A posy of forced narcissi and tulips with a gorgeous heart of winter-bright willow.
If you’ve been clever and arranged for the bulbs to be delivered at just the right time for your plans, then you can pot them up as soon as they arrive (so long as they’ve been ‘prepared’). To give you ball-park figures: amaryllis take about 12 weeks to flower, hyacinths about 9 weeks, and paperwhite narcissi as little as 6 weeks. I recommend with snowdrops that you dig them up from the garden when you see them shooting, and pot them up then. This way you’ll have a good clump flowering. They have a delicious honey scent, which in the middle of winter is a proper treat.
Think about growing bulbs to display in their pots, as well as for cutting. You can use attractive and imaginative containers: from tea cups to vintage buckets; vases to trifle bowls. With some judiciously placed moss as a top dressing and perhaps some tall twigs to support weaker, forced stems, you could save yourself a lot of flower-arranging time by growing arrangements to be your table centrepieces as they are.
RAIN OR SHINE
In France the phrase “Un mariage pluvieux est un mariage heureux” translates as “A rainy wedding makes for a happy marriage”.
Two bridesmaids await the start of the ceremony in the rain.
Amaryllis
Make sure the amaryllis bulbs you order are large and firm. If they arrive and feel squashy, send them back. They will benefit from being soaked for an hour in warm water before you pot them up, which will rehydrate them if they’ve been kept dry for a long time. Plant them individually in pots of well-drained potting compost, leaving the top half of the bulb standing proud of the surface. You could pot up a lot of amaryllis together, but the pot would be heavy to move in and out of warmth, which you need to do to make the flowers come when you need them.
In the past I have planted six bulbs to a mushroom compost tray. You may prefer to pot them up individually, in case you decide that you’ll use the flowers, still growing in pots, as your table centrepieces. Like hyacinths, amaryllis can be grown just with their roots in water. So you could fill a glass vase with attractive gravel and place the bulb on top of the gravel, filling with water to the top of the gravel, and grow them like that for table centrepieces.
Each bulb should give you up to three large flowering stalks, with up to three flowers on each stalk. Amaryllis can be frustrating to get to flower, and are an expensive option to grow yourself. If you find they’re in full bud but the buds aren’t opening, you can cut them, about a week before the wedding, and fill the stems with warm water, then, keeping the stems full, hang them upside down (so that the warm water stays near the tight-shut flower heads) indoors. I can see you shaking your head, and thinking “Perhaps not amaryllis.” But don’t be put off. The flowers last for weeks and weeks when they’re open, so work backwards from your wedding date to have your amaryllis in flower perhaps a week or 10 days before, and you’ll be fine.
Crocuses
These pot up very prettily in attractive containers. A fellow farmer/florist, Tuckshop Flowers in Birmingham, pots them up in vintage china cups and saucers, which she forages from flea markets and charity shops throughout the year, and they are, I think, enchanting, and would make charming wedding table centrepieces. Plant your crocus bulbs 6-8 weeks before you want them to be in flower.
Crocuses growing out of a stamped silver jug with a collection of tiny vases of forced anemones and a handful of foliage – striking, and requiring very little material.
Hyacinths
I love the scent of hyacinths in the deep winter months, and their pure, zingy colours cheer even the dullest of dark days. Plant them half proud of well-drained compost. In fact, no bulbs really need to grow in earth: they have all the goodness they need to grow in the bulb itself. You can grow them in just water – but if you do, you need to keep the roots in water and the bulb out of water, which is why it might be easier to grow them in compost. You can get old-fashioned hyacinth vases, designed for the bulb to sit at the top with just enough water to touch the roots, and to grow with no compost at all (a great way for children to see the bulb-growing process in action).
A pedestal vase with white hyacinths and winter greenery. Beautiful and scented on a dark day.
Hyacinths can be short-stemmed, which makes them difficult to use as cut flowers. To use them cut in bouquets and posies, grow them somewhere where they’ll have to reach for the light, for example under a table or sideboard.
Narcissi
There are lots of highly scented narcissi which can be forced to flower in winter. Narcissus papyraceus (the true paperwhite narcissus), ‘Erlicheer’ and ‘Grand Soleil d’Or’ are three reliable winter-flowering narcissi, easy to force in the house or greenhouse. (This sort of narcissi are all generally known as ‘paperwhites’.) Buy them ‘prepared’, and check with your supplier how long each variety will need to be potted up for to bring it into flower. Most will be in flower about 6 weeks from planting, but there are variations. Forced narcissi can get leggy, and their stems lacking in strength, from growing so tall and fast in the warm. So once you’ve planted them (just put a little of the bulb in the growing medium, they don’t need much soil), add a frame of hazel twigs to support the stems as they grow up.
I use scented narcissi in floristry throughout winter. These flowers are all grown in the UK, but not by me.
I use scented narcissi in floristry all through the winter. My Cornish colleagues grow millions of them, and I order them throughout the dark months to supplement my meagre garden stock. They never let me down. Look for good local suppliers of home-grown stock (see Resources section for recommendations), and you might find it’s easier and not much more costly to order from them than to grow the flowers yourself for your winter wedding.
Snowdrops
Dig clumps of these out of the ground when you see the foliage appear (assuming you have permission – remember that in the UK it’s illegal to dig up plants from the wild!) and pot them up. You’ll see snowdrop foliage shooting only 2 or 3 weeks before they flower – they always catch me by surprise. I would be opportunistic with snowdrops for a wedding in the middle of winter: if you see them popping up, dig some up and pot them in attractive containers to flower for you. If you’re ordering them as bulbs, they are usually sent out when ordered ‘in the green’, i.e. when they’ve just flowered the previous winter. You’ll need to plant them in the ground and remember where they are to dig them up the next winter.
If you’re ordering especially for cutting, then the tallest variety I know of is Galanthus elwesii ‘Big Bertha’, and she’s perhaps 25cm (10”) tall. Prepare to support snowdrops with twigs, as, like narcissi, they can be leggy when they grow on in the warm, so a little nest of hazel twigs ‘growing’ out of a mossy surface can be the miniature woodland in which your snowdrops can flower. Snowdrops are by no means great show-offs of the cut-flower world, but there is something magical about their delicacy, and their honey scent is a surprise in a cold season. In flower lore, they represent something new, so for a wedding I think they’re perfect.
It is the paperwhites in these winter posies that show up best in the low light of winter.
Colour scheming
Remember that white shows up well against a dark background, while reds and blues disappear in the low light levels at the dark time of year. Keep the flowers you choose light in colour, and you’ll see them to best effect. Paperwhites, snowdrops, white hyacinths and amaryllis will all work well with low light levels.
Budgeting tip
eBay is wedding accessories central. A great many brides buy their accessories – from their dress to their candles, from the bows on their chairs to their bunting – on eBay. I had one bride whose dress was then back on eBay by the end of the wedding day, and as it was a size 12 Vera Wang, it was sold that very day, and the bridesmaid was in charge of sending it on to the next bride while the original bride and groom flew off on their honeymoon.
Cutting and conditioning in winter<
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The techniques required to condition flowers and foliage cut in winter are slightly different from those used at other times of the year when the weather is warmer.
Try not to cut flowers or foliage when they’re frozen solid or covered in snow. Wait until the warmest part of the day before you cut anything. Cut into buckets of clean water, as usual, then, if the material is frozen, bring it in to somewhere under cover but not significantly warmer than the outside, so it doesn’t defrost too quickly.
Keep bulb flowers apart from any other material you’re cutting, because they drool sap and make water cloudy while they’re conditioning.
Flowers from forced bulbs, when cut, will open more quickly than those still attached to the plant. If you want to hurry them up, cut bulbs when they’re beginning to show colour, give them a little warm water, and bring them in somewhere warm. Hollow stems can be filled with warm water, then put your thumb over the open stem end and put the whole stem in more warm water. This gets the warm water right up to the almost-flowering head.
If you want to hold cut bulb flowers back from flowering, then, again, cut them when the colour’s beginning to show on the flower heads, but don’t put them in water. Lay them flat in a box and put them somewhere cool and dark until 2 or 3 days before you need them. You can keep them this way for up to a week. Then take them out of their box, cut 2cm (1”) off the bottoms of the stems to reopen the cellulose drinking cells, and put the stems in water. They should rehydrate nicely and flower as normal.
This posy is mostly greenery, with the colour provided by just a little lungwort and a single bright splash of orange from one early ranunculus.
A long garland of entirely foraged material, including dried hydrangea heads. This makes a great table-centre runner, or can be hung over a mantlepiece or doorway.
Dried hydrangea heads don’t even need vases, but can be just dotted about very effectively.
A winter wedding idea – use dried hydrangeas and twigs only for a papery, vintage, attractive look.
In winter, willow reveals its true colours. If you have access to some, it makes good weaving material.
Slumbering wildlife
When bringing plant material indoors in winter, watch out for wildlife waking up in the warm. We often find shield bugs, ladybirds and even butterflies meandering sleepily about the studio table when we’ve brought in winter foliage and flowers for arranging. Take them back outside and tuck them away somewhere protected: I tend to put them in the log shed, where they can hide away again until the spring wakes them up at the right time.
Top tips for winter wedding floristry
Don’t expect to have masses of flowers. Plan to use foliage as a basis, and the flowers you can grow will be stars of light in the mix.
If you are forcing bulbs, you may need to bring them into the house to speed up their flowering, so use pots that aren’t too heavy to lift. If you’re growing them in attractive pots, then you don’t necessarily need to cut them, but can use the pots of flowers for table centres and focus pieces.
Garlanding with greenery and using candlelight creates a stunning effect. But be careful that the candles don’t cause a fire risk, and do check what rules your venue may have about open flames.
You will very likely be able to find a local professional grower who can supply winter flowers to supplement your own stock, without having to use imported flowers. See Resources section for some websites listing flower growers (in the UK and USA).
Cut flowers and foliage at the warmest time of the day, and put them to condition somewhere not too much warmer. You don’t want them to defrost and go to mush, which might happen if they’re really crunchy.
A WINTER WEDDING RECEPTION IN AN OLD COUNTRY PUB
This tiny winter wedding reception took place just before Christmas, in a pub with scrubbed tables and mix-and-match chairs. The ceremony was earlier that morning, and the guests then repaired to this lovely old place for gastronomic delights rounded off with sloe gin.
We ordered the flowers from a grower with glasshouses from which they supply throughout winter, and we foraged the greenery. There were only 20 guests, and the flowers really were a central part of the whole occasion. The day was dark, but the white flowers and lots of candlelight and glass gave light and sparkle, and a gorgeous, intimate feel.
Some guests prefer to put their buttonholes into a (vintage) glass of water rather than wear them.
Have a vase to hand, and the bride can put her bouquet into it for the duration of the reception once she’s had enough of carrying it around.
A lusher mix of greenery and paperwhites make another table centrepiece. In winter especially, don’t try to be too matchy-matchy.
Each guest was given a buttonhole, tied as a little posy, as their place marker.
A wreath of bright willow stems with a hurricane lamp and a pillar candle makes an effective table centrepiece.
A celebratory welcome wreath with crab apples, Scots pine, ivy and other greenery.
A long garland to go down the table, made to match the welcome wreath – note the dried hydrangeas in the mix. You certainly don’t have to use all fresh material at this time of year.
A HAND-TIED POSY OR BOUQUET
Practise making hand-tied posies from the day you decide you’re going to do your own wedding flowers. Like any art or craft, the more you do this, the better, and the more confident you’ll be at it. Make at least one posy a week, preferably two or three (your friends and family will be delighted recipients throughout your planning and up until your wedding). Then, when it comes to the big day, you’ll not only be much faster but also have a really clear idea of how much material you’ll need for each of your arrangements, which will inform your cutting schedule too (see Chapter 3).
Practise making lots of posies well before the wedding, and when the time comes you’ll be confident about how much time and material you’ll need.
The method for making a hand-tied bouquet is the same as for a posy – it’s just a matter of scale. When you’re practised with making small posies, you can build up to a larger bouquet.
What you’ll need
Gather together everything you need before you start. You will need:
A good selection of well-conditioned flowers and foliage to practise with. I recommend about two-thirds flowers to one-third foliage. The foliage is useful not only because it frames each different flower very nicely, and gives the bouquet a proper garden look, but also because the stems are often stronger than those of cut flowers (especially annuals or heavy-headed roses), and so can work as a kind of scaffolding to help hold up either delicate or heavy heads.
For a pretty generous jam-jar posy you’ll need a minimum of 20 stems.
For a bride’s bouquet you’ll need perhaps 50 stems. Practice will inform how many stems you need per arrangement for your wedding scheme.
Perhaps one, three, five or seven ‘accent’ flowers. The number depends on the size of the posy and the size of the accent flowers. Use odd numbers of accent flowers so that you never inadvertently create straight lines, squares or rectangles in your floristry: you’re making wedding flowers, not planting up a roundabout with municipal bedding!
Jars, jugs or vases: clean, ready, and filled with fresh water, so that as soon as your posy is made you can put its freshly re-cut stems into water, and they can have a nice drink.
Have clean jugs, jars and raffia to hand, as well as a pair of carbon-bladed florist’s scissors.
Raffia, twine, string, ribbon – whatever you intend to tie your posy with. I prefer raffia. For a hand-tied bride’s bouquet or bridesmaids’ posies, I use ribbon as well as raffia.
Carbon-bladed florist’s scissors: these are much better to use than secateurs, as they will handle delicate stems more easily.
A mirror that you can stand back from and see the posy or bouquet you’re making from any angle.
Keep the ingredients for your posy in water for as long as possible. Cut flower
s won’t like being laid on a table, out of water, while you choose what you need one stem at a time.
Choosing your ingredients
A good posy or bouquet has the following shapes in it:
A larger, accent flower In spring this could perhaps be ranunculus; in early summer, roses or peonies. Later, you might use dahlias or sunflowers. In winter, you could make bunches of paperwhites to add into a bouquet, each bunch acting as though it were a bigger flower on its own. For a small posy, one accent flower may be plenty, framed with other stems, which will also cushion and support it so that it sits at an attractive angle in its container and can be seen nicely. Heavy-headed flowers can easily pull themselves out of their containers, so be prepared to add other material to counterbalance them.
A daisy shape In early summer this could be a real wild daisy, or a feverfew. In spring it could be anemones; later in the year, cosmos.
Grow your own Wedding Flowers Page 12