Growing, Sowing and Arranging Flowers by Jane Wrigglesworth
Getting married, or know someone who is? In the wedding business? Then follow me on Facebook.
I’ve started a new Facebook page: Sweet Living Magazine Weddings. I’m putting together a new online weddings magazine (in flipbook magazine style), which will be out late August. Please click through and ‘like’ me. 🙂
I’ll be adding lots of images regularly, plus offering giveaways. Plus, of course, there’s the magazine, out soon.
Don’t you love herbs in bouquets? Aside from the pretty flowers and textured foliage, the scent they emit is scrumdiddlyumptious (now there’s a grand word). The wedding bouquet above features rosemary and sage leaves (yummy fragrance), hypericum berries (from the St John’s wort plant) and a white lily of sorts. I can imagine prancing down the aisle with this, leaving a delicious scent in my wake.
Then there’s lavender. What can you say about lavender? It’s divine. Plant it in the garden, pick it for the vase and use it in cooking. Try lavender scones. Then serve a fresh pot of mint tea to go with them.
I spied some gardenias in my local garden centre this weekend, with their beautifully pristine flower heads and gorgeous scent. If the fragrance of flowers could be measured by a scentometer, gardenias would career off the charts. The perfume is intoxicating, a sultry mix of jasmine and bubblegum with a soft fruity note.
Gardenias are a much-loved garden plant but they have a reputation for being difficult to grow. That might be because they’re prone to yellowing leaves, or chlorosis as it’s called, which is caused by lack of chlorophyll. Why that happens could be any number of reasons, including poor drainage, damaged roots, high alkaline soils (gardenias like an acidic soil), wet or cold conditions, or nutrient deficiencies. Iron and magnesium deficiencies are the most common, but you need to look closely at the leaves to determine which deficiency your plant has. [Read more…]
At my floral design workshops at HANDMADE over Queen’s Birthday Weekend a participant brought along some gorgeous red berries. Berries are the perfect pick-me-up for winter colour, and can be used on their own or with a mix of flowers and foliage.
This winter bouquet, which features over at Style Me Pretty, contains just berries and foliage and it looks absolutely striking. I love the burlap and fur wrap too.
Look in your own garden for berries to use, such as those from the strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica), pyracantha, and Chinese beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma).
I adore succulents (we know that already) because these colourful plants are just so versatile. They look great in bouquets and vases and they make very cute table centrepieces. There’s not much work involved with them either. Just plant them in a sunny spot that’s free-draining, and that’s it. Although sometimes snails like to munch on the succulent leaves. Grrr. You might need to resort to putting down snail bait.
The bottom two images come from Stephenie Wong’s Pinterest page and the top one, which includes dahlias, roses, freesias and billy buttons (Craspedia globosa), is from Sugar Plum Invitations.
I adore dahlias, and so does Studio Choo, who put together these gorgeous bouquets. The top image has dahlias, roses and hydrangeas, among other blooms; the middle one has dahlias and clematis. The bouquet in the bottom image is more about nigella (love-in-a-mist), peonies, passionfruit flowers and clematis foliage. Simply divine.
Who would have thought to use manuka (leptospermum) in a bouquet? This beautiful floral arrangement was created by Rebecca Shepherd and photographed by Elisabeth Millay.
It’s so simple, yet stunning, with purple, pink and white roses and branches of manuka. This is, in fact, a belt, which is tied around the middle of a bride’s waist. Check out more of this lovely photoshoot over at the amazing Chic Vintage Brides.
Gypsophila elegans, aka baby’s breath, can be sown or planted now for a summer showing.
I love this plant – unless you pair it with red roses. Then it becomes horribly old-fashioned. But gypsophila is making a comeback on the floral scene, as it’s finally being used in fashionable ways. Brides are using it as the only flower in bouquets, and it looks stunning. Understated but very elegant.
Gypsophila elegans is a short-lived annual so it’s worth making successive sowings for an extended season. Sow up to late summer, or early autumn in warmer areas. Sow directly in a sunny, well-drained position and cover lightly with soil. Sowings made in semi-circles create a natural drift effect.
Apply a tomato fertiliser when the flower stalks emerge and keep plants well watered.
Gypsophila balls, made by Melania of Cecelia Fox. Read more about these here.
Check out these amazing flowers, photographed by Sweet Little Photographs. The velvety grey foliage is  a type of senecio, the yellow pincushion-like flower is Leucospermum cordifolium (a protea), the steely blue thistle-like globes are eryngiums, and the rest is made up of freesias, tulips, anemones, ranunculi and lisianthus.
Such beauty in one bouquet. These spring arrangements include a mix of pretty pastels and look as though they’ve been plucked straight from the garden. The main flowers in the top two images include tulips, roses, clematis and astilbes.
Astilbes produce their fluffy blooms from spring through summer, with plants growing best in part shade and moist soil. The silver-felted leaves look to be Senecio cineraria ‘Cirrus’. Unfortunately, as far as I know, we don’t have this plant in NZ.
The bottom arrangement includes dogwood branches, hellebores, ranunculi and purple lilac. Such a delicious spring mix.
Images via  Once Wed (top and middle) and The Knot (bottom photo).
