His and Hers Wedding Flowers in Autumn

His and Hers Wedding Flowers in Autumn

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Photo by Jon Jarvela

Sometimes, I am asked to provide the simplest of wedding flower orders - a bride's bouquet and a groom's boutonniere.  I find that these weddings are really memorable, because so much effort goes into making the one bouquet and buttonhole just right.  In Autumn 2016, I was asked to do a simple bouquet and boutonniere for a couple who were getting married in the Huon Valley.  

The bride provided some pictures of the styles and colours she loved.  The inspiration came when I saw what the groom had picked out to wear.  

I loved the sage green in the tie, and the golden yellow and apricot too.  I decided to go for a bouquet with plenty of creamy white and green, with touches of apricot and bronzy gold. 

For the bridal bouquet I used a Protea White Ice, two types of banksia - Banksia Baxterii, the Birdsnest Banksia, and Banksia Marginata, a local native.  Brunia Albiflora in full flower was used along with flowering Eucalyptus Cordata, usually used as a cut foliage.  The apricot came with the use of Fountain Pincushion and Leucadendron Safari Goldstrike whose new growth is tinged with a pinkish bronze.  

The foliage I used includes Grevillea, again with a bronze new growth tips, flowering lemon-scented Leptospermum and the shimmering Leucadedron Argenteum or Silver Tree.  You can also see, peeping out on the left of the above photo, some creamy Leucadendron Pisa cones with their outer bracts removed.  

Other foliage included Eucalyptus Cordata, and some Cootamundra wattle in bud. 

For the groom, I used a small Banksia Marginata in creamy yellow, Grevillea foliage with an orange bud, Cootamundra Wattle with its little buds, tea tree (Leptospermum) and Eucalyptus foliage. 

Photo by Jon Jarvela

Autumn weddings in Tasmania really are special!  

Winter Wildflower Wedding

Winter Wildflower Wedding

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Winter weddings are few and far between in Tasmania. The colder months are quiet times for those who provide services for weddings.  This makes me a little sad at times because as a native flower grower, it seems such a waste to miss out on all the gorgeous seasonal flowers that winter brings.  

I was really excited to get a winter wedding request.  It was a small simple wedding with the bride and groom flying in to Hobart from the mainland.  A simple bouquet and boutonniere were all that they needed, but it was such a great opportunity to "play" with some winter blooms.

The brides dress was in deep green silk with rich dark blue patterning.  I decided to go with green and blue and add warm yellow and orange.  The inspiration began with the banksias that were in flower.  In the basket are some Banksia Marginata which grow wild on my property.  The flowers are light fresh lemony yellow.  Wattle was just beginning to bud and I loved the yellow hints with the great texture.  I also picked some branched of Blue Spruce - what a great colour!  And its structure is fantastic too.

Another banksia in bloom was the Banksia Brownii.  Its flowers are less lemony yellow and have a purplish tip.  Brownii foliage is just gorgeous too, and some found its way into the bouquet.

Banksia Ericifolia was flowering prolifically.  I love the rich orange colour with the purple tinges on the tip.  It really worked will with the other banksias.

Going all out with texture, I also added some early Berzelia, some Eucalyptus buds, some Tea Tree and, as blue green highlights, some sweet little succulents.

Winter can be so beautiful!

I love the happy little gum buds sitting proud of the bouquet surface.

You can see the purplish tips of the Banksia Brownii and Banksia Ericifolia here.  I love the way the colour adds depth to the colour scheme.  You can also see just a few Phylica Plumosa flowers.  I picked the very first flowers just days before the July wedding.  Phylica is such a brilliant flower for weddings.

The boutonniere had Phylica too, teamed with the Blue Spruce, Tea Tree and Berzelia, as well as some gorgeous blue green succulents.

It was such a great opportunity to "play" with some stunning winter blooms.  I hope more couples decide not to wait for the warmer weather!

What's in the Basket?

What's in the Basket?

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Wow!  What a busy month its been.  Harvesting of autumn and winter flowers has been in full swing.  We are still catching up on clearing and particularly pruning some of the plants that got away from us during the break we had with our baby (who is now 3!!).  

I love pruning!  I am working on a blog post about pruning proteas and leucadendrons.  Its such a satisfying activity.  Yesterday I did a small burst of pruning, and came back with a basket of early winter flowers.  Pruning large Protea Pink Ice can be hard work.  Some branches need more than my Felco shears can manage.  But the flowers are beautiful at this time of year and I salvage any I can.  

Small Protea Repens have been in the ground for 4 years.  They need a different type of pruning and shaping, encouraging lots of new straight stemmed flowers for next year.  I'm looking forward to having the first good harvest nest year.  The flowers from this year are lovely and you can see some of them in the basket.  

There are also some Banksia Occidentalis in the mix.  They are nearly at the end of their flowering for the year and even though they're only 3-4 years old, they need heavy pruning.  I'm trying to keep them at a manageable height because they are such vigorous growers.  

Some Leucadendron Safari Goldstrike are in the basket.  They are getting ready to flower and I'll be harvesting them in a couple of months.  This will be 5 years since they were planted and we are so happy with them.  A few wayward shoots too good to waste made it into the basket of pruning pickings.  The flower heads have properly formed and won't wilt, but I'll wait until they colour up before I pick them in earnest.  

The first few branches of Thryptomene are just starting to bloom.  By the end of winter, these will be covered in white blooms.  The excitement of seeing the first flowers of the year always encourages a bit of early picking!

The last little flower in the basket is a wild yellow Banksia Marginata.  I have a few of these Banksias growing along the path to the flowers and they are flowering profusely at the moment.  The bushes are really large - 6 to 8 metres tall and full of flowers, but most of them are growing at odd angles with shoots sticking out.  Every so often, one or two make their way into my basket and usually end up in a vase in the kitchen!