Feverfew Adds Charm to Wedding Bouquets

The first time I saw feverfew in a garden magazine (many years ago), I fell in love with its dainty appearance, and quickly found a place for it in my garden beds. Now I enjoy offering it to my brides who want the look of a wildflower bouquet for their wedding designs.

Feverfew usually starts blooming in the garden borders at Springwell by mid May, and continues through late June. 

It pairs well with garden blooms such as cosmos and zinnias, and traditional wedding flowers such as roses. 

Feverfew is also easy to grow. The single flower form will readily self seed, so I always have plenty of plants each year. And it's a great starter plant for brides who would like to later grow their own flowers!

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Garden Flowers for Spring and Summer Weddings- Feverfew

I expect the bloom times for a lot of the spring flowers will be a little later this year since the temperatures are running well below normal. But the plants are still growing, and a real charmer for late spring and early summer weddings is feverfew!

I grow the double flowered (pictured above) as well as the single variety. I believe the double flowered version has a more refined appearance and makes a lovely statement in bouquets

The single flower variety has a charming appeal

which is perfect for garden inspired designs.

Both varieties are  great options for brides searching for locally 

grown flowers for their wedding day. They are available at

 Springwell Gardens from mid May through late June.

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Summery Yellows for Sara and Christopher's mid July Wedding

If I could color the months, I would color July yellow. It's smack in the middle of summertime. Yellow like lemonade and fireflies and of course- lovely flowers.

Sara must have thought so too... Or maybe she chose yellow because it would look stunning against the royal blue of her bridesmaids' dresses.
We met in April and over the next few weeks exchanged emails about flower choices, and while some of the details for her flowers changed a little- the color never did!

 For her bridal bouquet, Sara wanted to mix in white with the yellow. She decided on white lisianthus and larkspur... And feverfew, if it was still blooming.  The whites played well against yellow spray roses, freesia and calla lilies, and yellow zinnias from the garden.

Bridesmaids carried bouquets that featured frothy clusters of bupleurum with yellow spray roses and Gerber daisies.

Boutonnieres for the men were twined wrapped Billy Balls,

And the mothers carried posies filled with white larkspur, lisianthus and white and yellow spray roses accented with fragrant leaves from mountain mint and scented geraniums.
Can't wait to see the incredible pictures I'm sure that Cole Gorman of Blest Photography has coming up!!!

Sara and Christopher, praying God's blessing as you begin your lives together as husband and wife....

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Gardenias for White Bouquets

June is the month for fragrant blooms in the garden, and one of my favorites is gardenia. These huge creamy white flowers exude a rich scent that greets you each time you step outside.  

Gardenias are a very short lived cut flower though, with a vase life of just one to two days. But it is enough for a wedding bouquet. And the fragrance will make your heart sing!
For this particular bouquet, I have left the gardenias on their own stems instead of wiring them since they were being paired with other garden flowers.

 Those flowers include other whites and ivories that are blooming now such as foxglove, feverfew, zinnias and calla lilies.

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Zinnia Bouquets in Peach and Coral and Lavender and Plum

Spring lingered a little longer than usual this year, but with the typical humidity of the Deep South streaming in over these last couple of weeks, I think it has finally given way to summer.

This is a transition time in the flower garden. Snapdragons, Feverfew, Yarrow and Queen Ann's Lace are some late spring bloomers that will persist through June. Zinnias, gomphrena, and celosia are just starting up and will crank out blooms through frost. Dahlias are also starting up as well, but won't hit their stride until fall.

So as the weather heats up, I thought it would be a great time to work up some bouquets with summer offerings.

Open-face Chantilly snapdragons and zinnias in soft yellows, peach, salmon and pink are paired with white feverfew and Queen Ann's Lace. It's a very popular color palette this year!

The next bouquet features hydrangea, clematis, zinnia, marble arch salvia, chocolate cosmos and catmint in lavender, purple, plum, and pink with touches of white double flowered feverfew.

The best part of all is having my daughter, Judy, agree to help me out, and hold the bouquets for me. I tell her it's good practice...

She just laughs!

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Summer Wedding Flowers- Check Out Feverfew, Part 2

 

Last week's post was about a great garden flower for summer weddings- feverfew! There are several forms of this late spring/ early summer blooming flower. The single flower form (last week's post) looks like camomile. This week will focus on the double flower form.These are frilly blooms are about the size of your tip of your index finger with soft yellow centers.

Feverfew is a short lived perennial. I usually grow the double flower version from stem cuttings that are rooted in late summer.  Last year I had great success with the cuttings that I rooted from a lone plant, so in the spring there were drifts of feverfew in bloom. I cut back about one third of the plants before they ever bloomed and was able to extend the blooming period for a couple of weeks.

The double-flower form looks more refined and is beautiful in wedding bouquets and centerpiece work.

Its bloom season is from mid May through late June. Other garden flowers blooming at Springwell at that time include Queen Ann's Lace, calla lilies, Snow on the Mountain,  zinnias, summer phlox, dianthus and yarrow.

The stem cuttings from this past summer are well rooted and I am looking forward to having plenty of flowers for weddings next May and June!

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Summer Wedding Flowers- Check Out Feverfew, Part 1

As the garden beds wind down for the season, I thought I would take a look back and write a little about some of my favorite garden picks that LOVE to play the supporting role in bouquets and centerpiece designs. And one of the best for summer weddings is Feverfew.

 There are two forms that I grow- the double flowers as in the picture above, and the single daisy-like flowers as in the picture below.

 The post is going to focus on the single flower form.
Once you have this plant in your garden, it's pretty easy to keep it. I have found feverfew to be a short lived perennial, but it reseeds so easily that I usually have plenty in the garden. The plants stay low throughout the winter and then start to shoot up in March and April. The bloom time is from mid April through late May or early June. Leave some of the flower heads on the plant until they have died to ensure they reseed. Afterwards I suggest cutting the plants back to keep the clumps neat.
Check out a few bouquets that feature this Oh-so-sweet-flower!

Katie's yellow bouquet from last June was also designed with yellow Babe spray roses, brown-eyed Viking mums, sunflowers, Queen Anne's Lace and English ivy.

Coral and white zinnias, white calla lilies, blue Chinese delphinium  look great with clusters of feverfew...

And so does this bouquet of Snow on the Mountain Euphorbia, yarrow and white roses.

Two good sources for seeds are Select Seeds and Johnny's Selected Seeds

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Sunflowers for Katie and David's Wedding

Time... it has this funny habit of rushing and rushing and rushing by... Sometimes I wish I could stop it
or at least slow it down. Yesterdays add up, and before you know it babies grow up, and before you know it, little girls are all grown up and getting married...
I have known Katie all of her life. And now this sweet, bubbly little girl is a young MARRIED woman!!!
I considered it such a privilege to be asked to design the flowers for her and David's wedding day!
Summery flowers- golden yellow roses, yarrow, sunflowers and petite Viking mums were mixed with cream colored stock and splashes of white Queen Ann's Lace and feverfew for the bridesmaid and bridal bouquets.
Boutonnieres for the fathers were created with Viking mums- I love how they look just like mini sunflowers.
The comb for Katie's hair was embellished with white stock, yellow Babe spray roses, ivy and Viking mums.
The ceremony arrangements were also a cheery mix of yellow and white.

The finishing touch for Katie's bouquet was a lovely cascade of English ivy embellished with tendrils of Viking mums. Just loved the look on her face when she saw her flowers, and so thrilled she let me capture this shot of her holding her bouquet!
Praying God's blessing for David and you as you two begin your lives together as husband and wife!!!

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Coral Wedding Flowers for Dominique and Javier

Normally I will do a close-up of the Bridal Bouquet as a first picture, but I want to explain this particular bridal bouquet before I show it- so the first picture for this wedding post is a picture of the Toss Bouquet.
Dominique and Javier first dropped by my studio (at my home in Cary) in February, and both were exuberant as they shared  ideas for their late May wedding. Lots of personal touches would be included, and the colors would be bold- bright corals and deep navy and cobalt blue.
My part was to provide flowers for the bridesmaids, Gerber daisies for the wine bottle centerpieces, and some floral accents for the gift table.
And since it was a May wedding, I wanted to introduce them both to some garden flowers that could play a support role to the Gerber daisies and coral spray roses.
So the week after our initial meeting in February, I started seeds for zinnias in bright corals and salmon.
A few weeks before the wedding, Javier and Dominique came by to drop off the cobalt blue wine bottles for the centerpieces. While they were here, we stepped out to the garden, and I was able to show them the bed of zinnias. Dominique also liked the double flowered form of feverfew that blooms this time of year, so some of them were included in the bouquets too.
And speaking of wine bottle centerpieces....
They were perfect for the reception at Cafe Luna in Raleigh. Another personal touch was cloth napkins in bright corals and navy. Dominique's Mom, Debi, stitched up each one!
And  Dominique's Dad, Dominick, put his wine making skills to work in providing small gift bottles of wine for all the guests!
And finally... Remember the Bridal Bouquet? Well I'm not the one who created it... This bouquet was created by Dominique's Mom- a beautiful bouquet designed with silk florals and brooches!

They dropped by several days before the wedding, and I was able to get a few pictures of Dominique holding her wedding bouquet- Just stunning!

What a beautiful and loving keepsake... 

Everything came together beautifully last Saturday. 

Dominique and Javier, I am so happy for you both! Praying God's blessing on your new marriage!!!

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