October is a brilliant month for native flowers. A bride is spoilt for choice! Last October I was privileged to be able to provide flowers for a wedding at MONA in Hobart. The bride and groom were from Sydney so NSW Waratah's were a perfect choice. My Telopea Speciosissima hybrids were just bursting with colour.
The bride was wearing gold, so the red was really a standout colour. I added Dryandra Formosa flowers to tie in the gold. They are at their height in early to mid spring.
The Dryandra leaves also add a lovely textural quality to the bouquet. They have a fine, zig-zag shape and fall at nice angles.
For the flower girl's bouquet, I chose some smaller waratahs to keep the size and weight manageable. The bright pink is added by Boronia which not only creates a burst of colour, but smells divine, making it a pleasure to handle. I used Leucadendron Lemon Spice, a selection of the female Leucadendron Discolour. In spring its colour is spectacular, changing from a sage green to a gorgeous creamy ivory with a pink blush.
Another ingredient I loved using for this wedding was some fresh green eucalyptus pods, immature and not ready to flower until summer. In their immature state, they are bright green, and the textural quality adds another layer of interest to a bouquet bursting with spring goodness.
In early October, the Berzelia or Button Bush is just ready to begin picking. The "buttons" are green and they add another fresh textural layer to the spring native bouquet.
One of the things I loved about this wedding was that the bride was particular about the boutonnieres. The groom wanted white. For the Fathers, I was given pictures of the suits and ties they were wearing, so I could create something that worked well. It was a great way to work.
White was a little tricky with so much colour available! I used both wax flower and thryptomene (another duo that are fabulously perfumed) teamed with Berzelia and an immature Leucadendron Silver Tree cone.
The Silver Tree cone really glows.
For the Fathers' boutonnieres, I used small waratahs. I usually cull these smaller flowers, pruning them off the bushes and leaving them. They are pretty but too small and often at odd angles so no good for selling wholesale. I decided that they were perfect button holes for this spring wedding though - like a scaled down version of the main bouquet flowers. I like the way the red bracts surrounding the flower sit at interesting angles.
For the other boutonnieres, I used Dryandra. These Australian Natives have a strong almost citrusy smell that can be a bit overpowering when they are first picked so I pick them a week early and sit them in the cold room till it fades a little. They are teamed up with Lipstick Boronia and wax flower.
Such a joyous combination of spring goodness!
Natives are a vibrant and memorable choice for a spring wedding.
