WEDDING FLOWERS: spring

Showing posts with label spring. Show all posts

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!

Happy second day of spring!!!

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In September 2011, I was serving a mission in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As the seasons are opposite in the lower hemisphere, it was spring. My missionary companion at the time was the dear Kailei Shelley. The first day of spring rolled around, we were very pleasantly greeted by everyone with a smiley 'Happy first day of Spring!' Warm greetings are not unusual in Argentina since they greet with a

Telopea Truncata - the Tassie Waratah

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Telopea Truncata is the botanical name for the Tasmanian Waratah, a wonderful wild flower that blooms in spring. I've begun picking these beauties for the season with one of my bushes, a rather large and productive one, flowering weeks before the rest. It's a joy to grow these special flowers!

Telopea Truncata is a many-branched shrub up to 3 m tall.

The plant can grow to 3 metres with long stems reaching for the sky. It can take you by surprise, flowering all of a sudden. The buds, often covered with fine brown hairs, swell within a few days given the right conditions, and then emerge with red folded blooms.

Flowers look smaller and less bright when they are just beginning to open.

What we call the "flower" is actually a cluster of up to 20 individual flowers. These "unfold" and assemble themselves roughly facing the centre of a circle. Each individual little flower then begins to unfold freeing their styles with the effect that the flower gets larger and more sculptural. It also gets more intensely pinky red.

I pick the waratah early, before the first "unfolding", which gives them maximum vase life. They are smaller and less brightly coloured at this stage, but they will continue to unfold naturally and brighten in colour even after being picked.

The "flowers" have arranged themselves and are beginning to open.

Some of the styles are beginning to emerge from these flowers. Intense colour and bent styles are typical of Telopea Truncata

The brighter flowers are the more mature flowers.

More mature plants will produce hundreds of blooms each season. All these are from one of my bushes which flowers 2 weeks earlier than all the rest every year. It is only about 15% of the flowers this bush produces.

Telopea Truncata makes a fabulous garden plant too.

Honeyeaters love these beautiful blooms, which develop droplets of sugary syrup as the flowers reach their peak.

I know I'm biased, but I have a soft spot for these lovely little waratahs!

Thinking About Weddings - The Bouquet

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In Tasmania, its not often you get someone wanting to plan a wedding during the winter months. The weather is a major factor in planning a big day here in the southern-most state of Australia. Spring and summer are the busy times for weddings, and at Swallows Nest we are excited to be providing flowers for a some weddings over the next few months.

Proteas and Natives are not the traditional wedding flower, but they are becoming much more popular, and with good reason. I know I am biased, but really, they do have so much more to offer than many people realise. Natives offer an incredible range of colour and texture that can lend themselves to both modern and traditional type weddings. They can be rustic, and simple or sophisticated and sharp. They can be feminine and soft, or bold and expressive. Its all in the way you combine the colours, textures and forms. And then of course, theres the fact that most Natives are hardy and long lasting and remove the worry of a wilting bouquet!

I've been doing some research into the uses of Natives for weddings so I thought I'd share a few of the ideas I've found. The internet is awash with ideas and I've recently discovered Pinterest - a serious risk for time-wasting, but full of wonderful ideas for just about everything. There are some lovely images of weddings that have used natives in creative and beautiful ways, and I've been really inspired.

The Bouquet, really the central floral point of any wedding, is the focus of these finds.

This beautiful bouquet uses Pink Ice proteas with a variety of Leucadendrons (two variegated forms called Jester and Corringle Gold) and a mix of other beautiful folidages. There are also some Banksias - what look like Speciosa and Occidentalis. It has an informal, softly coloured beauty.

(www.blushingblooms.com.au)

The use of proteas in this bouquet is a different take on a more traditional wedding bouquet shape. I love the use of eucalyptus foliage too, for the colour and form it adds.

(the brides diary)

This is another combination bouquet, using Banksia Baxterii as the main flower and combining it with more traditional flowers. I love the vibrancy of this one!

More Banksia Baxterii in this one, but adding some Hakea nuts and paper daisies. I love the leaves of the Banksia Baxterii and I think they've been used well in this cute posy-style bouquet.

There is a great range of whites in the protea family, perfect for weddings! This is a combination of mini King Protea and white Protea Nerifolia, with the lovely soft black fringing. A few magnolia leaves complete this simple, informal bouquet.

For a spring wedding, Waratahs are a spectacular wedding flower. I love this bouquet which in addition to the gorgeous red waratahs, also has flannel flower, gum nuts, everlasting daisies, leucadendron, serruria or blushing bride, and a form of brunia.

(i-do.com.au)

Waratah's are also available in white and, as this bouquet shows, are really well suited for a wedding too. This bouquets combines them with leucadendron, wax flower, blushing bride or serruria, and some blue flowers that look like cornflowers. Gorgeous!

(thebloomroom.net.au)

I recently did a wedding with an orange and black theme. The colours and textures of spring were perfect - yellow green Phyllica, Leucadendron Maui Sunset and Red Gem, the bright yellow pom poms of Leucadendron Tall Red, soft Silver Tree foliage and Berzelia or Button Bush all together to form this fresh bright bouquet.

This fabulous native bouquet uses Banksia Coccinea and Protea as the main flowers, with Safari Sunset Leucadendrons, and what look like a yellow Salignum Leuco. Very memorable!

(www.gingerdesigns.com.au)

Another Swallows Nest Farm bouquet, with simple spring flowers includes an early Waratah, and some Protea Pink Ice, surrounded by soft yellows and greens. There are Leucadendron Gandogeri, Phyllica Pubescens, Leucadendron Silver Tree, and Berzelia or Button Bush, a wedding favourite. Adding white highlights is Thryptomene.

I'm looking forward to the pincushions coming out here at Swallows Nest. They are later here than on the mainland of Australia, and go right up until just after Christmas. Faboulous for weddings in shades of yellow, orange and red, with some beautiful soft colours available too.
(koruwedding.blogspot.com.au)

More Pink Ice Protea with Leucadendrons, Flannel flower, Thryptomene and beautiful Eucalyptus pods. Wow!

Last one - I promise! Although there's so many beautiful native bouquets!! I love this freestyle bouquet with my favourite Brunia Albiflora, Eucalyptus pods, foliage, and Leucadendrons. Gorgeous!!

(Flowers By Megga Bloom)

I hope you're inspired! I hope you've seen the versatility, variety and beauty that natives can bring to a special occasion like a wedding. I'm looking forward to the rest of the "wedding season" here is Tasmania, hoping to get lots more opportunities to explore what can be done with these fabulous flowers.

A Spring Week on the Farm

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Spring has arrived, and along with it the unpredictable spring weather. But all is forgiven because spring is the season that brings the incredible transformation in the landscape from the quietness of winter to an explosion of life and colour. We've already experienced the highs and lows of spring with days of summer-like heat and spring snow, wind-swept days and still, misty days. And throughout it all the spring flowering plants produce their vibrant colours and make us happy.

The Road to Swallows Nest - a misty spring day

Spring snow on the driveway at Swallows Nest Farm

Spring afternoon sunlight among the Leucadendrons

This week on the farm I've been picking a variety of spring flowering plants. Leucadendron Gandogeri are a cheery yellow leuco that are flowering now. We planted our first Gandogeri 3 years ago and are just starting to get good quantities of really lovely blooms. Leucadendrons are such a diverse group of plants. These Gandogeri have almost a daisy-like appearance when flowering.

Leucadendron Gandogeri

I've also been picking Waratah this week. They were already beginning to bloom when the snow hit last week and some of them have a little discolouration damage, which is a pity. They have definitely exceeded my expectations though and I'm pretty happy with them considering what they've been through!

Waratah waiting to go in the cold room

The other thing I've picked this week has been the Berzelia or Button Bush. This is a gorgeous South African plant that's not a protea but has similar growing requirements. I just love it - such a special plant! We grow Berzelia Lanuginosa a Swallows Nest. It has little clusters of balls of flowers on the end of sturdy stems. The little balls begin green and as they get closer to flowering become creamy white until the tiny flowers burst out and make the little balls appear like fluffy white pompoms. They are a great flower for weddings, and I have a couple coming up so they'll be put to good use.

Berzelia Lanuginosa

The Richea Dracophylla has been so busy producing flowers this year, and it takes the spring snow in its stride. It's native habitat is the slopes of Mt Wellington and similar mountain slopes in Tasmania. It is well adapted to coping with the extremes of the Tasmanian spring weather. There are so many buds on some of the plants and I've been picking them early, trying to find the optimal time to pick that gives them the longest flowering time off the bush.

Richea Dracophylla

Today marks the spring or vernal equinox, when the day and the night are equal in length. From now on, there will be more day than night, until just before Christmas and the summer solstice. Its a busy time on the farm with all the spring and early summer flowering plants, and the busyness of calendar events too. Its lovely to have the longer days and the lengthy twilight. They make me feel relaxed, as if I have all the time in the world.

Well, that's my spring week on the farm. I'll leave you with a photo of tonights equinox sunset!

Spring Snow!

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Spring weather is predictably unpredictable here is Tasmania, and after beginning with summer-like weather in the first week of September, we've had snow this week. Its the first real dump of snow in around 8 years at Swallows Nest Farm. Thankfully I think the plants will cope okay, although many of the branches were bowed down under the weight of the snow.