I have a confession to make….I’m a eucalyptus lover! 

That’s right, I’m kind of obsessed with it. Let me tell you my story…

It all started in 2013. I was planning my wedding and was trying to put together a “vision board” for my dream bouquet. Every wedding bouquet that caught my eye had this gorgeous, flowy, muted green, leafy goodness woven throughout it.

I didn’t know what it was, but I knew that I loved how it looked! When I finally gave my “vision board” to my florist, she immediately said, “I see that you like the seeded eucalyptus.”

Eucalyptus! That’s what it is?! 

I knew what eucalyptus smelled like, but I never knew what the plant actually looked like. Right then, I discovered my new plant love!

As you can probably imagine, the florist took my suggestions and included some gorgeous eucalyptus in my wedding bouquet. It was beautiful and I wished that my bouquet could have lasted forever!

My obsession with eucalyptus was just getting started.

Fast forward to my first visit to Trader Joe’s. A brand new store finally opened near my home, so I had to go and check it out.

What’s the first thing I see when I walk inside? A whole display of eucalyptus!!!

Now, maybe I just didn’t know anything about florals. Or, maybe I wrongly assumed that eucalyptus was some “specialty floral green” that had to be ordered by a florist for bouquets and arrangements. But, I didn’t know that you could just pick it up at the grocery store!

This is where my love of eucalyptus became an obsession. And I’m not even embarrassed because I just love it! 

Eucalyptus is such a gorgeous greenery and I love it because…

• It smells great!
• It is a wonderful muted green color
• It’s a neutral floral item and can be combined with tons of other flowers, greens or twigs
• It dries really well and can be kept as a decoration
• It can fit into any decorating style
• It’s super cheap and can be found at the grocery store!

When I’m out shopping, it’s not uncommon for me to scoop up a large number of the Trader Joe’s eucalyptus bundles. The last time that I did this was because I had a project idea in mind.

You see, I’ve always wanted to make a gorgeous fresh eucalyptus wreath! I’ve seen some amazing ones as decorations and I knew that I wanted to have one for my home.

So, instead of buying one, I decided to DIY one! I ended up with this amazing custom greenery wreath that is so much easier to create than it looks.

• Related: Easy DIY Air Plant Wreath
• Related: Beautiful Felt Greenery Wreath

Let me show you how I made it. Maybe you’ll become obsessed with eucalyptus too!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. For more information, see my disclosures here.

DIY Eucalyptus Wreath Tutorial

Materials:

• Fresh eucalyptus stems (I got 5 “bunches” at Trader Joe’s for around $3 each)
  
  You could also do this project with faux eucalyptus stems. IKEA makes some pretty realistic looking faux eucalyptus –> Check out this DIY post using the faux eucalyptus
• Floral wire
• Wire cutters
• Scissors
• 14″ grapevine wreath (I found one at Michael’s, but sometimes their stock is low)
  Here’s a 12″ wreath option and an 18″ wreath option

First, you’ll need to prep your eucalyptus. Once you get all of your eucalyptus bunches home, separate out the branches and use scissors to cut the stems down into smaller pieces. I cut my branches into small springs that were about 5-6″ long each.

Next, it’s time to start placing the eucalyptus springs into the wreath form.

The idea is to have all the eucalyptus leaves and stems flowing in the same direction around the wreath. That creates the really nice, polished look that you want for the wreath.

Start by inserting a few bigger sprigs into the wreath in the direction you want the leaves to flow. Try to push the stem far enough down into the grapevine until it seems secure. The twisted design of the grapevine wreath form will hold the stems in place.

Make sure as you go that you continue to insert the sprigs in the same direction around the wreath form.

Keep adding more springs into the wreath form. Don’t worry if gets a bit messy right now, that is all part of the process!

At this point, you should start being able to see the pattern coming together! It might not be perfect or the exact density that you want yet, but you should be able to see a general directional flow starting to form.

Keep adding eucalyptus until the entire wreath is filled up and looks like it has an even density of leaves.

When I was creating my eucalyptus wreath, I started in one spot and used my best sprigs first. That meant that by the time I got all the way around the wreath, I had my smallest, and “not as full” sprigs left. I didn’t properly space out all of the stems to get a full, even density look.

I actually had to go back and rearrange the sprigs more evenly around the wreath.

To avoid this, start by picking out your best sprigs and dispersing them around the wreath form first. Again, make sure they are all flowing in the same direction.

Then, go back and fill in some of the big gaps with the medium-sized sprigs. Finally, continue to fill in and bulk up the wreath with the smaller sprigs.

Doing it this way will help you avoid having any sparse spots in your wreath. Everything will look full and evenly distributed.

Once the wreath is finished, grab the back of the wreath form and hold up the wreath so that it hangs vertically.

You’ll notice that wherever the leaves are going “uphill” in flow direction that the wreath may look a little droopy on that side. This can easily be fixed with some floral wire.

Using wire cutters, cut a piece of floral wire and wrap it around the stem part of the sprigs to hold them against the wreath form. It takes a little bit of patience, but you should be able to wrap the wire under the greenery so that they eucalyptus leaves actually cover the wire. You won’t be able to see the wire at all.

I wanted my wreath to look a little bit messier so I didn’t add a ton of floral wire. I let some of the leaves fall naturally.

To finish the wreath, all you need to do is create a loop to hang the wreath with. Use the wire cutters to cut a longer piece of floral wire and bend it to create a loop. Attach the wire loop to the back of the wreath form through the grapevines. And you’re done!

Isn’t this eucalyptus wreath gorgeous!?! I was so impressed with how well this wreath looks and it cost me a fraction of what a florist would charge for a fresh wreath.

A fresh eucalyptus wreath will slowly dry, but the leaves should keep their shape and be a beautiful decoration in your home.

Have I convinced you yet that eucalyptus is the best greenery ever? Are you as obsessed with it now as I am?

I would LOVE to see your eucalyptus wreath! Tag me on Instagram (@keystoinspiration) with your amazing wreath photos. And please tell me I’m not alone with this crazy obsession.