WEDDING FLOWERS: native flowers
News Update
Loading...
Showing posts with label native flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label native flowers. Show all posts

February Flowers

What's flowering in February?

February is a bridge between seasons, with availability of some late summer flowers as well as some early autumn blooms.  The first thing I notice as a grower is that the Protea Pink Ice begin to bloom again in larger numbers.  They look fresh and clean as their autumn flush begins towards the end of February.  

Protea Pink Ice available in good quantities in February
They are a great flower adding colour with their pink outer bracts and purple centres, but also providing highlights with their icy white tips which catch the light when used in bouquets.

Banksia Occidentalis
Banksia Occidentalis begins to flower in late summer.  It is at its best when the days are still long and full of sunshine to intensify the colour while the flowers are on the bush.  I grow 2 different colour types.  The one pictured above is a rich pinky red with a red central core and red pins.  Not pictured are a more orangey red which have a warm yellow central core with rich red pins, that gives the flower a warmer look overall.

Banksia Occidentalis
They're a great long-lasting flower providing intense colour and fabulous texture.

February Bouquet by Swallows Nest Farm
This February bouquet teamed Protea Pink Ice and Banksia Occidentalis in a texture rich Australian Native design.  I used a lovely light pink shade of Corymbia Ficifolia, a summer flowering gum that comes in many shades.  It is available in Summer over a period of a couple of months, depending on weather conditions.  I also used the Corymbia gum nuts, still green from the previous years flowering.  

Bouquets for a February Wedding by Swallows Nest Farm
You can also see late flowering Pincushions called Leucospermum Fountain.  In the mix is some red Kangaroo Paw, and new season Leucadendron Safari Sunset which are beginning to be available in small numbers in February. 

Clockwise from left:  Leucospermum (Pincushion) Fountain,  Risdon Peppermint Foliage,  Leucadendron Silvan Red, Banksia Occindentalis, Protea Pink Ice
This collection of flowers are all available and looking great in February.

 
Leucospermum (Pincushion) Fountain
The Pincushion, L. Fountain are a great late flowering variety that start to bloom around Christmas and keep going until February and even March.  When they first begin to flower they are a lighter apricot orange.  As the flowers age they deepen in colour to a pinky red in the centre with rich orange "pins".

February Wedding by Swallows Nest Farm
This February bride's bouquet uses Pink Ice Proteas,  Fountain Pincushions, Brunia Albiflora and rich pink Kangaroo Paw called Bush Pearl.  

Peachy February Bouquet by Swallows Nest Farm
This peachy bouquet from February uses the same main flowers - Protea Pink Ice and Fountain Pincushions, but in a different style.  I grouped the Pincushions together for that intense peachy colouring to be the main focus.

Peachy February Bouquet by Swallows Nest Farm
The foliage used is a gorgeous eucalyptus called E. Crenulata.  It has lovely blue green foliage with a purple tinge to the tips.  Its the details that make a great bouquet, and in these I used blackberries. Blackberries are a great colour in February before they start to ripen, and they are the epitome of "local" and "seasonal" in late summer in Tasmania.

Leucadendron Silver Tree
Also available in February is Leucadendron Argenteum, called Silver Tree.  It has the most shimmering, silvery texture to the leaves and it just perfect in bouquets.  

Brunia Albiflora
Brunia Albiflora is available in large quantities in February.  It has a lovely textural effect in bouquets with its glowing balls in neutral tones.  Great in silvery, leafy designs but equally brilliant in colourful bouquets where it adds textural depth.

Protea Varieties Clockwise from top left:  Protea Pink Cream,  Protea White Ice,  Protea Compacta Red
At Swallows Nest Farm, we grow a range of protea varieties, many of which flower in late summer and autumn.  The Protea Compacta are a rich pink, with warm red centres.  The Protea White Ice are a creamy protea with a blush centre.

Cascading Bouquet from a February Wedding
In this cascading bouquet from a February wedding, you can see both Protea Compacta Red and Protea White Ice used.  Brunia Albiflora also features, with some hot pink flowering gum, Banksia Marginata, and Protea Pink Ice.

Protea Pink Cream 
Protea Pink Cream are a soft pink protea with a central mass that is creamy and pointed. They are available in late autumn and winter in larger quantities but will sometimes begin flowering in February.

Clockwise from left:  Wattle, Corymbia Ficifolia in soft pink, Eucalyptus Crenulata
Beautiful Eucalyptus Crenulata foliage, soft pink flowering gum (Corymbia ficifolia) and flowering wattle - beautiful Australian pastels all available in February.

Corymbia Ficifolia - flowering gum in hot pink
 Corymbia Ficifolia is the botanical name for what is commonly called flowering gum or Red Flowering Gum.  It has been reclassified and is no longer part of the Eucalyptus family.  Despite its name, it flowers in a range of colours from white through a the shades of pink and orange and red.  It is a stunning colour and texture flower for use in February.

Floral Hair Comb from a February wedding
Corymbia Ficifolia features in this floral comb for a February bride.  I used some flowering tea tree, wax flower and a gorgeous soft shade of pink flowering gum.  Simple and stunning

Colourful February Bouquet
This colourful bouquet from a February wedding used 3 different shades of pink flowering gum as the main flower.  Also in this bouquet is a Protea Pink Cream, a Pincushion Fountain some yellow Leucadendron Pisa with its silvery white central cone,  and some olive green Pittosporum berries.  Branches of flowering wattle are also used.

February Leuacdendrons - L. Maui Sunset left, L. Pisa right
Leucadendrons available in February include Leucadendron Pisa, a leuco which flowers yellow in spring.  Its central cone then grows and swells, becoming a beautiful silvery white centre, often with a purple blush.  The outer bracts turn from yellow to a yellowy lime in February.  They look great in bouquets and boutonnieres too.  Maui Sunset is a more sage coloured leuco with a pink tinge to the tips.  

Banksia Baxteri
Beautiful Banksia Baxteri is available in February.  It is a summer flowering banksia with a creamy lemon colouring with silvery highlights.  It is commonly called the Birdsnest Banksia due to it's shape.  The leaves of Banksia Baxteri are wonderful too, with a striking zig zag shape.

February Bouquet in rich colours
This February bouquet used Banksia Baxteri as its main flower.  Richly colour Banksia Occidentalis also feature, and you can see Brunia Albiflora too.  I loved using a beautiful native Coral Fern here too.  The fronds soften the edge of the bouquet.

It can be tricky to predict what will flower when, especially when you factor in the weather. Because February marks the end of summer and beginning of autumn, it can be more difficult to predict but on the whole, the flowers pictured here are end of summer blooms.  If you have any queries about February flowers,  just contact Grace via the blogger contact form on the right side-bar.

Native November Wedding in Soft Blush Colours


Mid November I did a wedding with a gorgeous colour scheme.  The bride sent me a little colour board that showed the colour and feel she planned for the day.  The suits were blue (a current personal favourite!), as were the bridesmaids, and the flower girls were in shades of blush.  


My Protea White Ice were just beginning to flower well for the first season and they gave me the inspiration for the flower combination that would suit the theme.


White Ice are a white protea with a soft blush colour in the central flower mass.


Other spring flowers that I teamed up with them were Protea Compacta in a rich pink with a central mass of bronzy red.


The  Scarlet Ribbon Pincushions were early and are a lovely soft colour when they just begin to flower.  They added to the colour combination.


The brides bouquet also had a white waratah - Shady Lady White.  My plants are still very young and flowering sporadically to it was great to have a couple to sprinkle through.  Other flowers that I added were the soft golden Dryandra Formosa.  I just love these for weddings!  You can also see some Berzelia. Another secondary flower that I think worked really well in this wedding was the Leucadendron Discolour which was in its creamy white phase, with a dusting of pink blush. 


An experimental planting of Serruria Blushing Bride provided a few blooms to add to the mix.  I used one here for the grooms boutonniere.  Some fluffy white flowering gum makes an appearance too.  Dryandra are great for boutonnieres, and just imagine these on a blue suit - great colour combination!


The foliage that I used throughout was a Tasmanian eucalyptus called Cordata.  It has lovely blue green juvenile leaves with a rounded shape.  


I really enjoyed the colour combinations in this wedding! 





Waratah Wedding Bouquets

Waratah season is short and sweet.  They are very much a spring flower.
Swallows Nest Farm Waratah Bouquet
  This year has been unusually warm and the waratah season seemed to fly by more quickly than usual.  Here at Swallows Nest Farm, you can see the first pickable blooms in mid to late September, with October being the high season. Some late flowering varieties keep going until mid December, but due to the warmth, it been a shorter season.  It's made me a bit sad, and so to console myself, I've compiled a little collection of waratah wedding bouquets. 

Flowergirl's bouquet Swallows Nest Farm
Some are my own, and some are ones I've found on my internet travels.  All of them feature the wonderful waratah in different ways and different styles. 

These first two bouquets are from an early October wedding.  The waratah's are just coming into their peak season and are vibrant and fresh.  The colour in these "Shady Lady" variety is really rich.  Teamed with the lipstick boronia it makes for a really colourful statement.


This one is an early spring bouquet from mid September.  The waratah in this bouquet is not fully open and the colour is not as vibrant, but the pink makes for a more subtle look and I love the petals still arching up around the flower.  Pretty and fresh.  

Good Grace and Humour
What a great image!  I love the red and white!  In this wedding the white waratah makes an appearance.  I think it really works!

Good Grace and Humour
Red waratah for the bride and white for the bridesmaids.  Fabulous!

October Waratah Wedding Swallows Nest Farm
From mid October, this bouquet celebrates the waratah in its peak season here in Tasmania.  The first early Tasmanian waratah makes an appearance towards the back left.  The Tasmanian waratah starts in October and peaks in November, usually, with some lingering into December. 

October Waratah Wedding Swallows Nest Farm
 I love this combination of fresh colours celebrating spring.  Simple style to highlight the flowers at their best. 

Spring Native Wedding Swallows Nest Farm
This trio of bouquets is from early October.  Lots of cream and white, with touches of gold from the Dryandra/Banksia Formosa make a great background for the waratahs.

November Native Wedding Swallows Nest Farm

Novermber and the first of the Pincushion proteas have emerged but the waratahs are still going.  I have found that our white waratahs flower a little later than the red, and this means that they can be available for weddings as the weather warms up.  The texture the waratah gives is an important ingredient of the success of this bouquet.  I love playing with colour blends using the white waratahs too.   

White Waratah Spring bouquet, Swallows Nest Farm
This bride's bouquet features a white waratah too, but with a different style and colour scheme.  The theme was "rustic vintage style" in classic pink and soft tones.

White Waratah Spring Wedding Swallows Nest Farm
I love the texture in the bouquet.  A more subtle colour scheme lets you really play with texture.

Tasmanian Waratah bouquet Swallows Nest Farm
November is Tasmanian Waratah month here at Swallows Nest Farm, and a gorgeous bride who loves her Tassie Waratahs chose November for her wedding so she could have one of her favourite flowers as the centrepiece of her bouquet.  Simple, beautiful fresh flowers.

Swallows Nest Farm 
A wedding featuring the Tasmanian waratah couldn't have been held in a more perfect setting.  This classic Tasmanian beach scene with the gorgeous blue of the sea and the characteristic orange lichen on the rocks.  Beautiful!

Waratah and Kangaroo Paw by Good Grace and Humour
I love this dramatic combination of Kargaroo Paw and Waratah.  What a great bouquet!  A truly Australian native wedding bouquet with the waratah as the star.

Field and Coppice Floral Design
I love this joyful bouquet by Field and Coppice Floral Design in the Canberra area.  The rich red waratahs in the centre of the bouquet are just beautiful.  

Field and Coppice Floral Design
This bouquet of waratahs is also by Field and Coppice, but it has a completely different feel.  Its simple, understated and old-world, and just gorgeous!

Waratahs are a stunning spring favourite for weddings. Keep an eye out for them!






"Rustic Vintage" Native Wedding


Natives are a great choice for a spring wedding because there are so many gorgeous colours and textures available to use.  I was excited to be able to provide flowers for a lovely bride for her November wedding.  Her idea was for a "rustic vintage" look.


A beautiful vintage lace dress with red lipstick and green shoes was the starting point for these bouquets - not too big, and in a simple hand-tied style.  


That gave me the perfect opportunity to use some lovely vintage lace that I've been keeping in my stash.  


All the bouquets and boutonnieres were bound with the lace.  Its so nice when you find the perfect use for that special something you've been keeping!


For the brides bouquet, I used a white waratah surrounded by some Satin Mink Proteas.  You can also see some Safari Sunset leucadendrons providing the darker tones.  Some pink kangaroo paw called Bush Pearl also adds to the pinky red tones.  The creamy leucadendrons are Lemon Spice, a female Discolour leucadendron that is green most of the year but in late spring changes to a this gorgeous cream with pink tips. 


 For the greens, there are eucalyptus buds, peppermint gum, and some thryptomene foliage.  The silver balls are a Leucadendron called Purple Haze.  The foliage has a purple tinge, but these cones produced after flowering are a pretty silvery addition to a bouquet.


Wax flower was also sprinkled throughout the design, seen here in the boutonnieres.  I was also able to use Berzelia.  It is a spring flowering plant that is often used at its green stage, but in late spring the little green balls "flower" and become a gorgeous fluffy white.  They are just perfect for weddings.  


So the "rustic vintage" look came together with a pink, green and cream colour scheme.  



wedding

[australian native wedding][recentbylabel2]

Featured

[Featured][recentbylabel2]
Notification
Wondering what style of flower bouquets you'll choose for your big day?
Done