Wedding Blog
As mentioned previously, we live in a house once owned (for four decades!) by a Master Gardener in a perfect part of the country for growing things. We’re getting married in late May.
In keeping with my sentimental nature, I want a bouquet made of flowers plucked from our neighbors’ yards. I want to anoint our space with flowers cut from our own property. I want the green backdrop of our trees and grass and foliage to be enough “decoration.” Oh, yea, and I don’t want to spend a bunch of money on flowers that will die.
We don’t know a thing about gardening. Let the research begin.
My plan is to use all white for everything else — linens, chairs, napkins. Because I don’t know enough yet about what kinds of flowers we’ll pull from the garden, white is safest.
But, what flowers can we grow and count on in late May? I started with my favorite flowers, then narrowed down the list to those that will bloom at the right time.
Hydrangeas. Love, love, love. My neighbors have a fabulous hydrangea bush that produces beautiful flowers. I plucked this one in September, but I’m pretty sure I cut a bunch in June as well. Endless Summer hydrangeas seem to be the way to go.
Roses. This bouquet was cut from our completely neglected rosebushes last Mother’s Day. Beautiful, right? Perhaps not as professional looking as, ya know, bouquets by the professionals, but good enough for me. The big purple one in the top center is fragrant, as are the tiny yellow roses you can barely see in the bottom left corner.
Carefree Spirit shrub rose at Jackson & Perkins. Wouldn’t this make a happy and bright single flower bouquet?
Or how about Sweet Freedom? And it’s fragrant!
Tulips. Happy! Spring-ish! Bright! I don’t know, though, for some reason this seems like the easy way out. Also, I think that late May is too late for tulips in Tennessee.
Poppies! So happy and silly all at once. Stylish. Unfortunately, my research shows that they are delicate, bloom only briefly, and did I mention that delicate things and I don’t mix well?
Peonies. I almost forgot peonies! How could I? I don’t know much about them except that they’re often hard to get shipped… assuming they’re delicate? I’ll have to do more research.
Source
Mixed inspiration bouquet. He-llo, beautiful. Nice to meet you, Garden Rose. I think we’ll be friends. (Joined in this picture by maidenhair fern — looks like parsley — and pale pink cymbidiums).
I’m leaning toward roses for a couple of reasons. First, I know they can grow on our property. Second, both of my grandmothers and my recently departed grandfather loved roses. Third, they’re perennial, and I’d love to cut a bunch every year for our anniversary. Fourth, we don’t have to plant bareroot roses until March, giving us time to pick colors and locations. Finally, we can plant a bunch and see what blooms. Worst case, I can beg flowers from my neighbors or buy a bunch at the florist at the last minute.I’d love to plant a rosebush in memory of each of my grandparents and one special rose to commemorate our marriage. Adding in a bloom or two from our existing plants will tie us to the history of this property (and the 40+ year marriage it housed), and perhaps our neighbors will contribute another bloom or two as a symbol of our fabulous community.
On the other hand, I love me some hydrangeas. They’re elegant and beautiful, simple and showy (but not flashy!).
I have so many questions. Will roses continue to bloom all summer? Will they bloom early enough? Will they bloom the first year we plant them? Can we count on hydrangeas in May? Do I need to pick a color, or can I throw them all in together? How badly can I mess this up?
Any gardeners out there willing to point me to a good book or link for learning about roses and hydrangeas? Any brides who grew their own flowers?
Stay tuned… I still need to figure out what to do with the clearing!
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Share this post: Growing My Own Bouquet
Are you kidding me?! Holy Green Wedding Idea Batman!
I don’t know anything about flowers, but you rock!
That bouquet on your table from your garden is crazy-beautiful. I AM SO. DANG. JEALOUS. wow.
All those options are so gorgeous! I think roses and hydrangeas would look great. You’re so lucky…
As a West Coast gal, not sure if I can give you East Coast-specific gardening advice, but one of my go-to resources is Organic Gardening (www.organicgardening.com). They’ve got photos, easy-to-read articles to get you started, and a helpful community for the more advanced/specific questions. Hope this helps!
Hi!
I grew my own flowers for bouquets and centerpieces (part of the whole getting married at my parents’ house experience). My wedding was early August, in upstate New York, so a different growing season. Because of the season, we were able to use a lot of zinnias and cosmos and lots of really random things my mom and grandmothers had planted and well established in their gardens. I thought the whole growing my own bouquet thing was surprisingly easy. Here’s the process: http://sites.google.com/site/lindentreenow/wedding-behind-the-scenes-iv
I’d be a little nervous about counting on enough roses for cutting the first year you plant them….same with hydrangea or peony. Usually, these bushes are pretty small when you buy them from a garden center, and you’d probably have to purchase a TON to get enough blooms the first year. I think they need a while to establish. Here’s some advice from a board about growing wedding flowers in TN: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tngard/msg1012524813884.html
Good luck!! 
@Mrs. Pineapple: Heh, heh. Sounds cool, I know… but I stare out at the yard and think, oi.
@RenaissanceTrophyWife: Bless you, my dear, dear friend! I’m off to web surf.
I tried to get my mom to grow more peonies (she already has some in her garden) for our wedding, but she said they didn’t bloom the first two years! I’m not sure if roses are the same, I don’t know very much about gardening either.
One of my bridesmaids grew all of her centerpiece flowers in her mom’s garden. It’s such a lovely option if you can plan ahead! Can’t wait to see what you end up planting.
Ok, so I live in a colder zone and can’t garuntee but you could start some dahlias (they come as routes and you can start them inside, don’t know if they are perrenial in your zone so you may need to dig them up in the fall and store them) Swan Island in the northwest is a great supplier of large routes but a bit pricey. Zinnias come as seeds and you can easily start them inside in a tray in February and plant them after the trhreat of frost and have the possibilty of flowers by the end of May. Peonies are actually pretty hardy, just have a vase for your flowers to soak in. Hydrangeas are unlikely to be in bloom 
unless you pick some up at Easter and plant them in the yard and you may have some since they were forced early :-). and Endless Summer is a great choice because they bloom on new wood (don’t worry it just means more flowers). What ever you do do not cut back your Hydrangeas until they have fully leafed out - this includes what looks like dead branches because they may not be dead and that is where the best, if any, flowers come from. Roses are a great choice and should be startign to come out about then in your area. It looks like you had some verbenia in that arrangement too.
Poppies are a pain in the neck to keep from wilting and are not worth the trouble.
Tulips..you can plant some late blooming tulips (check out burpee.com or schepplers.com). Tulips actully look great with roses as do irises. Some Irises will bloom in may as well. Order and plant the irises and tulips now and they will be ready for you come May. Make sure you plant more than you think you need as they won’t all bloom at once.
P.S. For my BM’s wedding we took all the flowers from our gardena dn our neighbors garden and planted knowing that we would be having the wedding. The zinnia and dahlias had more time to mature because the wedding was labor day weekend but they filled out nicely. We also stuck in other flowers we found and added some native (not the invasive wild type) honeysuckle which stuck out and added dimension. IF you want some picks please PM me.
Okay, seriously, you guys ROCK! I’m off to do more web surfing.
good luck with that. not everything blooms at the same time no matter when you plant it. you could end up with nothing or everything shattering. i hope it works out for you.
I am not growing my own flowers, but I am going to a local flower market and making all my bouquets and arrangements. One thing I have learned from my research is you have to tret the flowers once they’re cut. Normally, you put them in water and they last about a week or more, but if you are putting them in a bouquet that will stay out of water for a while, you must tret them first. Martha has some tips on this (put a drop of bleach in the bottom of the vessel and fill with water for extra freshness - sounds crazy, but totally works). Also, if you are doing roses, be sure to buy a stem stripper so you don’t have thorns pricking you all day. Even for centerpieces, this is a good idea because you don’t want to get bloody hands the day before your wedding while assembling them. I am going to see if the growers at the market will do this for me, though, because it seems like a bit of an ordeal. Hope that helps!
[...] This post over at Weddingbee shows how one bride is doing just that. While she’s not getting married in the fall, you can quite easily adapt her ideas to any time of year. If you have the nerve to give it a try, they would the ultimate DIY wedding flowers bouquets. addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fallweddingflowersblog.com%2Fwedding-flowers-bouquets%2Fgrow-your-own-wedding-flowers-bouquets’; addthis_title = ‘Grow+your+own+wedding+flowers%2C+bouquets’; addthis_pub = ”; [...]
Definately go to your local nursery and just ask questions but something unique about hydrangeas is that the color of the flower is based on the pH level in your dirt/soil. So don’t plan on picking the color you want, it might change. I love hydrangeas and the fact that their color comes from their environment is just neat.
I’m in Kentucky so our flowers bloom a little behind you but last year my hydrangeas looked gorgeous by the beginning of June. Its their 3rd year in the garden, the first year I got a few blooms, last year not a single one because of a late frost (I dont have endless summer) but this year there were hundreds.
The roses started blooming just after Derby. I have tulips blooming from about the beginning of April to mid-May, I’m not sure how much longer you can stretch them, but bulbs are so reliable. Peonies bloom here from mid-May through mid-June but others are right - they rarely bloom for the first year or two. Iris’s are also very reliable and bloom mid-May here.
You could plant Gerbera Daisies - they are very easy to grow and would look great with a garden wedding. You could also get lillies - they are all over nurseries about that time although you would have to force bulbs to get them to bloom before June in the ground I think.
Anthuriums are easy to grow in pots inside and bloom all the time and are a very unique flower in various shades of white pink and red.
Good luck!
I think you have my dream wedding. I’m so green right now!
i am entirely jealous of your wedding. it sound p-e-r-f-e-c-t. anyway, excuse the drool. how about about roses and hydrangeas together? this is one of the pictures from my thousands of bouquet inspiration pictures: http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x164/fayeandgreer/Flowers/WhiteBouquets.jpg. check out the bottom right (white roses & white hydrangea). GOREGOUS.
just realized that link is a dude. try this one: http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x164/fayeandgreer/Flowers/WhiteBouquets.jpg
@Good Luck: Good point. Backup plan: buy loose roses or flowers from somewhere (even grocery store would work), or beg flowers from the neighbors!
@Jen: Thanks, especially because you’re so close to me, this is very helpful!.
@Miss Dumpling: Except for the risk, right? Every plan I have seems to be really risky, so it’ll be a wait and see kind of plan!
@JanieLeigh: Oh! The picture didn’t work! Can you repost?
Although I don’t have any tips on growing, I am also getting married in May and from what the florists I have spoken too say May is the most awesome month for flowers! Hydrangeas are so full they can be used for centerpieces etc, because you only need a few to look full. Peonies are my fave and they are beautiful, I hope you grow them! Also garden roses and regular roses and ranunculus are also great. I wish you the best of luck, my flowers always die!!
@Lindsay: Girl, you are SUCH my hero! And you looked beautiful!
let’s try this again…
try this one: http://i38.tinypic.com/2mmept5.jpg
also, i’m pretty sure you’ve mentioned this, but i don’t recall - are you having a day wedding or night wedding?
I am so jealous!! I would love to have our wedding on our backyard and grow our own flowers =(. Living in Los Angeles and in a apartment, neither can happen.
Hydrangeas are so so beautiful and like you said, you dont have to do much to them for them to look stunning!
I had garden roses, parrot tulips and other “nostalgic” flowers in my bouquet, and even though I didn’t do it myself (my god, I’m not that brave or talented), I thought it had the organic feel you might be going after. Not too perfect, and really diverse. Also, I LOVED what my florist did for the BM bouquets and what she filled our “wishing well” with. It was bright, colorful, and most of all, INTERESTING. If you want to see photos for inspiration, send me a PM and I’ll email you a few. I think your flowers are going to be AMAZING.
Also, they can be difficult to grow, but have you thought about sweet peas? I think they blossom in the spring, and they come in a huge variety of colors. I had LOADS of them in my bouquet and in the BM’s, and they held up surprisingly well!
I lovvvve gardening, and I’m so jealous you’ll be able to grow your own flowers!
I LOVE that you are growing your own wedding flowers. That will make them even more special!
What a fantastic idea! I can’t even keep an herb garden alive (I’m on my third try in as many months right now), but my family is filled with green-thumbed people and I’ve always been jealous. Your flowers will be so special! and they really will last beyond the one day because you’ll still have the plants - every year when they bloom it’ll be a wonderful reminder… I just love it!
This is such a great idea, but you may be putting a little too much faith in mother nature. If anything weather-related strickens your flowers, they won’t bloom, & most need established first anyway. I only know this b/c I am a perennial-only planter myself. I have a tendency to kill the more fragile annuals. I too, am going for the DIY flower route (I just can’t see spending the $$ on professionally arranged that will certainly die), but I’m planning on getting mine from Sam’s Club. They offer bridal bundles or all white packages, for a GREAT bargain! I think Costco has this type of package too. Good Luck!!
[...] more: remember that I posted about growing my own bouquet? Meaningful — every time I cut flowers for a bouquet, I’ll be reminded of the day Mr. Cheese [...]
[...] Growing My Own Bouquet by Miss Cheese, Deeeeeeeep Breath….The Budget by Mrs. Pineapple, The Perfect Pair: Sparkly and Shiny in all its Glory by Miss Blush, Serendipitous Beginnings by Miss Cheese [...]
[...] out her site!), Jen was kind enough to give me advice from another southern bride (Kentucky!), tberry weighed in with her experience, and BA suggested [...]
[...] more: remember that I posted about growing my own bouquet? Meaningful — every time I cut flowers for a bouquet, I’ll be reminded of the day Mr. Cheese [...]
Hey Miss Cheese,
I’m a gardener! I’m in New Jersey and hydrangeas don’t bloom until summer. Peonies bloom early May and bareroots may not bloom the first year. You would need many roots to get a full bouquet since they take at least 1 yr to get established. Pink varieties of tulips have later blooms so they will bloom through April whereas the yellow ones are in March. I wish I had been able to tell you sooner but you can get discounted rose bushes during the late summer that will definitely bloom next year. I have tea roses and knockout roses and they bloom throughout the summer in spurts. Knockout roses bloom in abundance but do not look like garden roses so they’re not great for a bouquet. Poppies are not reliable what so ever. They are very short lived and delicate, plus they took forever to grow from seed for me this year. In general I think roses and hydrangeas are the most reliable and sturdy since you’re making your own bouquets and centerpieces. You can cut them, handle them and do what you need to do with them without worrying about them. You should also look into ranunculus. They are perennials as well and make great cut flowers.
That first group of flowers is fit for a bouquet right out of the water. I would totally carry that down the aisle with me!
[...] out her site!), Jen was kind enough to give me advice from another southern bride (Kentucky!), tberry weighed in with her experience, and BA suggested [...]
I am absolutely in love with hydrangeas and peonies! They are absolutely gorgeous! You cannot go wrong with these flowers!
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Mrs. Cheese, Knoxville
Age and Occupation: 29, Engineering Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, CAD Designer
Engagement Date: July 31, 2008
Wedding Date: May, 2009
Blogging Since: October 16, 2008
Venue: Our home and the two acres it sits on
About Me: I’m an emotional girl who loves sentimental things, parenthetical asides, and trying to do things herself. I can cook, sew, am a whiz at planning, terrible at delegating, and totally in love with my fiancé (who will be my second husband but first love of the rest of my life). For our home/ garden/ DIY wedding, we’ll be moonlighting as interior designers, home improvers, and gardeners with the help of our fabulous friends and neighbors. We can’t wait to be married, and are learning how fun getting married can be.
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