Thoughts on Wedding Flowers and Fall Planting

 I am happy to report that I have all the silk flowers finished for my niece’s wedding. All I have to do is add ribbon to the bridesmaid’s bouquets and get everything packed and ready for transport. Yay! It has been a great experience for me, actually. Prior to starting this business, I had this idea in my head that I would not enjoy making corsages and boutonnieres. I think part of it was that everyone I had talked to said they were kind of like factory work—you just have your formula and pump them out.

On the contrary, I quite enjoyed making these. Choosing the flowers to put into them made it fun, and I also enjoyed just putting them together and playing with the colors and flower forms to make it look really good. In a way, this was reassuring, as I plan to advertise my corsage/boutonniere services this year for the High School dances and such. Maybe it won’t be the drudgery I had feared! ;)

So, final tally: 6 bridesmaid’s bouquets, 1 throw bouquet, 10 boutonnieres, 5 corsages

They probably took me way longer than they should have, but I am confident that as I gain more experience making them I’ll get faster.

So this week I’m moving on to the fresh flowers! I am very excited about that, as well! I still have the bride’s bouquet and groom’s boutonniere to make, table centerpieces x 10, and cake flowers x 3. In case you were wondering, I will purchase supplemental flowers for these.

My own flowers have struggled this month. Watering issues, mostly. Drip irrigation is going to the top of my list for next year. My roses are just barely starting their 2nd flush of flowers, but even if there are some at the right stage for cutting by the end of the week, there won’t be enough for everything I’m doing. So I'll buy more of those. There’s a chance I’ll have some hydrangea ready, and I should have a few cosmos, but I will need some more flowers in her colors, for sure.

For greenery, I’ve got sedums, ninebark, and smidgeon of Queen Anne’s lace out there. I’m going to purchase boxwood from a flower farmer friend of mine, along with some statice. I am also planning to buy zinnias from a different local flower farmer, and I have reached out to a 3rd who I think has roses, but haven’t heard back yet. Other than that, I may have to go to the wholesaler and just pick up a few odds and ends in the right color scheme to fill in around the rest.

I looked into ordering both roses and peonies from other states (California and Alaska, respectively), but both the farms/co-ops that I looked at had minimum orders too far above my budget.

This week’s harvest: it was a bit of a hodgepodge—1 or 2 things here and there!

In other news, today I got 2 rows cleared out and weeded: the bachelor’s buttons row (except for one last plant on the end that is still blooming) and what should have been the orlaya row—5 tiny plants is all. Each row had a couple of volunteer sunflowers, and every one of them was all completely brown and eaten up inside and full of tiny white grubs. It was so gross! I think they were sunflower stem borers. I need to research some more to be sure. In any case, I plan to go out this week and pull out the rest. [My apologies to the goldfinch that has frequented the patch!] I haven’t sold any of these sunflowers this year anyway, because they were some that overwintered from last year—pretty, but undesirable in that they drop pollen like crazy! My pollen-free varieties didn’t make it this year.

Once I’m done with this wedding, I plan to change my focus to fall planting. I want to get as many perennials as I can on end-of-season sales, especially echinacea, daisies, yarrow, and rudbeckia. I also want a rose bush to replace the one that died out front (I’m thinking spray roses could be very helpful), and 2 more hydrangea bushes for the right side of my front shade bed.

Those 3 echinacea I bought and planted in the spring have really come through for me this season, so I’m hoping if I can get a bunch more now, by next year I will have plenty to choose from every week. I especially want to get a variety of colors—’Cheyenne Spirit,’ yellows, of course the purples, even a few of those blindingly bright ones. I have a watermelon red rose that would look good with some orange-red shades.

I will get my bulb order in as well. I may not buy any tulips this year—WHAT?! Really, though, I feel like I need to focus on building up my stock of bulbs that the deer don’t eat before I get more of those. Or I need to get a low tunnel set up out there to protect the tulips from…everything. So I’m looking for more alliums, possibly some camassia, plus some of the more unusual lily varieties. I’ve got to sit down and figure out a budget for all this first thing.

What projects are you working on this fall?

Tips for Working with Silk Flowers

 I have hardly poked my nose outside at all this week! Not the usual, and not good really for a flower farmer, but it’s true. We have had RAIN—blessed rain!—several of the days this week, which has been amazing! Besides that, though, I have started working on the wedding flowers for my niece, Emily. YAY! So excited to be doing this for her—she’s the best!

She wanted mostly silk/fake flowers, with a few key things being real: bride’s bouquet and groom’s bout, table centerpieces, and cake flowers.

Pros and Cons for Silk Flowers

PRO: Cost = Much Cheaper

If you didn’t know, in general silk flowers are much less expensive—about half as much as real, if you’re paying someone else to do them. Cheaper even than that, of course, if you are doing them yourself. However, word to the wise, you can spend just as much or more on fake as you do on the real if you’re not careful! There are some “real feel” flowers that are markedly more expensive, but even just your usual selections from the craft store can run up the bill before you know it. Of the regular craft stores, Hobby Lobby probably has the best selection, with Michaels next, and last Joann’s. Bring your coupons, and plan on spending some time finding all the elements you need!

PRO: Not as fragile

This one is fairly obvious. These flowers can take a lot more handling and most mistakes can be fixed using the same flower!

PRO: They’re not going to die on you! As a florist, this translates to—you can do them ahead of time! This is actually a big one. With all fresh flower weddings, everything has to be done 3-4 days before, max, and that’s if you have a cooler to put your finished products into to keep them alive until the big day. With a big wedding, that means you’re going to spending all kinds of time those few days beforehand, putting things together and getting them ready to go. It has been nice for me on this one to have some leeway with the timing.

CON: They don’t smell good.

Have you ever sniffed a fake flower? Yeah, they smell like plastic and dust. Achoo!

CON: They’re not soft and touchable.

Stiff and rough under your fingertips—unless you go for the really expensive stuff, but if you’re going to spend that much, why not just get real ones?!

CON: Limited selection.

Again, you can probably find every variety you can think of, in every natural and unnatural hue, but you’ll be paying for it. For our purposes, doing it this way to help with the budget, the selection is not nearly as great.

I think my “Cons” basically boil down to the basic fact: THEY’RE FAKE! Up close, you can really tell. Be that as it may, I think they do have a place in the floral industry. I don’t blame any bride for being budget conscious. These will look great in the pictures and will be just fine. I am super happy though, that I get to make a real flower bouquet for the bride’s bouquet! :)

A Few Terms:

Stem: 1 large single flower or leaf, or 1 small bunch of greenery attached to a long stem..

Spray: a grouping of smaller flowers at the top of the a long stem.

Picks: shorter stems, usually 5-6 inches long, meant for corsages, boutonnieres, or crafts like wreaths and garlands.

Bushes: usually a lot of stems connected. Often they will have a mix of flower types or a mix of greenery, although you can get some that are all one thing.

Often the bigger “bushes” will be the best deal. Don’t be afraid to cut them apart and use the elements individually!

You can order things online, but a note of caution—it can be hard to determine actual size and colors from the online descriptions. For instance, I ordered “Mini Phalenopsis Orchids” that I was going to use on the boutonnieres, and they turned out to be 4 feet long! Not sure how those were minis, but okay. I also ordered some flower “bushes” in the right colors, that I was going to use for the bridesmaid’s bouquets, with the addition of a few more special elements to each one. In person, they were way too big and well—bushy—for bridesmaids bouquets. However, I was able to cut apart 2 of them, and with some added greenery they’re going to work fine. The rest will be going back. The good thing about ordering online from one of the craft stores is that you can return unwanted items to the store, so you don’t have to deal with return shipping.

These are all the extras so far. I’m already thinking about what else I should make with them! Garlands and wreaths dancing in my head!

Don’t ever buy leaves! I was going to buy just a box of rose leaves for the boutonnieres, but I’m glad I didn’t. Every stem comes with leaves, and just like with real flowers, many of those leaves will be stripped off before you make your arrangements. I have a whole box of leaves right now—plenty for boutonnieres, future craft projects, you name it!

Tools

flower stems, picks, and bushes

wire cutters

scissors

floral tape

wire

hot glue

ribbon

 

If Your Stems are Too Short

Prepping short stems

After I cut apart some of my bushes, I noticed that the side shoots had very short stems—only 6” long or less—which would be too short for my bouquets. Not to fear! I had 1 flower bush with some heads missing, so I cut off and used those stems, attaching the two with floral tape. I also ended up with extra stems after cutting my boutonniere roses down to the right size. Again, a simple attachment with floral tape and the shorties were ready to go!

Once they go into the arrangement, you most likely won’t notice the floral tape join. If there is one that stands out though, I will just continue the floral tape all the way down to the end.

Another similar trick is for very short stems. So, for instance, I cut apart the spray roses to use in the boutonnieres. Some of those stems were only about 1/2” long. The Queen Anne’s lace that I used as well, had several small flower heads on 3-4” stems, and within each cluster there were empty stems missing flowers. I was cutting them all apart to use individually anyway, so I popped the rose heads off their stems, and simply popped them back onto the empty stems. They fit just fine; no floral tape required! Then I had the length I needed to work with.

One final note about the glue:

Hot Glue

So, real flowers can’t take hot glue. Makes sense, right? Not good for their longevity or looks. With real flowers you have to use cold glue—floral adhesive. Anyway, fakies can take hot glue! This comes in handy when you’re making the smaller, fiddly stuff like corsages and such. You can pop off flower heads and hot glue them right where you need them.

Boutonnieres

I’ve got the bouts done! Next up: bridesmaid’s bouquets!

Hope these tips help the next time you’re in the market for silk flowers.

A Few Notes About Event Work

So, I got a taste of event work this past week, when my brother asked me to make some centerpieces for an Open House they were putting on. I was happy to do it for them. They needed 9, on the small side, and they were fine with me choosing what to put in them. The ones they had been looking at from Costco had 15 stems per arrangement, so I told them I would do that.

I learned a few things that I don’t want to forget!

Centerpieces in progress.

1. Buy matching containers!

I enjoy finding unique and interesting containers at the thrift store, but for event work, it is helpful to have several that match, or at least coordinate. I ended up using pint jars for this one, which was fine with them, but on my next thrift store run I need to peruse the glassware aisles in search of at least a dozen vessels that go well together. I will also search more for some to coordinate with what I have already. For example, I have 3 beautiful small crystal pitchers, which would have been fun to use, but there were only 3.

2. Grow more fillers and foliage.

I have yet to successfully grow an abundance of these, despite my attempts the past 2 years. I will keep working on it! It would feel like such a luxury to be able to go out and cut as much as I needed or wanted. You generally need a lot more fillers than focal flowers, too, so maybe it would save me some money.

For this job I used water sprout suckers from the base of my fruit trees and from the ornamental plum out front as my leafy filler. It worked okay, but I had to cut a lot to get enough useable stems. Many of the leaves had bug holes or other undesirable problems.

I have to say, though, my Bells of Ireland patch really came through for me this time! I cut a whole bucket full of Bells and it hardly even made a dent in the patch. For the win! There was enough for 4 stems per arrangement, plus extras for my other 2 regular business subscription bouquets, and even one for myself. They were perfect for filling out amongst the leaves and adding another element of interest, while blending in to my color scheme.

3. Use a flower recipe

I had this one on my “to-do” list, but didn’t ever sit down and write one out. It’s helpful to at least have an idea in mind for cutting or ordering the flowers, as well as for the designing. Less fiddling around with each one. The roses weren’t all the same color, nor were the buttons, so there was some variation within that, but they all looked like they belonged together.

Here’s what I ending up using:

4 stems leafy greens

4 stems Bells

4 stems bachelor’s buttons

1 stem blue allium

2 stems roses

2-3 stems pincushion flowers

4. A cooler would be very helpful.

With larger orders, it would be nice to have more leeway with how far in advance I could make them and still have them last. I cut flowers Thursday morning, conditioned them all day, and arranged them that night for delivery Friday morning. It worked, but yeah. A cooler would make a big difference.

 

5. Figure out a reliable way to transport finished arrangements.

This time I had a couple of small boxes on hand and plenty of packing paper, so I made it work, and got them all securely packed for the car. (We each drove about 40 minutes to meet halfway for the delivery.) I struggle with this one on a weekly basis, though, despite having crates in a couple of sizes. Need to work on this one some more so that it’s not a time drain or such a hassle every time! Also, figure out something to use when I don’t expect to get the containers back. The boxes were good for that, but I don’t always have boxes on hand.

All packed up and ready to deliver!

I’m glad I got to do this for my brother and sister-in-law. They are wonderful and I was happy to be able to do something for them. It was fun to see what I could come up with. I was extra glad I had enough flowers to cut from my own farm and yard that I didn’t have to purchase any to supplement. I felt good about that!

Always more to learn, but I know what direction I should be headed in—I think!