At my last house, I bought a metal/heavy wire topiary form and put white lights on it. Now I have three, in various sizes, but don't use an urn...just sit them on the front veranda. The taller triangular ones look more like trees but all shapes are pretty lit up at night.

If you want green, you can always add a garland.

these are my urns from last year; lots of fir branches and twigs and berries on branches, they can stay almost all winter; I've added some sparkle with xmas balls certain years

Don't have a picture, but I fill my flower pots (not really urns) with pine cones (from my yard) stacked into a pyramid shape, then dot with holly leaves and berries (also from the yard). I replace the holly occasionally throughout the winter.

Some great ideas, thanks. mitchdesj, I love how you decorated your urns. My urn is like yours and wish I had 2 of them. Did you use artificial greenry? How did you attach the greenry so it would not blow away from the wind? Please tell me more. Thanks

mitchdesj- I love what you did with your urns. Can you explain how you did that arrangement? What did you use to stick the branches in? I would love to know how you put it together! Thank you in advance!

Along the lines of what Allison said, you can use tomato cages turned upside down to resemble trees! Wrap with white lights and you get a beautiful night time winterscape! For my urns and windowboxes, I just stick fresh greenery and berries into the soil in the pot. It usually freezes during the winter months and lasts until spring!

mitch, your urns are magnificent.... bravo!

Great ideas everyone! I especially like the upside down tomato cage idea.

mitchdesj - I remember your urns from last year.

I planted juniper trees in all my pots this year (2 spiral topiaries and 3 cone shape.) I have not finished decorating, but will add some ribbon, berries and possibly some pine cones.

After the winter, I can replant the trees in the yard.

{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

Mitchdesj - your urns look wonderful! I have a wrought iron planter on the front porch that I am going to try a similar look - thanks for the idea.

Also, kind of an upgrade on the tomato cage and topiary form suggestion, I clipped pics from an old cottage living - actually two different issues where the editor decorated her urns - one for fall, one for Christmas. She used the grapevine trees - the tall (3 ft.) slim ones. They sit in the urns and I am thinking both pics had magnolia leaves around the base of the tree. The Christmas pic she had some more greenery added in around the tree and a few ornaments. The fall one had ivy along with the magnolia leaves and small pumpkins/gourds placed in the urn also. Both look great. I like the topiary forms and we use tomato cages ourselves (upside down) in warmer months for some of our vines. But with nothing growing on them and during the daytime when not lit, they look a bit sparse. On the grapevine trees, you can also use lights. I was actually able to find the trees prelit.

tina

I bought some cast iron urns this summer that DH said we are NOT moving...lol. My pre-lit trees came in a small urn so I placed it inside the big urn and wrapped some garland around the bottom so you can't see the inside of the urns.

I love yours mitch, beautiful!

The urns are full of earth so the branches hold well in it.
I never did them myself, I must admit; this wonderful person who did my summer plantings did them for me. I watched her do it though, she used tons of branches and made it very full, in this case more is really more and good.

I have to consider the arctic weather, so I used silks and some fresh balms, but mostly fake stuff (the only place in my house/outside actually where a silk is allowed LOL) I wait until it's snowed a couple of times, and just stick the flowers (pointsettias in gold and burgundy) in the snow. In a week or so they always freeze tight :)

Mitch, gorgeous! Do you have a close up? I do something similar every year to the urns on my porch. I just stick the branches in the dirt. Nothing as gorgeous as your though ;)

Tinam61 - At our last house I used upside down tomato cages, but I planted confederate jasmine in the urns. It will cover the cages in a year or two at the most. Then you don't have to worry about it looking sparse during the day. I just put the tiny lights on them at Christmas time. If it's too cold for jasmine, ivy would probably do well.

Jeane - I have some kind of jasmine out back and it has wintered, but not grown a great bit - and it's 2 or 3 years old. I grow mandevilla on the upside down tomato cages (these are on my patio), but it dies down in the winter. Ivy would work, but where I use the grapevine trees, I don't keep something tall in them year round.

BTW, I LOVE the smell of jasmine!

tina