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They're no longer just one-season adornments for your Yuletide front door, ready-made and ready to discard. These days, wreaths can live throughout the year: growing, colorful orbs that bring textural richness to a bland entrance hall and a welcoming cheer to doorways and garden gates.

Ancient civilizations used wreaths, symbols of unbroken time, to celebrate occasions such as an Olympic victory, a military triumph, or a declaration of love. They were creative in their materials -- using myrtle, ivy, even celery -- and there is no reason you shouldn't be as well. These wreaths are made of succulents, cacti, mosses, evergreens, and ferns, but any plant that grows slowly or has small leaves will work well (miniature plants are particularly suited for use in living wreaths). So go ahead and start thinking outside of the pine-branch box.

Rotating Displays
The wreath below is made of lemon button fern and two types of maidenhair fern. The three varieties were planted in the same order around the entire wreath, giving it a uniform rhythm.

In a wreath designed for a garden gate, below, trailing sedum weaves in and out of a colony of rosy-edged sempervivum. Because sempervivum is slow to root, this wreath needs to be placed on a horizontal surface -- with its soil kept evenly moist -- for several weeks before hanging. Come summer, use it as a centerpiece.

Exposure to Light
If you will be hanging a wreath outdoors, gradually expose it to more sunlight over a week's time. The moss wreath thrives in dappled shade. The succulent and evergreen wreaths need to receive several hours of sunlight each day. The Christmas cactus wreath and the fern wreath should remain indoors during winter. Christmas cacti require a well-lighted area, and ferns need a humid environment.

First Published: December 2007