Five tips for growing your own wedding flowers
Five things to know before growing your own wedding flowers
For us gardeners, the appeal of growing our own wedding flowers runs deep: the fun of watching them grow! Telling your wedding guests that these are from your very own beloved garden. The spark of joy you imagine you’ll feel each time you look at your wedding photos from now through forever. And, let’s be honest, the cost savings of the DIY bouquet probably has something to do with it.
I was certainly drawn to the idea of growing my own flowers for our August 31, 2019 wedding. I consider myself a seasoned gardener having planted and grown flowers since grade school so I thought the adventure of growing my own flowers for the bouquets, boutonnieres, ceremony decor and centerpieces would possibly be the breeziest part of the whole wedding planning experience. And while I wasn’t completely incorrect, there were a few things I wish I would have known before jumping in feet first.
Prepare to be flexible with your vision. I know it’s difficult, friends. But just like any gardening experience, Mother Nature is going to throw a few curve balls at you and that one specific flower you wanted in your bouquet just may not do so well in your garden. That’s what happened to my husband and I. We (OK, I) dreamt of having the intricate and delicate Sea Holly (Eryngium) flower as a focal point of each bouquet and boutonniere. We ordered three perennial plants and they all died. Local growers did not have Sea Hollies so the show went on without them. Bluestone Perennials has an incredible guarantee and replaced the three perennial Eryngiums right away. I’m happy to report that we now have three gorgeous Sea Hollies growing in our pollinator garden -- a year too late, but we certainly still enjoy them and so do the bees! Definitely have a vision, but be prepared to change it.
Design your dream wedding bouquet around tried-and-true perennials — and preferably, flowers with large blooms! When designing your wedding bouquet, build the design around trusty perennials, like Hydrangeas, Dahlias, Echinacea, Peonies, Lilac, Lavender, Snapdragons (if considered a perennial in your area) and Hardy Hibiscus. Focusing on reliable perennials will create less margin for error and last-minute changes.
As one of my favorite flowers, hydrangeas were a must-have for me from the beginning. Luckily, we have quite a few Hydrangea shrubs around the garden. Large Limelight Hydrangeas, actually gifted to my grandmother from my mother decades ago, decorated the tables and centerpieces, while Endless Summer Hydrangeas filled the bouquets. My mother also grew voluptuous Dahlias in her garden. Having these blooms with personal, cherished family connections made my bouquet even more special.
The bigger the flower, the easier filling your DIY wedding bouquets and centerpieces will be.
3. Start two growing seasons in advance. This is a big one! And one I did not do myself, but wish I would have. Starting two seasons in advance will allow you to see what weeks the flowers typically bloom and allow one season of mistakes and learning. I also planned to have quite a few flowers that while absolutely gorgeous, only bloom the second year of growing -- something I failed to think about in all the excitement. One of these flowers was Lupines. Absolute beauties! We grew many from seed and were so thrilled at the rate the seedlings grew. Unfortunately, those plants did not actually bloom until this year. They look gorgeous now though!
Plan ahead as far as you can so you have a sense of Mother Nature’s growing schedule for each flower you hope to feature during your wedding.
4. Consider flowers that require little water. This is why those succulent boutonnieres are all over Pinterest and Instagram! Flowers can and will droop quickly -- especially the small, dainty flowers common in boutonnieres. Choose blooms that can withstand a few hours without water. For our DIY boutonnieres, we went a different route of actually using the tuxedo pockets to hold the boutonnieres along with small little vases of sorts. These tubes from Amazon were affordable and worked beautifully day-of to keep the blooms fresh while stopping water leakage. We were able to fit three to four tubes of flowers in each pocket. I was really inspired by the idea of having flowers bloom from the soul, so filling tuxedo jacket pockets with flowers really fit the bill. Do a test before the big day to see how your flowers respond to a few hours with little to no water.
5. Bolster your wedding bouquet with cut flowers from a local farm. With droughts and heavy wind before our big day, growing our own flowers for our wedding was starting to feel like a mistake. Luckily, Mom to the rescue! She worked with a local flower farm to pick-up buckets of cut flowers ranging in size, shape and color. We ended using a lot of these flowers for boutonnieres and arbor decor as our homegrown flowers mostly came through for the wedding, but having the extra flowers available really reduced stress in the weeks leading up to the wedding.
Some of these farms also offer flower arranging courses to help you create the wedding bouquet of your dreams.
Happy growing!
