Eclectic Summer Natives for a New Years Wedding

Eclectic Summer Natives for a New Years Wedding

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Photography by Rosie Hastie

The first wedding of the New Year called for seasonal natives, with a colour scheme of navy blue for the bridesmaids and grey suits with navy ties for the men.  I love navy!  Its a stunning, flattering colour that provides a great backdrop for a great variety of colours in the floral design.

And there are plenty of seasonal summer natives to use around the New Year.  It made designing the bouquets for this lovely wedding a real pleasure.  The focal flowers used were some mini Red King Proteas.  Other proteas used were Protea Compacta in Red and Protea Pink Mink.  I also used Pincushions called Leucospermum Fountain, in apricot/orange.

Pink Kangaroo Paw called Bush Pearl was sprinkled through adding a unifying splash of rich pink.  I also used the first pick of Brunia Albiflora for the season.  There are some fresh poppy pods in the mix too.  I really love them!

Plenty of textural foliage added to the eclectic feel of the bouquets.  There's some Tasmanian Myrtle Beech, with its new seasons growth looking fresh and lush, some Grevillea foliage, and some flowering Agonis Flexuosa.  There's also a sprinkling of Risdon Peppermint Gum foliage giving silvery blue highlights.  

Photography by Rosie Hastie

I just love navy!  It really makes those colours sing.  Thanks so much to the bride for allowing me to use some of the stunning photographs by Photographer, Rosie Hastie.  It is such a thrill to see the flowers on the big day!

You can also see some Corymbia Ficifolia buds.  Corymbia Ficifolia is commonly known as Red Gum or Flowering Gum and flowers in a range of intense colours in big showy gum blossoms.  It also produces brilliant Gum Nuts which I love to use in floral design as well.  But the buds are equally lovely.  They colour up quite a bit and the texture they provide is beautiful.  The cream Leucadendrons are some L. Discolour which in late spring and early summer changes from green to this lovely clear cream with pink tinges.  

With such bright and breezy bouquets, the men needed something to match.  

I used Myrtle Beech and Grevillea foliages teamed with more Pink Kangaroo Paw and a Leucadendron Discolour.

  

The grooms boutonniere had Agonis flowers for extra highlights, and the addition of some Corymbia Ficifolia buds for added interest.  

Photography by Rosie Hastie

Again, I was just blown away by these stunning photos by Rosie Hastie which really show the boutonnieres in a great light.   Thrilled!

Photography by Rosie Hasite

Photography by Rosie Hastie

Photography by Rosie Hastie

It was a pleasure to be able to work on the flowers for this wedding!

Native November Wedding in Soft Blush Colours

Native November Wedding in Soft Blush Colours

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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! 

DIY Bush Wedding in March

DIY Bush Wedding in March

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In March this year, I supplied flowers for a wedding held on a local property here on the beautiful Tasman Peninsula.  When I delivered the flowers on the morning of the wedding, I could see why the couple were keen to have their wedding here.  A gorgeous bush property right next to the water on Norfolk Bay - a great place for a memorable wedding.  

The colour scheme was pink and pretty, with native blooms, and the idea was for the bride and groom to do their own decorating and possibly the bouquets.  

In the end, I supplied the brides bouquet, and what fun it was to play with such gorgeous colours and textures.  Corymbia Ficifolia is the name of the gum that produces those spectacular pick blossoms.  The same tree also produces the silvery grey gum nuts.  Protea Pink Ice were perfect in the mix, with pink Kangaroo Paw called Bush Pearl.  A locally occurring grey-leafed tea tree which was in flower, and the gorgeous pink tinged silvery jade of the Eucalyptus Crenulata were the main foliage used.  

I also used Brunia Albiflora, at its peak in March in Tasmania.  Silver Tree cones were used too, and a sprinkling of various leucadendrons including Jester a variegated pinky one.  

To save time,  I made the boutonnieres too.  The E. Crenulata was the main foliage again, with added wax flower.

The grooms boutonniere also had a Corymbia Ficiolia nut, and some blossom from the same tree - this years and last years blooms.  Pink Kangaroo Paw, and a silvery cone from the Leucadendron Galpinii which has lovely purple foliage throughout the year and makes these silvery cones in late summer and autumn.

The smaller boutonniere had a little touch of the feathery foliage from the Brunia Albiflora.  I also love the little pink buds from the gum blossom that hasn't yet flowered.  So pretty!

A floral crown for the bride was a late addition.  It was to be quite large, with a loose fit and a spray of flowers of the left side of the face.  

The body of the crown was made with the blue-grey tea tree.  E. Crenulata softened the addition of more pink Kangaroo Paw, Corymbia Ficifolia blossom and nuts, and more of those buds that were yet to flower.  

Such a pretty combination of colours and textures!

The DIY element of the wedding required a fair bit of planning.  The unstructured look of multiple vases looks effortless but really requires some thought.

Bunching up the extra gum nuts for the table decorations created this gorgeous sculptural bunch.

And more gum blossom in that stunning pink looked great en masse too.

Bundles of foliage and lots of Brunia and Silver Tree cones filled up the box quickly.  

And it was left for the wedding party to make the extra bouquets and the wedding decorations from this box of goodness.

I had made some "mock-up" decorations to check that the overall look would work.  

I think the combinations worked well.  

It was such a pleasure to be involved in this DIY bush wedding! 

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!