Doing the Flowers for My Handsome Son's Wedding

Handsome Son is happily married. 

I have been gifted a Daughter I never had. She is a wonderful and tolerant woman who fortunately loves my son. When she asked me to do the floral arrangements and bouquets, boutonnières, and garland, I said yes. Then she told me when: October 1. That's a date well within that possible first frost date range. We did a mock-up a year in advance. I asked my boss to allow me to cut hydrangea from the borders at Graziano Gardens. I had decided to do a mix of dried and fresh. I thought I had my bases covered. I grew eucalyptus from seed (and took it in as a potted plant over winter to my grow room). I cut back things in my garden to extend the bloom. I pre-started dahlias, and then covered them for many nights-- just in case.

I learned about "dirty" flowers, conditioning flowers, and practiced making corsages. We did a trial run.

There are always snafus in a wedding. I have to say I was totally blown away at the level of organizational abilities my Daughter-in-Law exudes! She shared Google spreadsheets, helped do mock-ups, actually made all the women's corsages. 

And, then I managed to FREEZE her bridal bouquet!

There were a lot of flowers in this wedding. I have a lot of flowers. Adding another arrangement here or there is not a big deal. The logistics of getting those flowers to there appointed places by the appointed times? That's a big deal.

 

The World Has Shifted

My '"Royal Shades Zinnia seed mix, above.

I have this in-my-head-conversation going on these days. Often, the adult me barges into the room and tells me to knock it off, turn off the light, and go to sleep. Like it is the equivalent of get ready to ace the next day. But then I pause, and think tomorrow will be the same, just a rewind of evaluating who it is safe to see and what activities are worth the risk. It is still a Covid World. Worse, for gardeners anyway, it is January in Wisconsin. And... we are in the middle of a cold snap.

I have started seed for sugar snap peas, and lettuce. I am attempting root cutting of eucalyptus. I have potted up some dubious looking tubers from some dahlias, thinking to force them. I have listed some of my collected seed on Etsy. I have been collecting some of my favorite zinnia colors and have been growing them on each summer other as a mix. I really like deep colors, but not the bright reds; more the wines, and purples, lilacs, and pinks.

Of course these favorite dahlias have the most insignificant tubers, 'Rip City' and 'Penhill Watermelon'. I am not sure they are actually viable tubers. The gorgeous ones seem to always be the most difficult. The miniscule volume of the 'Rip City' tuber is certainly a rip, as in rip-off. Is that the origin of the name?

I toy with the idea of offering cut flowers and bouquet classes in my yard, maybe for brides and their entourages. I am doing the flowers for my son's wedding this coming October 2022. Her color is a deep burgundy. Here are a few of the flowers we are looking at. Since the happy couple are playing with the frost date. I am including flowers which dry well. We did a mock-up of the palette this last October.

Even Murphy helped out modeling the flower girl flower crown.

Each of the 23 guest tables with have a lantern surrounded by flowers. Most will be dried, with focal flowers added in water pic tubes after everything is arranged. We could add in large dahlias, dahlia-style zinnias, carnations, or roses.

This is a flower garland for the wedding arch and later to be placed on the head table.

So on a January day with activity options limited, it is fun to dream of gardening and future flower fun.