wedding flowers

[electric landlady]

Hello!
I am getting married next year (eek!) and am trying to figure out the most green, and cheapest, way of doing so. It occurred to me that I could grow my own bouquet and possibly some of the table decorations and other flowers.

I'm not a flower expert and would really appreciate suggestions for flowers that will be:

1. easy to grow (soil is fairly good if a bit heavy, I'm in Notts)
2. likely to last at least 24 hours once cut and stuck into some wet moss etc
3. attractive and appropriate in a weddingy situation
4. preferably purple/mauve/blue and/or have nice greeny-grey foliage and reasonably long stems
5. blooming in May or thereabouts

Is there such a flower?? Or should I do myself a nice bunch of PSB instead?

Thank you for any help!
:)

[electric landlady]

[Tee Gee]

May is a difficult time of the year here in the UK.

The situation is you are at the transition between Spring and Summer, meaning that Spring flowers are virtually over and summer has not quite begun.

The other thing is; will we have a long or short winter next year? because this is the biggest factor to what will be in flower.

Having said that there are a few things that might be about such as these which I had in flower last May.

A word of warning I wouldn't guarantee that YOU would have them in flower then, simply because each of the plants I have pictured here have been in my garden a long time and are well established.

But at least they are food (flowers) for thought.


Muscari


Polyanthus



Wallflower;



Tulips;





Hellebors;



Digitalis/Foxglove;



Jasmine;



Oriental Poppy;



Clematis montana



Auricula;



Aquilegia;

[/img]

Berberis;



Bluebells;



Apple blossom;



Pear blossom;



Winter pansy;



Euphorbia;



Alyssum saxatile;



Convalaria (Lily of the Valley)



Dicentra;



Skimmia;

[debster]

what beautiful pictures

[valmarg]

Yes, I agree with debster, beautiful pictures, but your bluebells are spanish, rather than the local variety. ;D

valmarg

[hellohelenhere]

I got married last February, and I greened up (and padded out) the floral decorations by collecting a lot of ivy ahead of time. I just went round my neighbourhood, brazenly clipping it from walls and fences, and had about 3 buckets of it to contribute to the displays. :D
Of course, that might be a bit gothic for some tastes...

Something that didn't occur to me then, but does now, is how about using bedding plants as table flowers? You could buy large trays of primulae or pansies, pot them up, wrap pretty paper and ribbons round them, voila. You could give them away as favours afterwards, or plant them out in your own garden.

I used tin cans to put the table flowers in wrapped in pretty paper with ribbons around. For a few larger displays, I bought large plastic cylindrical tubs for a quid or two each - & decorated them with paper. They served a 2nd purpose when we had loooooooooads of curry left from the reception and took plenty home in the tubs!

A friend went to Columbia Road market for me on the morning of the reception, and spent about 60 quid on flowers for the decor - mostly whites and pinks, including freesias and some roses but I really can't remember what else, I do wish someone had taken good pics of the flowers!

[saddad]

I have loads of "spanish" bluebells if you need some!!  ;D

[hellohelenhere]

By the way, May blossom (hawthorn) is supposed to be unlucky to bring indoors. But if I'd got married in May, I think I would have ignored that, as I love it - I don't know how well it lasts when cut, though.
Do you live in an area where you could collect blossom? What else is out, at that time?

[saddad]

Allotmenteers, May is the busy month!!  ;D

[hellohelenhere]

*Columbia Road Market = famous flower market near Brick Lane in East London.

[timnsal]

By the way, May blossom (hawthorn) is supposed to be unlucky to bring indoors. But if I'd got married in May, I think I would have ignored that, as I love it - I don't know how well it lasts when cut, though.
Do you live in an area where you could collect blossom? What else is out, at that time?

I wouldn't want to go into a room which contained hawthorn blossom. It can smell pretty nasty. I think I remember hearing that it's a smell some (lucky) people can't detect.  :'(

I'm not very good at growing flowers, but my mum does a lot of flower arranging and has taught me a bit. You can save a huge amount if you can provide greenery from your garden - leaves of different sizes, shapes and colours, either singly or small sprays. When you do your flower displays, put the greenery in first and spread it out. Then you won't actually need that many flowers. It might be worth doing some small test runs this May to see how they look.

If you plunge the cut flowers immediately into deep water (cut 1/2inch off the ends first) for 24 hours, and recut the ends when you use them, they will last longer. The flowers we had for Christmas have only just died, and the leaves are all still green.

Sally

[hellohelenhere]

Ah, I didn't know that about hawthorn blossom!  :-[

[electric landlady]

Brilliant tips - thankyou very much!

I really like the ivy idea and the suggestion of starting with foliage and then adding flowers. And I already have Spanish bluebells on the allotment which would be perfect! I'll try putting in some white/mauve/purple tulip bulbs end of this year and see what comes up. Come to think of it, rosemary flowers around that time and is blue and smells nice too.

And thankyou for the flower arranging tips - I've heard that putting them in lemonade or tonic water makes them last longer too - do you know if this is true?

Some friends of mine had little bedding plants in pots as favours/table decs at their wedding and they looked great so may well do this. I will also have a Plan B just in case (local market is pretty good)

Fab! That's the flowers done. Now just got to sort out the rest if it.  :o

[valmarg]

Whilst I assume you are getting married next year, ie 2010, you do not state what time of year/month.  If you could let us know, we could be a bit more specific.

valmarg

[valmarg]

I have loads of "spanish" bluebells if you need some!!  ;D

From a previous thread I understood you were offering Levi english bluebells, rather than spanish. ???

valmarg

[saddad]

No I'm fairly certain they are "Spanish" sorry for any confusion...  :-[

[rosebud]

 If it is for a spring wedding i would most certainly go for HELLEBORES, LILY OF THE VALLEY, LOTS OF VARIGATED IVY ALSO THE PLAIN  IVY,FOR THE HELLEBORES, as a trained florist, may i suggest that you look in the hedgerows for COW PARSLEY, it looks amazing mixed with  LILAC if you know anyone who has a tree, i did this for the church when my son got married & the vicar approved the hedgerow, gathering!!! :P.   Rosebud. ;D

[Peasticks]

Lily of the Valley would be lovely  :)

How about finding someone with a eucalyptus tree and cutting some whippy bits off, it looks smashing in a bouquet especially if some bits are long. the type with round leaves with the stem that kind of goes through them would look amazing

[lavenderlux]

Have you thought about using blue Lobelia growing in pots for table decorations, with the pots wrapped in a single colour tissue paper and tied with raffia.
We saw these used as table centre decorations when we were in Germany on holiday last May and they looked lovely.

[timnsal]

I didn't get on very well with tulips when I tried to use them. Mine were very floppy. Also, the stems keep growing in water, so the heads all ended up stuck too far out.

For some really simple ideas for table decorations, it might be worth seeing if your local library has got Judith Blacklock's flower recipe books. There is one for each season, and they are really easy to follow (I know this, because I can manage it  ??? )
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Judith-Blacklocks-Flower-Recipes-Spring/dp/0955239125

Sally

[electric landlady]

thankyou, yet more good ideas!

we haven't fixed a definite date yet but are thinking latish May 2010. Hence the need for flowers that are around then!

I love Lily of the Valley so that's definitely going on the list. Also Eucalyptus and lilac, and Cow Parsley too... maybe not all in the same bouquet....

I think tulips are worth a shot if they're still flowering in May - hopefully they won't grow too much in the course of a day! I reckon I can prop them up with something else or use tall vases or something.

Ooh - getting quite excited now. Is it wrong to be more excited by the prospect of sorting out the flowers than the dress, which is already seeming like a nightmare?

Thanks again  :) :) :)