Native Spring Wedding Flowers

Native Spring Wedding Flowers

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October is a brilliant month for native flowers.  A bride is spoilt for choice!  Last October I was privileged to be able to provide flowers for a wedding at MONA in Hobart.  The bride and groom were from Sydney so NSW Waratah's were a perfect choice.  My Telopea Speciosissima hybrids were just bursting with colour.  

The bride was wearing gold, so the red was really a standout colour.  I added Dryandra Formosa flowers to tie in the gold.  They are at their height in early to mid spring.  

The Dryandra leaves also add a  lovely textural quality to the bouquet.  They have a fine, zig-zag shape and fall at nice angles.

For the flower girl's bouquet, I chose some smaller waratahs to keep the size and weight manageable.   The bright pink is added by Boronia which not only creates a burst of colour, but smells divine, making it a pleasure to handle.  I used Leucadendron Lemon Spice, a selection of the female Leucadendron Discolour.  In spring its colour is spectacular, changing from a sage green to a gorgeous creamy ivory with a pink blush.  

Another ingredient I loved using for this wedding was some fresh green eucalyptus pods, immature and not ready to flower until summer.  In their immature state, they are bright green, and the textural quality adds another layer of interest to a bouquet bursting with spring goodness.  

In early October, the Berzelia or Button Bush is just ready to begin picking.  The "buttons" are green and they add another fresh textural layer to the spring native bouquet.  

One of the things I loved about this wedding was that the bride was particular about the boutonnieres.  The groom wanted white.  For the Fathers, I was given pictures of the suits and ties they were wearing, so I could create something that worked well.  It was a great way to work.  

White was a little tricky with so much colour available!  I used both wax flower and thryptomene (another duo that are fabulously perfumed) teamed with Berzelia and an immature Leucadendron Silver Tree cone.

The Silver Tree cone really glows. 

For the Fathers' boutonnieres, I used small waratahs.  I usually cull these smaller flowers, pruning them off the bushes and leaving them.  They are pretty but too small and often at odd angles so no good for selling wholesale.   I decided that they were perfect button holes for this spring wedding though - like a scaled down version of the main bouquet flowers. I like the way the red bracts surrounding the flower sit at interesting angles.

For the other boutonnieres, I used Dryandra.   These Australian Natives have a strong almost citrusy smell that can be a bit overpowering when they are first picked so I pick them a week early and sit them in the cold room till it fades a little.  They are teamed up with Lipstick Boronia and wax flower.  

Such a joyous combination of spring goodness! 

Natives are a vibrant and memorable choice for a spring wedding.

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!