WEDDING FLOWERS: telopea
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Showing posts with label telopea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label telopea. Show all posts

Early Summer Wedding at Peppermint Bay


An early summer wedding at Peppermint Bay south of Hobart called for red and white, with eucalyptus foliage.  Many of our spring blooms were still available in early December due to weather conditions, so the waratah was the red flower of choice.   


While picking some Tasmanian Waratahs (Telopea Truncata) to include for this wedding, I found some beautiful Isopogon still flowering, also known as the Cone Flower.  These are an unusual Australian native that flowers in spring.  We grow a fresh pinky purple variety called Ispogon Formosus, but they come in a range of colours with a great variation in the leaves as well.  They're gorgeous, little known Aussie wonders.    The basket full of bright red and purple really inspired the colour mix for this wedding.  


For the bouquets I used Telopea Speciosissima, the New South Wales Waratah, as the main flower.  They are large, showy and gorgeous!  I teamed them up with the smaller Tasmanian Waratah and Protea Pink Ice.


For whites, I used the gorgeous Berzelia which in early summer is covered in tiny white flowers so that it looks like clusters of fluffy white balls.  I also used Leucadenderon Lemon Spice in its creamy white phase.  It has a pink blush on the tips of the bracts, and the central cones have a pink blush too.  For the bride's bouquet I also used a Protea White Ice and a Protea White Cream, a warm pink protea with a creamy centre. 


You can see the purple Isopogon peeping out from amongst the rich pinks and reds.  I also added some darker purple Hebe flowers.  Just a few dark red Safari Sunset Leucos create some depth of colour.  And of course, there are the gumnuts - perfect for a Australian native bouquet.  


The foliage used is mostly Eucalyptus Cordata, with some Ridson Peppermint added here and there.


For the bridesmaid, the same but slightly smaller, with less of the large waratahs.  


Such a pretty, colourful combination of colours!


For the groom the colours were pared back a little.  A gumnut, Leucadendron Discolour, Leucadendron Safari Sunset, Berzelia, Ispogon and Cordata foliage.


Other buttonholes were the same, minus the purple Isopogon.  


Corsages for the mums were brighter, using a Tasmanian Waratah as the focal flower.  They also use Leucadendron Discolour, Isopogon, Berzelia and Cordata foliage.  


For the bride and her bridesmaid, there were floral combs.  Tasmanian Waratahs surrounded by Berzelia, Leucadendron Discolour,  Isopogon, Cordata foliage, and some rosy Jubilee Crown cones.  Red is a great colour for a brunette bride!    


To decorate the reception room at Peppermint Bay, the bride chose a collection of different vases and vessels filled with colour.  Her mum had collected jars of all different sizes which looked great en masse.


You can see Waratah, Tasmanian Waratah, and early flowering Scarlet Ribbons Pincushions. The red of the Tasmanian Waratahs is such an intense colour!


You can also see some White Ice Proteas, Hebe in purple, and the creamy Leucadendron Discolour.


I used Protea Pink Ice, and Safari Sunset Leucos too.  


Such a joyful combination of colours!  


Jars of more colour on the chairs for the ceremony.  What a great spot to say "I do"!  Tassie, you are so beautiful!


The cake was simply decorated with more of the same combination of flowers.  The wonderful cake was made by Natasha from Lily May Cake Design.  


Such a great venue in a wonderful location.  And early summer is a great time for a wedding, flower-wise too.  


I will remember this wedding for the intense joyful colours and of course, the lovely couple who were married.  It was such a pleasure to be involved in creating flowers for this day.  

Waratah Wedding Bouquets

Waratah season is short and sweet.  They are very much a spring flower.
Swallows Nest Farm Waratah Bouquet
  This year has been unusually warm and the waratah season seemed to fly by more quickly than usual.  Here at Swallows Nest Farm, you can see the first pickable blooms in mid to late September, with October being the high season. Some late flowering varieties keep going until mid December, but due to the warmth, it been a shorter season.  It's made me a bit sad, and so to console myself, I've compiled a little collection of waratah wedding bouquets. 

Flowergirl's bouquet Swallows Nest Farm
Some are my own, and some are ones I've found on my internet travels.  All of them feature the wonderful waratah in different ways and different styles. 

These first two bouquets are from an early October wedding.  The waratah's are just coming into their peak season and are vibrant and fresh.  The colour in these "Shady Lady" variety is really rich.  Teamed with the lipstick boronia it makes for a really colourful statement.


This one is an early spring bouquet from mid September.  The waratah in this bouquet is not fully open and the colour is not as vibrant, but the pink makes for a more subtle look and I love the petals still arching up around the flower.  Pretty and fresh.  

Good Grace and Humour
What a great image!  I love the red and white!  In this wedding the white waratah makes an appearance.  I think it really works!

Good Grace and Humour
Red waratah for the bride and white for the bridesmaids.  Fabulous!

October Waratah Wedding Swallows Nest Farm
From mid October, this bouquet celebrates the waratah in its peak season here in Tasmania.  The first early Tasmanian waratah makes an appearance towards the back left.  The Tasmanian waratah starts in October and peaks in November, usually, with some lingering into December. 

October Waratah Wedding Swallows Nest Farm
 I love this combination of fresh colours celebrating spring.  Simple style to highlight the flowers at their best. 

Spring Native Wedding Swallows Nest Farm
This trio of bouquets is from early October.  Lots of cream and white, with touches of gold from the Dryandra/Banksia Formosa make a great background for the waratahs.

November Native Wedding Swallows Nest Farm

Novermber and the first of the Pincushion proteas have emerged but the waratahs are still going.  I have found that our white waratahs flower a little later than the red, and this means that they can be available for weddings as the weather warms up.  The texture the waratah gives is an important ingredient of the success of this bouquet.  I love playing with colour blends using the white waratahs too.   

White Waratah Spring bouquet, Swallows Nest Farm
This bride's bouquet features a white waratah too, but with a different style and colour scheme.  The theme was "rustic vintage style" in classic pink and soft tones.

White Waratah Spring Wedding Swallows Nest Farm
I love the texture in the bouquet.  A more subtle colour scheme lets you really play with texture.

Tasmanian Waratah bouquet Swallows Nest Farm
November is Tasmanian Waratah month here at Swallows Nest Farm, and a gorgeous bride who loves her Tassie Waratahs chose November for her wedding so she could have one of her favourite flowers as the centrepiece of her bouquet.  Simple, beautiful fresh flowers.

Swallows Nest Farm 
A wedding featuring the Tasmanian waratah couldn't have been held in a more perfect setting.  This classic Tasmanian beach scene with the gorgeous blue of the sea and the characteristic orange lichen on the rocks.  Beautiful!

Waratah and Kangaroo Paw by Good Grace and Humour
I love this dramatic combination of Kargaroo Paw and Waratah.  What a great bouquet!  A truly Australian native wedding bouquet with the waratah as the star.

Field and Coppice Floral Design
I love this joyful bouquet by Field and Coppice Floral Design in the Canberra area.  The rich red waratahs in the centre of the bouquet are just beautiful.  

Field and Coppice Floral Design
This bouquet of waratahs is also by Field and Coppice, but it has a completely different feel.  Its simple, understated and old-world, and just gorgeous!

Waratahs are a stunning spring favourite for weddings. Keep an eye out for them!






Waratah!


Spring means Waratahs, the irrepressible native flower that's bold and impossible to ignore!  Waratahs are native to Australia and are part of the proteaceae family of plants.  The name Waratah is an aboriginal word meaning 'red flowering tree'.  The botanical name is Telopea which means 'seen from afar'.  There are a small number of Telopea species, only 5, with the biggest and most showy being Telopea Speciosissima from New South Wales.  It is that states floral emblem.  At Swallows Nest Farm we grow a number of types of waratahs including the Tasmanian Waratah, Telopea Truncata.  First to flower are the Shady Lady - they are a rich cool red.  "Shady Lady" is a hybrid form of Waratah, a cross between the T. Speciosissima and T. Oreades.


Waratah buds form at the end of long stems which grow mainly over the spring and early summer months.  The buds swell over winter and in early spring, start to become a brighter red. 


Usually sometime in September, the buds start to unfold to reveal the many small flowers inside that will become the centre of the waratah. 


The unfolding process can take some time, and I think the flowers are really beautiful during this stage.


Once the outer bracts have unfolded, the central mass of individual flowers begin to bend and spread out, giving the waratah its well known shape.  


We still don't pick at this stage.  The flowers are prone to develop a blue tinge if picked too early.  They don't maintain their intense colour and won't open properly.


It's best to pick as the first few styles emerge from the individual flowers.  You can see in the picture above that the styles have begun to emerge on the back of this flower - facing north.  At the front edge you can just see the styles beginning to poke their way through.  The petal will fold as they emerge. 


  In the picture, almost all the styles have emerged. You can see the difference in the overall texture of the flower with the curled petals and the upright styles.


My Telopea Speciosissima are next to flower and they continue to flower up until December, depending on where they are planted.  I have some beautiful ones including this special one that is rosy pink, with white styles.  Its currently my favourite!


Such a gorgeous flower!  I love the colour, the white styles, and the rounded shape of this flower.  I hope to do some propagating, to see if I can reproduce more of them.


A close-up of the freshly emerged styles of this flower reveal the way waratahs present their pollen.  On the inside tip of the white styles you can see the rich red pollen.   It can be messy if the flower is handled a lot.  The bees love it!


I have really enjoyed using waratahs in some weddings recently.  Such a gorgeous colour!


And creating cheery arrangements is fun.  Spring means there's so much to choose from to team up with that stunning rich red.


Waratahs are deservedly one of the most prized Australian native cut flowers.  I love growing them!

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