THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 21, 1994 TAG: 9412200131
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
When I was young, graceful trailing cedar with its feathery leaves woven into a garland decked our mantelpiece. Turned round into a delicate wreath, the cedar needed no more than a bright red bow to make the front door festive.
But I haven't seen any running cedar in years except for one patch I came upon unexpectedly on a walk in the woods along the North Landing River last spring. I was surprised to see it growing locally and the sight brought back holiday memories.
When I was young my father would get an early start on Christmas Eve morning on a hunting trip to his farm a couple of hours away from our home in Richmond. On that day, however, his search was for greens, not game birds. At dusk, he would arrive home with a cedar tree on top of the car and an armload of running cedar in the trunk. Then the whole family scurried to get the house and tree decorated before Santa arrived.
Recently running cedar was brought to mind again. A flier from the Virginia Native Plant Society and an article in the December issue of Virginia Wildlife both warned that native stands of running cedar were being depleted.
Evidently running cedar is not grown commercially so it is still being collected from its woodsy habitat to make those Christmas wreaths and garlands. Over-collection combined with a loss of habitat to development is drastically reducing the wild stock.
I am not taking issue at all with the warnings about its over-harvest. But I was surprised at what they said, because in this area, we rarely ever see running cedar used in Christmas decorations.
Just reading about the old familiar plant, however perilous its future, filled me with nostalgia and I went looking for it. Last week I found one place that still sells running cedar and that is Creekmore's stall down at the Farmers Market.
Elsie Creekmore, who's been running a farmers market stall since running cedar was a prolific holiday green, purchases her cedar from a family in Emporia that goes into the woods and collects it for her. She brings it back and makes a small number of wreaths, using coat hanger frames, and ties a few garlands up with twine.
``I take this clothes rack and make it round,'' she said, as she bent the wire coat hanger into a roundish shape. ``I tie the running cedar in bunches and then tie it on with twine all the way around the rack.''
Creekmore said it takes an hour or more to pull the cedar branches off the trailing stem, tie the branches in bunches and then tie the bunches onto the coat hanger. She sells her wreaths for $6.99.
Making running cedar wreaths is a thing of the past, Creekmore thinks. She learned to make the wreaths on coat hangers 25 years ago from a woman named Beulah Cross who had a stand at the city's old farmers market on Diamond Springs Road where Creekmore also used to work.
``She was on the market years before I was on the market,'' Creekmore said. ``And she was the only one that made the wreaths back then.''
The same folks come back year after year to buy Creekmore's wreaths. ``And then some people don't even know what it is,'' she said.
If Creekmore is a good example of how running cedar is used commercially at Christmas, I hope we don't have anything to fear. Seems she's the last of the running cedar merchants around.
Before too long nobody in Virginia Beach will even know what it is to remember it.
P.S. WINTER ARRIVES today, the shortest day of the year. It seems backward that beginning this week, the days will start to lengthen again leading us on to spring while we also wait for winter to strike its blows.
FOR A TRADITIONAL old Princess Anne County holiday feast, check out the stalls at the Farmers Market. You can buy all sorts of local vegetables such as sweet potatoes, cabbage and greens of all kinds - collards, Hanover salad, mustard, kale and turnips. Local black walnuts and pecans in the shell. Construction along Landstown Road is complete and it's easy now to get into the market.
A SNOW BUNTING, out of its normal more Northern range, is feasting at Virginia Sharp's bird feeder in the Tallwood section of Chesapeake. She wonders if anyone else has seen snow buntings recently. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Elsie Creekmore, who learned to make wreaths 25 years ago, buys
cedar from a family in Emporia.
by CNB