Inside: This heart-shaped topiary is inexpensive to make and right at home in French country or farmhouse style Valentine’s day decorating! ➡
Do you decorate for Valentine’s Day?
Since my kids are grown, I have way fallen out of the habit of decorating for the day of love, and even back then it was mostly for their classroom parties.
But I am a fan of celebrating love and all of my special relationships – with my husband, my family, and my friends. I still do get a warm fuzzy feeling from having just a little nod to Valentine’s day around the house.
And one of my decorating “loves” are topiaries. And I wanted some rosemary ones for the counter of my French country style kitchen. Plus, I wanted to decorate for Valentine’s Day with something a little more adult now besides cardboard, tinsel, and conversation hearts. So I came up with these sweet little heart-shaped topiaries!
There’s nothing overtly Valentine-y about them other than their heart shape. So they make for a more subtle, adult Valentine look that fits in with my decor.
My favorite thing is that not only were they easy, but I already had a lot of the supplies around the house.
I’m joining together with friends for the “Celebrate the Holiday” Blog Hop, hosted by Carol of Bluesky at Home! This month it’s all about celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with plenty of creative ideas to inspire you so make sure to check them all out at the end of this post. If you’ve landed here from Laura’s at Everyday Edits, thank you for your visit and I hope you come back again!
How to make the topiary.
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What I used:
- Grapevine heart-shaped wreath
- Garden pot
- Rosemary-look air grass hanging bush pick
- Styrofoam
- Brown grapevine wire
- Green floral wire
- Stick from the yard
First, I took a nice straight branch from a bush in the yard and wrapped a piece of grapevine wire around the stick and the bottom of the heart until it was secure and able to stand straight on its own.
I cut apart pieces of the faux vine. I’m not sure exactly what type of plant this is but the individual pieces are a pretty good fake for real rosemary.
SH&H Tip: Always make sure to buy florals at Hobby Lobby during their 50 percent off sale every other week.
Next, I laid out pieces of greenery over one side of the heart. Then I secured it to the wreath every few inches with green floral wire.
Instead of closing the wire all the way and smoothing it down, I left it sticking out on the other side so that I could use the same wire to secure the rosemary pieces on the back as well.
After the front side was covered, I flipped the wreath over and repeated it on the back.
I cut floral foam I had on hand to fit snugly in the bottom of a terra cotta pot I had around (any flower pot will do). These topiaries aren’t really top heavy so I didn’t need to glue the styrofoam in, but you could.
SH&H Tip: Don’t insert the stick until you are pretty much done attaching the greenery. You can still do minor touching up, but if you cause the stick to move around, it will enlarge the hole and the topiary won’t stand straight.
The rosemary looked so life-like, I decided to fill the pot with potting soil, but I could have also chosen Spanish moss or green preserved moss.
I made a trio of topiary trees and varied the heights of the sticks. They look so natural in my French country kitchen and they’re a great way to bring a little life into the room this dreary time of year!
Options for making the heart topiary.
I’ve used cheap materials that I either had or found easily. But if you can’t find these exact items, there are many different ways to make a heart topiary:
- Try your dollar store. They will usually have either heart wreaths, wire hearts, foam heart forms, or sometimes even heart grapevine wreaths.
- If you don’t have suitable sticks in your yard, you can use a wooden dowel.
- Don’t have floral wire? Use a hot glue gun to secure the greenery.
- If you can’t find faux “rosemary”, make an ivy topiary or moss topiary.
This is the extent of my Valentine decor, but I also gave the vent hood a little Valentine love with this cute flower heart I also picked up at Hobby Lobby:
And some pink flowers on the counter:
If you love topiaries as much as I do, you should give this elegant, more adult-ish Valentines Day craft project a try. But it’s ok at any age to have the fun candy hearts.💕
xoxo,
As always, I appreciate your visit, comments, and shares here on the blog! I’d love it if you also follow along with me on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook so you won’t miss any of my inspiration and ideas.
Don’t forget to sign up for updates to keep in touch…I have lots of fun and useful freebies you may be interested in in my subscriber-only library like my cheat sheets for where to place lighting, bathroom fixtures, artwork, and furniture!
Now for more inspiration:
And if you’d like to see even more Valentine’s Day crafts, here are a couple of other projects my blog friends have made:
Marianne from Songbird shares her sweet DIY Lace Hearts
Suzy from Worthing Court created this lovely Valentine’s Day Printable
Kate, I just love these adorable rosemary heart topiaries! What a great idea! Thanks for sharing this! I am going to make some of these for our kitchen.
Thank you Mary-Ann! I’m glad you like them.💗
Kate these are so darling! I will be featuring them on Sunday Smiles tomorrow.
Thank you for sharing the “love” on these Laura!! 💝
Totally thought your topiaries were real, Kate! Thanks for the tutorial that is completely doable!
I’d love for you to join us over at the Creative Crafts Linky Party every Wednesday through Sunday
https://creativelybeth.com/creative-crafts-linky-party/
Followed and Pinned! 🙂
Creatively, Beth
Kate – these are gorgeous. I love topiaries and have only done heart shaped ones with ivy back in the day. These are a must try for me. I too cannot believe the rosemary is faux. Lovely job.
These are absolutely adorable, Kate. I’m going to share a link to your project in my weekly recap post tomorrow. I think my readers will love them too!
Kate, I love the look for topiaries, too, but your heart-shaped ones really taking the cake. Your rosemary could have fooled me. These have such a nice, natural look. I love this project. Thank you for sharing it at Celebrate the Holiday.
Kate, I not only love your heart topiaries, but I also love how you styled them on your kitchen island. Perfect for Valentine’s Day decor and beyond. Pinning!
Kate, your heart topiaries are just the best idea for Valentine’s Day! I’m going to have to make some for myself! What a lovely addition to your kitchen!
Oh my goodness! I love these. So much fun hopping with you. Hugs and blessings to you.
Kate, I love these topiaries. The heart shape is perfect with the faux rosemary in the pots. Just love it and want to make some for my home.
Oh, these are beautiful! I can’t believe how realistic they look. I’m a rosemary and topiary lover and need to recreate these.
Hi Kate. I love these! So pretty in the kitchen! Pinned! Fun day for Valentine’s Day inspo.
laura in Colorado
Such a great idea! I’m definitely going to try this…as soon as I can find a grapevine heart shape!
I’m so glad you like it! They were easy to find in the craft stores during the Valentine’s season.
Your rosemary topiaries are so pretty! I love the heart shape!!
Thank you Kim! Those are the extent of my Valentine’s Day decorating this year.
I can’t get enough topiaries and these are perfect! I love this idea. Hoping you’ll start linking up at Farmhouse Friday. Love your creativity! pinned.
Thanks so much Cindy!! Thanks for the invite to Farmhouse Friday. I’ll definitely check it out!
Your topiaries are absolutely gorgeous and look so real! thanks so much for sharing the DIY, and for linking up with All About Home. I’m featuring this lovely post on Monday evening. Have a great Sunday!
Oh thank you so much for featuring them!! Love your link party – thanks for hosting!
Kate! These are adorable! I need them on my kitchen peninsula.
Thanks for sharing in Fabulous Friday, otherwise I would still be blindly going through life totally unaware that my life will be so much richer with a trio of heart topiaries.
Seriously, I am so into these.
Lol…I’m glad you like them Diane!!
I love these adorable heart topiaries! I’ve made lots of faux topiaries before, but never a heart one. Such a great idea!
And thanks so much for joining our Fabulous Friday Link Party!
Thank you Michele! And thank you for hosting this great new link party!!
Hey, Kate! It’s Julie! LOVE these topiaries… and your photos are awesome! We hope to see you at Tuesday Turn About this week! The party closes tonight at midnightCST and we reopen on Tuesdays at 5pm CST! Hope to see you there! Pinned!
Thanks Julie! I love your link party and will plan on joining!
I love this idea. Thank you so much for linking up with Fabulous Friday Link Party! We sure appreciate you, Hugs and blessings to you.
Thank you Renae! Wonderful job on the first party and you featured some of my favorite bloggers!!
I would have never guessed that this topiary wasn’t made from a live plant! So simple and so elegant – I love it and pinned this post 🙂
Thank you so much. I would love to see yours if you try it in the future!
What a delicious-smelling decor idea! I love gardening and will have to keep future decor plans like this in mind!
Thanks Susan!
I love a good topiary and this one is perfect. You did an amazing job and they look wonderful in your beautiful home.
Thanks for the sweet comment!
So lovely and you’re right that the ‘rosemary’ looks real! Fakes are getting so good.
Thanks Sara! I also think faux rosemary can look very realistic!!
I’m a gardener, who loves rosemary and grows some outside. Haven’t tried a topiary in the garden but your design would be fun to try and pop along the sidewalk patch for V Day. Thanks!
You’ll have to let me know if you make a real rosemary topiary. Although I work in the yard a good bit, I don’t consider myself a gardener and probably wouldn’t be able to make the real thing!
Gorgeous!!! I love these! Adding the potting soil is the perfect touch for making them look alive!!!
Thanks so much Nancy! Until you get really close they do look very real.
These are SO pretty, Kate! I definitely want to make some for myself. The greenery that you used looks exactly like rosemary – I couldn’t believe that it’s faux. Where did you get those gorgeous roses?
Thank you Suzy! It was super easy. And I bought those roses last spring at Michaels…they should have them again soon.
Hi Kate,
Your topiaries look beautiful. And at first glance I never would have guessed that it wasn’t real rosemary you used.
I love this subtle Valentines decor.
Thanks so much Marianne! They make such good fakes now and the best part is they don’t dry out and die!