I was recently interviewed by the New York Times (yep!) about what exactly might be considered seasonal and local in the flower world for couples considering winter weddings. Here’s a link to the article and the accompanying video.
Having the New York Times call you and ask if you can make a bridal bouquet out of stuff you grew yourself in late December is a little nerve-wracking. Especially when your farm has been below freezing and under a thick blanket of snow for several weeks already. If I had been given enough notice, I would certainly have forced lots of bulbs, namely paper whites and amaryllis. Maybe some tulips even. But I got a mere week to prepare. The resulting bouquet (pictured above and below) included lots of evergreens (thuja, atlas cedar, white pine), cedar cones, juniper berries, nandina, ornamental cabbage, rosemary, hellebores, birch catkins, Christmas cactus, succulents, air plants, rex begonia, staghorn fern, and polypodium fern. In that list, everything from the Christmas cactus on was actually pillaged from my house plants. While not quite the typical “farm fare”, what I love about incorporating these indoor varieties is that many can be re-potted and grown again as house plants long after the bouquet has faded.
I have a real adoration of winter floral designs. They require more effort, an open-mind, a deep appreciation for textures and greenery, and a fondness for a clean, sophisticated palette. Unlike in the warmer months when you can quickly insert a flouncy bloom like a peony or a dahlia into a bouquet and call it “done”, you don’t cheat with winter flowers. There’s some magic in the purposeful nature of winter botanical elements. Nothing is in excess in the winter. Everything in the winter landscape is beautiful in its miraculous ability to withstand the cold cleanse of Old Man Winter. That really hits home when you’re digging hellebores out from under a couple inches of snow and ice. How do they manage to bloom in these conditions??
So the real question is: what’s available locally in the cold months of the year? At Love ‘n Fresh Flowers (in Philadelphia, zone 7), we usually have the following. Most of these are available January through early March, give or take depending on how cold and gloomy the winter has been.
– Amaryllis
– Paper Whites
– Anemones
– Ranunculus
– Hellebore
– Pierus
– Willow (several varieties)
– Boxwood
– Evergreens (heaps of varieties)
– Flowering Quince
– Ornamental Cabbage
– Magnolia Buds and Leaves
– Succulents (we have them all year round)
– Abeliophyllum
– Dusty Miller (if it’s been a mild winter)
Here’s a collection of past winter designs we’ve made here at Love ‘n Fresh Flowers. (Note: not all the elements in these designs were locally-grown; some materials were shipped in from California at the request of clients.)
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