Homemade Harvest Autumn Wreath
Homemade Harvest Autumn Wreath
Solid untreated cedar — naturally weather-resistant, no varnish, no chemicals
Copper roof — keeps the rain out and ages into a beautiful patina
Mixed tunnel sizes — welcomes mason bees, mining bees and many other wild species
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Homemade Harvest Autumn Wreath
The Calloway Harvest Wreath is a hand-wired autumn wreath, made one at a time by Ruth Calloway, 74, and her granddaughter Lily in a twelve-by-fourteen garden shed in Stowe, Vermont. Every stem — sunflowers from the cutting beds, maple leaves pressed at peak colour for three weeks, wild rosehips from the old stone wall — is grown or gathered on Ruth’s own land and wired by hand to a bent cedar base with copper wire. No hot glue, no foam, no plastic petals. Built to hang on your door for a decade, not a season.
Choose Your Wreath (all hand-wired, no two alike)
The Orchard, The Hearthlight, The Sunflower Door and The Maple & Berry — four compositions from one October shed, no two ever wired the same
🎃 The Orchard — Cream & Amber Pumpkins with Wildflowers (Bestseller)
Ruth’s signature composition. Cream and amber gourds nestled among sunflowers, tulip buds, rosehip clusters and sage-green foliage — the whole garden in one circle. The story behind it: this was the very first wreath Ruth ever hung on her own door in 1995, two weeks before her eldest daughter left for college. Her daughter’s only request: “Don’t take that down while I’m gone.” Bright, abundant and generous — the one people stop on the porch to look at.
✨ The Hearthlight — Glowing Pumpkins on a Dark Twig Ring
The evening wreath. Warm-lit pumpkins, pinecones from the north fence, eucalyptus and berry clusters woven into a deep twig base, with tiny warm-white lights threaded stem by stem through the ring. Lily’s addition to the collection — “Gran makes the daytime wreaths. I wanted one for when people come home after dark.” Battery pack hidden inside the base; six-hour timer.
🌻 The Sunflower Door — Full-Bloom Sunflowers & Pressed Maple
The boldest of the four: full-headed sunflowers from Ruth’s cutting beds set against maple leaves pressed flat for three weeks at peak colour, with sprays of golden berries. Every sunflower placed to catch the afternoon light. The wreath a florist in Montpelier called “the real thing, made by someone who understands materials.”
🍁 The Maple & Berry — Deep Autumn Leaves & Wild Rosehips
The quiet classic. Layer upon layer of pressed maple in every shade from amber to oxblood, studded with rosehips and mixed berry clusters in cream, gold and wine. No flowers — just the colours of a Vermont hillside in the third week of October. Striking on a pale door, timeless on a dark one.
Whichever wreath you choose, the making is identical: same bent cedar base, same hand-wired copper construction, same garden-grown botanicals, same two pairs of hands. Ruth sets the structure; Lily places the final stems.
What Makes It Different
Most autumn wreaths sold today are machine-assembled on a jig — polyester petals, foam rings, hot glue that fails in the first frost. They look fine from a distance, but they were made for a shop wall, not for a door. The Calloway Harvest Wreath is built the way New England makers used to build things: to outlast the person who hung it.
Every stem wired by hand in the Stowe shed — “firm enough to hold, loose enough that the stem breathes”
Built the way it should be:
- Garden-grown botanicals — sunflowers, maple leaves, rosehips and berries grown or gathered on Ruth’s own land in Stowe. Nothing bought, nothing imported, no plastic petals.
- Bent cedar base — aromatic cedar that doesn’t warp in frost or swell in rain. The reason some Calloway wreaths are still on doors nine years later.
- Copper wire, not glue — every stem wired individually by hand. Slower, but it survives a January ice storm without losing a petal. “Glue fails in the cold. Wire does not.”
- Built in the round — no hollow back, no exposed frame. The side that faces your neighbours is finished like the side that faces the door.
- Honest ageing — real dried botanicals deepen rather than deteriorate: sunflowers turn from gold to bronze, maple settles into old-leather tones. Beautiful now, differently beautiful at year five.
- Two pairs of hands — Ruth’s structure, Lily’s final composition. This season only, every wreath carries both.
Specifications
| Diameter | 22" (56 cm) — sized for a standard front door |
| Depth | Approx. 5" (13 cm), built in the round |
| Base | Bent Vermont cedar ring |
| Construction | Individually hand-wired copper — no hot glue, no foam, no staples |
| Materials | Dried sunflowers, pressed maple leaves, wild rosehips, hawthorn berries (Hearthlight adds warm-white LED string, battery pack, 6-hr timer) |
| Weight | Approx. 2.9 lbs (1.3 kg) |
| Placement | Front door, interior wall, barn door or fireplace; covered outdoor use recommended |
| Origin | Hand-made in Stowe, Vermont, USA |
| Care | Dust gently with a soft brush. Bring indoors January–August to extend life. No sprays or sealants needed. |
The Story Behind the Shed
Ruth Calloway has made autumn wreaths from her Stowe garden for 31 years — over 4,200 of them, each one recorded in the notebooks she keeps on the potting shelf: which sunflower varieties hold their colour longest, how long berries last in the cold, copper wire versus aluminium. Copper won, because copper ages honestly, and because her grandmother would have used it. She learned from her mother, who learned from hers: when the wreath went up on the door, the family knew — autumn is here, the table will be full, come home.
This October is different. Arthritis has moved into both of Ruth’s hands, and there are mornings in the shed when she must stop and wait for the stiffness to ease. “I can still make them. But I can feel that I am making the last ones. The hands know before you do.” Her granddaughter Lily, 22, arrived from Portland to learn everything in one season. This is Lily’s first season. It is also Ruth’s last. When the shed empties, there is no restock and no next batch.
Lily handles the online shop and reads customers’ letters aloud to Ruth in the evenings. Every wreath ships from the shed, wrapped by hand. Ruth keeps the price low on purpose — she wants these wreaths on doors, not in storage.
100% Satisfaction Guarantee
Hang it on your door and live with it through October. If it isn’t the most beautiful thing you have ever put on your door — for any reason — send it back within 30 days for a full refund, no questions asked. Ruth has stood behind every wreath that left the shed for 31 years. This one is no different.
Hand-made in Stowe, Vermont · Final season, strictly limited · Ships within 3–5 business days · Delivery 3–10 days
