sprouts are. It has to do with a mutated gene that some of us have. No kidding, I read about this years ago. BS taste bitter and just awful for some people. Look it up. I would but it's too early. lol

So I bet the smell of Boxwoods are the same way. I plant flowers near my boxwoods and I've never smelled anything unusual, but I like Brusel Sprouts too. lol.

What I do know is I won't get near our Boxwoods with a ten foot pole in the summer because yellow jackets love to nest in them, along with our English Ivy, and it's impossible to see their nests. DH has to do the weeding on that side of the garden. :)

Oakley, you might be on to something. It's the same with paperwhites ... some people think they stink, others don't. I do.

Keep the wreaths up until they start to turn yellow/brown. What a waste it would be to just trash them because Christmas is over.

You posted before the holidays about using wreaths on your doors. I suggested the square shape Boxwood on that thread. Seeing the pics of your wreaths, I still believe that the square Boxwood wreaths look great on your doors. I don't smell cat urine when I smell Boxwood, but Arborvite (sp?), now they smell like cat urine to me.

Leave the wreaths, sans bows or other "holiday" stuff that may have been on them when you hung them for Christmas.

JMHO

It's the English boxwood that smell the most strongly. DH is definitely in the "cat pee" camp, but I like the smell (and don't like cat pee -- we have two cats and I don't think boxwood smells like a litter box). There are other examples besides brussel sprouts (cilantro, for example) that people react differently to.

I took the red bow from my wreath yesterday. I don't consider it a Christmas decoration, but rather a winter decoration.

"I know what you mean about wreaths being passe. Like most things, I think it depends. These wreaths are square and very full and I like the way they look on my barn doors. Whatever they may be, I don't think they are passe."

I'd no idea wreaths were passe. Even if they are, in the words of Richard Feynman: what do you care what people think? OK, technically, in the book title of Richard Feynman, but the idea's the same. :)

BTW I love the smell of boxwood!

kswl-

OMG, wreaths are *timeless*, how can you even think they're passe?! (You were kidding, right?)

sandyponder

Mtnredux, do you have lights on your gate posts? I think that makes an entrance look very inviting, in day or night. A white gate is just naturally welcoming :)

KSWL - Yes and no. The PO were big fans of outdoor lighting (one of them was a set designer) and we must have 100 outdoor lights set into the patios and or around the grounds. In some places it is very lovely (uplighting of our pergola and trellises, entwined in vines). In other places it is too much. We have two entrances. One gate is well lit because of the lighting of surrounding trees, one is not as well lit. But in either case I think I'd prefer the look of a dedicated light lighting the stone wall and sign. Just trying to find something that is not too fussy or kitschy colonial.

I did not realize you had a barn on your property. Is that where you are keeping the square boxwood wreaths?

KSWL - We have a small barn, and my fave, a cute little stone house. But the barn doors I hung my square wreaths on are my front doors. I wanted an unusual and distinctive front door, but nothing ornate. The barn doors open to a vestibule and then i have another set of french doors to the entry hall.

Wreaths have become a little bit overdone. There are wreaths for every occasion. There are a lot of kitschy country wreaths. They are a ubiquitious craft project. And there are people who hang a wreath on the door and forget about it for years.

All of that kind of undermined the classic beauty of the traditional holiday wreath.

Funny timing on this thread.

On Saturday, DH and I took down the wreaths hanging from the front lanterns, the side and back doors, and removed all the bows and artificial berries I had stuck in urns full of yard greenery. We were so proud to have it all done before the new year. The greenery still looked good, so we decided to leave it until it turned brown...hopefully into spring.

Now, someone mentioned a large house wreath, and I had a horrifying thought. Sure enough, I just went to look, and the large decorated wreath that I have hanging over the front door is still up there! We forgot all about it being there. boo hoo ...have to get the ladder back out.

BTW - My boxwood does not smell. Good thing, as it surrounds our patio and we do a lot of entertaining.

Hmm. I love the smell of English boxwood when the sun warms it up - would not plant the scentless Korean varieties. Nothing at all like cat pee to me - and I worked as a house cleaner and emptied untended litterboxes!