June Recipe

Texture and a whiter shade of pale for a Bridal Bouquet. An ingredients list with growing, cutting & conditioning Method.

June

A Bridal Bouquet & Boutonnière

All the textures and subtle shades for a garden grown bridal bouquet with a pretty pink boutonniere.

Skill - Advanced

Grow to Arrange Time - A year +

Vase Life - Prepared for the event day

Ingredients

Bridal Bouquet

• White Foxglove

• Gladiolus ‘The Bride’

• White & Pale Pink Roses

• Sweet Pea tendrils

• Lonicera albiflora (White Honeysuckle)

• White Sweet Rocket

• White Astilbe

• Ammi Majus

• Ground Elder Flowers

• White nigella

• Briza maxima

Boutonnière

• Aquilegia

• Ranunulcus

• Heuchera

• Honesty seed pods

• Sweet William

• Dianthus flower bud

• Wild meadow grass

Growing Methods & Conditioning

These are quintessential garden gathered arrangements. You can make very similar collections from a mature well stocked garden. Look at your plants at all different stages of maturity during the year, from buds to blooming open and to seed.

1. Shrubs & Climbers - Planted years before, honeysuckle and roses will get better and better after the first couple seasons; grow in full sun with a rich moist but free draining soil. I cut as they are opening. Sear the roses for 30 seconds and plunge into cold water. I cut them as buds for boutonnieres and larger flowers for bouquets. The latter adding scent. If in doubt, cut when the green sepals around the bud have just come away, and they'll open in the vase. An earlier, they may not open. A mature branch of a honeysuckle’s last years growth will hold well out once conditioned. Cut long branches and settle in deep cool water. Shorter stems of flowers can be cut off and used in boutonnieres.

2. Perennials - Astilbe, aquilegia, heuchera and dianthus are all grown from seed, a few years before an allowed to bulk up. Astilbe likes it wetter than my free draining sandy soil will allow, so better in a shady pot with the most of the drainage holes blocked up. I use the flowers in all stages; aquilegia being lovely in flower and seed, especially for boutonnieres where they can be appreciated up close. No special treatment, just cut and condition the day before. Heuchera leaves are usually two toned and really work well as a leaf backdrop for boutonnieres; from spring to autumn, I rarely make them without at least one of these leaves. Gather several varieties and grow in part shade / sun as a border edge. They bulk up well. Cut these the day before and sit in jam jars of water to condition