Early Spring Wedding

Early Spring Wedding

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Spring is a fabulous time for native flowers, and a fabulous time for weddings.  I get to put the two together when I'm doing spring wedding flowers!   Early this spring,  I did flowers for a lovely Hobart bride who wanted bouquets with highlights and pops of colour. 

The bride's bouquet combined the creamy white of Maui Sunset Leucadendrons, a late-winter or early-spring flowering leuco, with one of the first of flowers from a newly planted Protea called White Ice.  White highlights were added with Bushman's Bootlace, a local native Pimelea.  

Providing pops of colour were early flowering Waratahs in rich deep pinky red, Protea Satin Mink in pink with black fringing, and the startling pink of Boronia which also smells fantastic, which made working with the bouquet all the more enjoyable.  

Dryandra Formosa, with its glowing golden flowers and beautiful leaves provides texture, as does the fabulous Berzelia.  It's green in early spring and is such a great texture plant right through the season until it bursts into fluffy white flowers just before summer.  I also used some native Tasmanian Richea Dracophylla flowers which you can just see poking out on the left at the rear of the bouquet.  

The grooms boutonniere combined all the colours and textures of the bouquets in a tiny package.  I love the colour combination of the dryandra and boronia.  That pink really packs a punch!

Groomsmen's boutonnieres were a simple combination of the golden dryandra, some berzelia and pimelea.  

I really enjoyed the opportunity to play with these early spring flowers.  I hope the bride and groom had a brilliant day.

what's in the basket?

what's in the basket?

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I've been picking this gorgeous leucadendron this week.  Its a called Leucadendron Gandogeri.  We planted these beauties 3 years ago.  They were tiny tube stock, possibly the smallest plants we've put out in the field at around 5 cm tall with only a handful of leaves on each plant.  But they are vigorous growers and this year the harvest is large enough to start selling.  

The Gandogeri start out this greenish yellow, but continue to lighten and brighten until they are creamy white.  The centres become increasingly yellow until the pollen presenters open giving them a bright yellow, fluffy appearance.  They are such a happy flower.   

Spring!

Spring!

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Well spring is definitely here at Swallows Nest Farm.  In fact, it arrived a few days before the end of August with some very warm, beautiful blue-sky days and lots of spring colour in the flowers.  And of course the swallows are back for the summer.  They seem to be having such fun dipping and diving and reclaiming their nests left abandoned over the winter.

We've been in full swing preparing for the warmer months with lots of pruning and reclaiming areas that were let go over the last few years.  (We've been busy with our baby girl who has major health issues and this has meant the farm has been a little neglected in areas.)  Whilst doing some heavy duty pruning during the week I came across this gorgeous little nest.  It's tiny with the eggs being around the size of the end of my thumb.  So cute!! And definitely a sign of spring.

And there has been no shortage of gorgeous weather over the last few weeks.  Wow!  It makes your heart skip a beat sometimes.

Of course, the bulbs are blooming madly.  While we were out driving the other day, we came across this incredible field of daffodils.  Spring!! With a capital S!!

Yellow is such a "springy" colour.  And set against those clear blue skies, it just sings.  The Leucadendron Safari Goldstrikes are glowing and gorgeous.

I've been madly picking them.  They're so much bigger and more productive than last year.

And the stem length has been fantastic!  1.4 metres tall, some of them are.  And they've been generously snipped leaving plenty on the plant.  I think they're almost too tall to use ... maybe!

Our local school hosts a flower show just as spring starts and we love to donate flowers.  It's just another indicator that the seasons are turning - lots of fresh new spring colours!

And that amazing, glowing yellow!

The flower show is always a feast for the eyes.  These little beauties were done by the kids at the school.  

The huge variety of daffodils are truly mind blowing!!

The variety of natives available in spring is fantastic too, and makes it a delight to create bouquets and bunches.  I'm going to soak up the blue-sky days and the riot of colour while I can, because I know that spring can also bring cruel winds, and freezing weather.  It snowed here in September last year!  There's so much to be done around the farm in spring and in the business of harvesting, time will fly and before I know it, summer will arrive.  But I'm intent on savouring the sweet moments of spring this year!

Leucadendron Tall Red

Leucadendron Tall Red

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Leucadendron "Tall Red" is a bushy fast growing shrub that, like its name suggests, grows tall and red. For most of the year, the bracts and leaves are burgundy red.  They are useful as a filler but really not a memorable plant.  But over the winter months a transformation occurs as Tall Red produces its flowers.    The bracts surrounding the pollen presenters lighten.  

Like many Leucadendrons, the colour of Tall Red varies depending upon the amount of sunshine the plant receives.  In full sun, the red is strong but the bracts and foliage that are shaded are paler.  As the the plant begins flowering, the colour difference can be quite striking.  The bracts in full sun are rich red and open to reveal a lime green pom pom centre.  The paler bracts range from a soft peach to a very pale yellow.  

The overall colour effect is soft and peachy.

The lime green centres then begin to turn yellow.

Yellow and fluffy!

They are such a cute cheery flower at the end of winter.

And really useful as a filler flower adding texture and colour.

I just love the range of colour that you get from this surprising plant.  A great leucadendron as a cut flower, and also an easy one to grow in a garden.