SPENCER, Mass. - Some Central Mass. residents showed off their creative sides as the holiday season gets closer.
Bemis Farms Nursery hosted a succulent tree workshop Sunday. Succulents are thick, fleshy plants which can hold a significant amount of water, like a cactus.
The farm's co-owner, Tina Bemis, said the farm was growing succulents without thorns all summer for their workshops. Participants put a cone-like structure in a pot of dirt, added moss and succulents around the structure, then used hot glue guns to decorate it with accessories like berries, pine cones, dried flowers and Christmas bells.
This weekend kicked off the farm's Christmas workshops. They had two separate classes Sunday, creating both large and small succulent trees.
"Creativity seems to come to me when two completely different ideas collide," said co-owner Tina Bemis. "So, you're thinking, 'what else can I do with succulents and how many more ways can I make a tree?,' and then you put those two together and say, 'oh let's make a succulent tree.' You never know when the muse is going to show up. I will say I didn't invent this, occasionally I do have the chance to invent something but this one I saw on Pintrest and I gave it the Bemis Farm touch."
Bemis Farms Nursery was started in 1915, and serves as both a garden center and plant nursery. They've been doing workshops since 1996, and every year, they do roughly 1,200 workshops all over the region in senior centers, schools and at private organizations.