You might expect florist Martha Harris to deck the halls with flowers, but the mass of fresh blooms and greens filling her house stuns you nonetheless.

"I do the core of the decorating 10 days to two weeks before Christmas and then fluff it right before," says Harris, gesturing to the snug rooms adorned with orchids, roses, tulips, pine, amaryllis, magnolia and red-berried holly. Swags, ribbons, candles and pine cones decorate the tabletops, mantel and bookshelves. Lime-colored votive candles and translucent firefly ribbon, tapers on table and buffet, masses of velvety red roses and fiery tulips — the sumptuousness of it all is so satisfying that the actual eating of Christmas dinner might well be overlooked in the sensory pleasures of looking and inhaling.

Harris's Christmas spirit starts at the street, where boxwood garlands and red velvet bows bedeck the white picket fence. The archway over the front porch is similarly swathed with bows and garlands, and a porch pillar holds white urns stuffed with toothy green holly and sweet-smelling paperwhite narcissus.

When you step inside the front door you're enveloped in warmth, starting with the butterscotch-colored walls of the living room, a shade Harris says "just glows at night." She chose her holiday colors to go with the walls of the room, accenting the traditional reds and greens with yellows and oranges. Spicy-smelling boughs of holly and pine disguise trays of water-soaked oasis on the mantel. The thick greens are threaded with yellow 'Ambience' roses and glittery pine cones. Rising up out of the flowers and foliage are red pillar candles and yellow and orange 'Dancing Ladies' orchids, their effectiveness multiplied by their reflection in the mirror behind the fireplace wall.

Every tabletop arrangement includes a mix of fragrant greens, fresh flowers, and pods, cones or berries for texture and surprise.

While Martha Harris doesn't bring home ornaments from her shop in Madison Park, she can't resist a Hungarian hand-made Santa.

Even the white picket fence around Harris' Bryant-area home is trimmed in boxwood garlands and red velvet bows.

Silver trays double the effectiveness of flowers and candle flame.

Harris uses pearl-headed corsage pins, cranberries and sheer, wired ribbon to turn satsumas into garnishes for tree and table.

The dining-room windowsill is just deep enough to hold myrtle trees trimmed in tiny gold and silver stars.

 

	The breakfast nook is enlivened with a grouping of gaudy parrot tulips, orchids, sprays of red berries and a jug of roses.

Harris is so surrounded by ornaments in her Madison Park shop that she chooses mainly ribbon to decorate her Christmas tree at home. She cuts sheer crinkled sparkly ribbon into 3- or 4-foot lengths and then winds it in the branches, both at the tips and close to the trunk to draw color into the tree. Crystalized beaded icicles gild the branches, and clusters of heather and eucalyptus continue the natural theme. Harris says she often brings home sort of a Charlie Brown tree and just ties on plenty of ribbon.

The coffee table and end tables are topped by arrangements of red and yellow roses made festive with freshly cut cedar, pine, fir and magnolia foliage, accented with sprays of brighter green hypericum berries. Little silver cups hold perfect rose buds. Swoops of garland swag the bookshelves. Harris starts out with the leaves and needled conifers, forming each arrangement or swag in varying shades and textures of green, adding garnishments of flowers, pods, berries and cones.

The color scheme continues into the dining room, where the table is set with china painted with butterflies and edged in lime green. You could never imagine that red and green could come in such a variety of shades and textures until you've seen Harris' centerpiece. Burgundy roses, brighter red ranunculus and tulips are set against a backdrop of dark pine boughs and green orchids, and sparked with the lime-green little button flowers of 'Kermit' chrysanthemums. The orchids and pine are repeated on the buffet, along with plenty of holly boughs and berries. The dining-room windowsill holds candles interspersed with three little myrtle trees in terra-cotta pots. Each tree twinkles with tiny silver and gold stars.
 

The fireplace mantel holds trays of water-soaked oasis well hidden with pine and holly, anchored with yellow roses, red candles and airy sprays of 'Dancing Ladies' orchids.

Harris plays with these same colors and fresh materials in all the rooms of the house, varying the patterns and colors just slightly. I'd be too distracted by the intricacy of the centerpiece on the round glass table in the adjoining breakfast room to even think of taking a bite of cereal. A grouping of vases and jugs is filled with yellow burgundy-spotted orchids, pine, tulips and more puckered crimson roses. A basket in the kitchen holds impossibly exotic-looking parrot tulips, their fringed, drooping heads in shades of hot yellow and red. Nearby orchids exactly match the red tones of the tulips' glossy petals. Even a few red poinsettias are squeezed in among the vases.

"It is easier to think up ideas for other people's houses," says Harris. "For my own house, I'm more traditional and have to have my reds and greens." Holly and red roses, yes, but also lime-green chrysanthemums and candles, yellow orchids and roses, lilies, pine cones and catkins.

Just a few days before Christmas, Harris is still making ornaments out of satsumas for the Christmas tree. Pushing a hooked wire through the center of each fruit, she uses pearl-headed corsage pins to add two cranberries, and ties a red ribbon on top to hide the mechanics. Tucked into the ribbon-laced tree and the table setting, the satsumas add the final note of orange to an elegantly orchestrated holiday.