Jewel Tone Flowers for Summer and Fall Weddings

Some of the garden beds are slowing down, but there are still flowers for gathering into lovely bouquets. Lots of jewel tone colors and spiky flowers show up in late summer.

They include very fragrant African Blue Basil

Feathery soft wheat celosia,

and Black and Blue Salvia

Other flowers in this bouquet include zinnias, dahlias, sedum, crested celosia, and gomphrena. Perilla provides both flower spikes and rich aubergine foliage. These are all great choices for brides who desire locally grown flowers for their late summer and fall weddings.

This October there should also be a small showing of chrysanthemums, and for next year I am planning to have several varieties of floribunda roses to offer as well. Many will be in rich jewel tones, but I am planning to have some soft blush and peachy colors as well!

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Garden Flowers for Summer and Fall Weddings- Gomphrena

Winter is holding on tightly. Mid February usually shows signs of early spring- but not this year!

So as we prepare to drop below ten degrees tonight, I can't help but think hopefully not much longer!!!

Next week it will be time to start my first batch of gomphrena. These rounded button-like flowers are great for summery garden styled wedding bouquets.

They are great accent flowers that come in pink, lavender-pink, white and violet-purple.

Seeds can be sown successively for an extended bloom period. Plants grow slowly until the temps begin to warm up. But once you add summer heat, they begin to take off. 

I am able to gather flowers well into fall and with some protection I can even harvest up to early November!

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Vibrant Colors for Teresa and Ben's Fall Wedding

 

It's so exciting to have that first meeting with my bride. I can't wait to hear about her fiancé and how they met, to see pictures of her wedding gown and the bridesmaids' dresses, and talk and talk about wedding flowers.

 I met Teresa last April- she and Ben were planning an October wedding- late October when autumn leaves are vibrant. Teresa wanted the colors for her wedding flowers to be vibrant too!  Saturated hues of orange, plum and burgundy to play against the bridesmaids' dresses of rich plum. And for her bouquet- a flirty ostrich feather collar to match the ostrich feather embellishments on her gorgeous gown and birdcage veil.

   And of course she looked absolutely stunning!

Table centerpieces were collections of vintage vases and bottles and jars that Teresa had gathered and decorated with burlap and lace. Each filled with a posy of flowers and herbs. 

Ben wanted something different for the boutonnieres for the men in the wedding party. So we went with purple gomphrena and horsetail reeds, and for his bout- an ostrich feather to match Teresa's gown.

It was a joyful celebration.

And now it's time for happily ever after. Praying God's blessing for you newlyweds!!!
PS
Be sure to check out more great pictures of this wonderful wedding at Windy Peak Photography

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Gomphrena for Summer Weddings

The seed catalogs are coming, and garden plans for summer flower beds at Springwell Gardens are under way. One flower that  always finds a niche in the gardens is gomphrena.

  I usually grow the Audray Pink and Audray Red Purple, and sometimes the Bicolor Rose. 

 Their clover-like blooms are such charmers in bouquets and centerpiece designs.

The flowers start up in early summer and when things heat up in July, the plants really begin to crank out the blooms.

  And they don't stop until frost!

The designs in the pictures above also feature zinnias, dahlias and lisianthus.
A good source for seeds for the Audray series is Harris Seeds and the Bicolor Rose can be found online at Johnny's Select Seeds. Note: these flowers are GREAT for drying for Christmas and winter designs too!

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Late Summer Bouquet of Pink Gomphrena and Scented Geraniums

Flowers from the late summer garden offer lots of interesting textures and fragrance. Gomphrena packs a lot of color and texture especially when flower heads are clustered together.
And for fragrance- nothing beats the bright green leaves of Scented Geranium. From citrus to cinnamon to old rose- there's a lot to choose from. They make a lovely collar for a summer or fall bouquet.

Here they are combined with some of other late summer garden favorites...

Feathery flower spikes of wheat celosia (pictured above on the left hand side) and African Blue Basil (pictured in the lower right hand corner below).
Pink lisianthus and pink and white zinnias round out this sweet little bouquet.
These flowers are ideal for autumn bouquets as well. As the days grow shorter these plants just continue to churn out the blooms- some of them until frost!

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