Grow Your Own Wedding Flowers
You're getting married? Congratulations! Growing your own wedding flowers is an incredibly memorable, eco-friendly, and budget conscious way to contribute in a meaningful way to your wedding.
Here is a wedding crown I harvested from my garden for a last summer wedding:
The first thing you need to consider when growing your own flowers is the season your wedding will take place in. In the Northern Hemisphere, if its Spring or Summer you should be fine. Fall or Winter and you will, obviously, need to get creative.
Here are some flowers, by season, to consider growing for your bouquet. Not a gardener? These selections are also a good starting point for sourcing seasonal (which will be the freshest) blooms through your florist.
Spring:
Bulbs: Be prepared to plant these the fall before. As long as you get them in the ground by February 1st (and the ground is workable/not frozen) you should be in time for spring blooms: tulips, daffodils, allium, ranunculus, iris.
Bushes: lavender, lilac (be sure to crush the stems when you harvest so they stay hydrated), peony (remember that peony bushes take 3 years to produce flowers, rosemary.
Seeds: By late spring you may already have flowering camomile, sweet pea, and larkspur.
Summer:
Bulbs: late allium, dahlias (tubers actually).
Bushes: Roses, lavender, sage, blueberry, and raspberry bushes (fruits make awesome bouquets and arrangement additions!)
Seeds: almost anything goes here, get creative! My top choices are ammi, zinnia, asters, and sunflowers.
Get creative! This bouquet uses jasmine fines, roses, carnations, ruscus, and cala lillies.
Fall:
Fall is for foraging, get creative and be on the lookout for options, with some creativity they are probably all around you!
Bulbs: Some iris bloom a second time in the fall, dahlias (if you get a late enough frost or can greenhouse grow).
Bushes: Any thing in the color scheme you like. Smoke bush often has billowy mauve textural pieces in early fall. Mums are a must!
Seeds: If you are early enough asters and zinnia might still be an option, pumpkin on a stick, seeding basil (cinnamon has purple flowers), late mint stalks.
Winter:
Bulbs: Amarylis and paper whites (forced indoors)
Bushes: Evergreen and pinecones!
Seeds: If you live in a snowy climate like I do...good luck!
Keep the Danish concept of hygge in mind and go for textures that are warm and cozy and fragrant. Candles are your best friend in designing your own winter wedding table arrangements.
Even if you only grow a single stunning dahlia or your own spring of mint for your wedding, or forage the baby pinecones tucked into your bouquet, your very personal contribution--no matter how small--is special and can provide just another way you can be intimately connected to your wedding process.
