Floral Friday

Floral Friday: Nerine Lily

Nerine Hybrids

Also known as Guernsey Lily, Spider Lily, Cape Flower, Jersey Lily, Japanese Lily

*Availability- all year

*Colors- white, redish-orange, deep red and pink

This pretty little flower is native to the mountains of South Africa. The Nerine Lily has a subtle scent and is a good choice when Asiatic or Oriental lily’s are too large.

Check out this gorgeous bouquet with Nerine Lily’s and  Phaleonopsis Orchids from TheKnot.

Thanks for joining me on Floral Friday.

Warm regards,

Jeanne

Floral Friday: Craspedia

Craspedia Globosa

Also known as Globe Yarrow, Billy Balls

*Availability- all year round except for parts of March and August.

*Colors- yellow only

Craspedia belong to the daisy family and are native to Australia and New Zealand. These cute little balls are so much fun to work with. They really add a whimsical quality to arrangements.

Check out this great craspedia bouquet, how adorable! When I am blogging sometimes I find myself out in the internet world admiring so much great talent. These pictures are from a fabulous photographer in Utah named Rebekah Westover. If you are getting married in the Utah area please check her out, her photography is amazing.

I love the ball theme of this wedding, these two make balloons look cool. Great job Rebekah! You’ve got talent girl.

Thanks for joining me this Floral Friday.

Warm regards,

Jeanne

Floral Friday: Peonies

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Paeonia Lactiflora

*Availability- March, April, May and June. Sometimes seen in the fall.

*Colors- White, Pink, Red, Magenta, Burgundy, Peach, Yellow and Coral.

Ah, the sweet smell of peonies! To me they look like a GIANT rose with tons of petals, they are so incredibly feminine. Right now is the strong season for peonies (around Mother’s Day).

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photo credit- Brian Adams Photo

The peony or “Paeon” was named after the Greek god of medicine and healing. It is also the traditional floral symbol for Mongolia and China.

I don’t use peonies very often because they are SO expensive, I happen to be using them this weekend in a wedding. My bride loves peonies but to do an entire wedding of them would have blown her budget. I suggested to her that we just use them in her bridal bouquet and use cabbage roses for rest of her wedding. Cabbage roses are large and have a high petal count so they look a lot like a peony without the high price.

Thanks for joining me for Floral Friday!

Warm regards,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Floral Friday: Hyacinth

Hyacinthus Orientalis

*Availability- January, February, March, April, November and December.

*Colors- White, Blue, Lavender, Purple, Pink, Magenta, Peach and Yellow.

One of my favorite flowers is hyacinth (wait I say that for way too many flowers). The smell is intoxicating and STRONG so if you are allergic to flowers, this one would not be good for you to be around.

This is one of the many flowers I have the honor of working with in the springtime. I love to use them along with lots of other spring flowers, they make a powerful statement.

One more thing- I love to wire individual blooms and either accent a bouquet with them or make them into boutonnieres.

photo credit- Martha Stewart Weddings.com

Thanks for joining me for another Floral Friday!

Warm regards lovelies,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Floral Friday: Flowering Branches

Photo credit- Domino magazine.

Also known as Cherry, Pear and Quince.

*Availability- January, February, March, April and half of May.

*Special Care- obtain branches early because opening may take as long as 5 days.

Flowering branches are one of those flowers that have a short season. We really have to enjoy them while they are here because they are so seasonal and seem to go away so fast. I love these made two different ways- 1. all alone in a really tall vase or 2. adding them to a lush arrangement of flowers, sticking out of the arrangement slightly to give it a larger more full look.

Here they are in a vase all by themselves, so simple and so pretty.

photo credit- Martha Stewart

Happy Spring!

Warm regards my lovelies,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Floral Friday: Sweet Peas

Lathyrus Odoratus

*Availability- March, April, May, June, July and the first part of August.

*Colors- white, lavender, purple, pink and magenta

photo credit- Country Living Magazine

I love the delicate flower called sweet pea. It has a really short season and you sort of have to grab it while you can when it comes to using it for an event. When it comes to weddings, I try not to promise a flower to a bride if it has a short season as it might go away just as fast as it came. It’s not so sexy but I think it’s so important to always have a Plan B (that goes for many aspects of a wedding). What I mean by a Plan B for flowers (this only applies to flowers that have a short season or are difficult to find) is that I like to put together an “ideal” bouquet with the brides’ dream flowers. Then come up with a bouquet that will hopefully make her just as happy with flowers that give her the “look” she is wanting.

This makes me think that I should do a post dedicated to those seasonal/difficult to find flowers. I will put it on my list of things to do.

Warm regards my lovelies,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Floral Friday: Dahlia

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Dahlia Hybrids

*Also known as Georginas

*Availability- June, July, August, September, October

*Colors- white, lavender, purple, pink, magenta, red, burgundy, peach, orange, yellow, bi-color

The dahlia is a beautiful flower and has such a range in size. I have seen some as small as a golf ball and as large as a dinner plate.

picture-29I found this cutie on a great blog about gardening. This little girl reminds me of myself when I was younger but I would have been holding a rose from my mothers garden.

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Here they are in white in a yummy bouquet I did at The Royal Palms this October. I mixed them with purple hydrangea, deep plum miniature calla lilies and rhinestone-studded stephanotis.

The dahlia is named after Swedish (go Swedes) 18th century botanist Anders Dahl. They are native to Mexico, Central America and Columbia and have 36 different species.

Thanks for checkin in on my Floral Friday.

Warm regards,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Floral Friday: Bells of Ireland

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Moluccella Laevis

Also known as Shell Flowers

*Availablility- all year round

*Colors- green only

Oh the bells of Ireland, this is a favorite flower of my mother-in-law as she is married to an Irishmen. She gets so excited when she sees these and usually breaks out into some Irish song or other.

These beauties are the brightest green flower and are such a great addition to so many kinds of arrangements. I find that bright green really brings out the other colors that it is placed next to- a complimentary duo.

picture-47photo credit- http://www.shannonallenphotography.com This picture is from a wedding a did a couple of weeks ago. Stay tuned for a Real Weddings blog post on it.

Ironically Bells of Ireland are not from Ireland at all, they get their name because of their fantastic green color. They are grown for the fresh cut industry in Columbia and California.

picture-48photo credit- http://www.thebridescafe.com

These girls look so cute in their black and white dresses and all Bells of Ireland bouquets.

Thanks for stopping by.

Warm regards,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Floral Friday: Sunflower

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Helianthus Annuus

*Availability- All year round

*Colors- Yellow, Brown, Bicolor and Dyed

*Meaning- Haughtiness; Power; Adoration; Devotion

Today I thought I would talk about the super cheerful sunflower. One reason it seems appropriate to talk about the sunflower is because I live in a city where the sun never sleeps. We are almost into September and there are still plenty of days over 100˚ahead of us. By this time we Phoenicians are DONE with the heat!

Sunflowers are so bright and cheerful, check out this beautiful sunflower wedding picture-18from The Brides Cafe. I love the look of this wedding because she used only sunflowers- no filler, no other flowers. Using sunflowers alone is my favorite way to use them because they make SUCH a big statement, adding anything else can cheapen the look.

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This inspiration board came from Snippet & Ink, she does inspiration boards to perfection. Check out her website, it’s just a little bit addicting.

Warm regards,

jeanne-sig-sm-white

Floral Friday: Chinese Lantern

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Abutilon

Also known as Paper Lantern Plant, Winter Cherry, Bladder Cherry

*Availability- July, August, September, October, November and phasing out into December.

*Colors- orange only

*Meaning- enlightenment

Welcome back to my series on Floral Fridays, I thought I would jump in with a flower that I find so unique and interesting- Chinese Lanterns. My son is back in school and I thought I saw football on the tele a couple of days ago (this is my husbands’ favorite time of year). All of this makes me so excited for fall and two of my favorite holidays- Halloween and Thanksgiving.

How fantastic this flower is! Either alone or in an arrangement, they are simply a show stopper. Whenever I use them people always ask me “are those real?” They just look too unusual to be from nature. But after watching (hopefully all of you did) the Planet Earth series on television, we know that many things from nature are as beautiful and perfect as an artists painting.

Start looking for these in your local market as fall arrives. I have seen them many times at Trader Joes, buy a bunch and put them in a simple tall glass vase on your kitchen counter and wait for the comments.

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This gorgeous arrangement came from Yukiko Neibert Studio in Marin.

Thanks so much for stopping by, it’s great to be back in the swing of things.

Warm Regards,

jeanne-sig-sm-white