January Wedding at Tarraleah

September Wedding at Glen Albyn Estate

Sophie Sullivan Photography

September, and the official beginning of spring!  Its a great time for a wedding and there are certainly plenty of native flowers available to use.  This September wedding was held at Glen Albyn Estate south of Hobart.    

Glen Albyn Estate

Glen Albyn Estate is perched on the top of an escarpment with views forever.  Its a great spot.

For this wedding, leafy and wild, with pinks soft tones was the brief.    For the bride, a mix of protea varieties - white Donna, Pink Cream and Satin Mink with the black fringing.  I used thryptomene and Pimelea Nivea, both dainty white native flowers  Wattle in bud provided some lush texture, along with some Berzlia.  

I also used some blue Sea Holly, and soft pink leucadendrons called Silvan Red, which lighten in colour significantly towards the end of winter and beginning of spring.  There are also some early golden Dryandra and gumnuts added.  

The bridesmaids had less colour but plenty of the same foliage and texture plants.  

The central proteas are Protea Donna, a lovely white protea with a soft pink central mass.  I also used Leucadedron Silver Tree - I love its brilliant shine and silky feel.  

I love the mix of textures you get with natives  The zig-zag leaves of those golden Dryandra flowers, with the little Berzelia berries and the budded wattle is a great mix, with the dainty whites and Sea Holly in there too.   

For the grooms boutonniere, I used gum nuts, teamed with Sea Holly, Thryptomene and Berzelia.  The foliage used was Risdon Peppermint and the zig-zag Dryandra leaves.  

Lots of lovely bouts all in a row!

Carrying on with the leafy theme, I made 15 metres of leafy garlands to dress the tables for the reception.  

Masses of Risdon Peppermint foliage with sprigs of wattle buds interspersed, snaked along the workbench and across the floor of the flower shed.  Soooo much foliage!

More foliage for the three foliage chandeliers that hung from the ceiling.  

These look so effective, hung from the ceiling.  I added in some sprigs of twisted willow to hang down at irregular intervals.  A great way to add atmosphere to a room.

Sophie Sullivan Photography

It was a treat to be involved in this lovely couples special day, and to add a little native flower magic to the occasion.  

Fabulous Foliage

Grevillea foliage

One of my favourite things about floral design is the foliage.  I know, the flowers are the main event, and I grow them so, well, they're important!  But foliage is the "spice" of an arrangement.  It can make or break a gorgeous bunch of flowers.  Not to mention the incredible colours and textures of foliage! So I love foliage ...  I love the foraging, the discovery of a new bush or tree that has fresh new growth just begging to be picked and admired.  I love the colours - think of the purplish blues of some new eucalyptus growth, or the incredible teal blues of some of the conifers and junipers.  Rich burgundy, pale yellow, silver, soft green, dark rich green - oh the possibilities!  And I love the textures - soft and silky, feathery, wide and structured, spiky, curly, neat, unruly!  

Its the variety that appeals.  Foliage is not just "greenery".  It can be so much more.  Some of our australian natives produce some spectacular foliage.  Grevilleas often have amazing leaves, and are often on sturdy long stems.  I use grevilleas growing around my home to provide the structure for a bouquet.  I have some maroon and orange flowering hybrids the have wonderfully shaped leaves.  As a bonus, they often have a flower or two on each stem, adding more colour.  Look for leaves that have new growth that's firm, not floppy.  Pick them as long as you can, following the stem back into the bush to find where it joins onto the branch.  Put them in water soon after you pick them and they'll stay fresh for weeks.  (You'll know if you've picked too soon - the smaller leaves at the end of the stems will wilt.)

Sometimes, when foraging for foliage, you need to be selective about stems that have insect damage.  I personally don't mind a little bit of damage - I think it adds charm.  But on the whole, it's good to select the stems with the cleanest, freshest leaves.  Putting foliage in a vase or arrangement shines a spotlight on it.  It comes under more scrutiny than it would on a bush or tree.  It's easier to make the selections out in the bush and leave the damaged leaves to the insects and wildlife that clearly love it too!

Banksia Grandis

These Banksia Grandis leaves are just spectacular, aren't they!  They are quite large - around 30 cm long and 5 cm wide, and deeply zig-zagged.  There are a number of Banksias that have leaves like this, but varying in size.  Speciosa has long slender zig-zags.  Banksia Baxterii has less curled and scaled down versions of these incredible shapes.  And Banksia Brownii has long, fine zig zags.  They're incredible to use in an arrangement.

Banksia Speciosa

Even grasses can be used as foliage.  At this time of year with grasses full of summer growth and setting seed, they can be really gorgeous in an arrangement.  I love driving along country roads in summer and seeing the incredible variety of colours and textures just in the roadside grasses.  Purple, yellow, pink, white - and all manner of shapes and textures.  

I have a number of favourite foraging spots on my property.  One of them is at the top of a steep rise where you can glimpse the town, the bay and the little local islands through the incredibly tall eucalypts that have been untouched for 50 years.  In the undergrowth on the edge of the bush there are some fabulous native plants growing.  One I discovered not long after we moved here, really caught my eye.  I looked it up and found that it was actually sold as foliage for the export market!  And here it was growing wild in the bush.  It's called Pimelea Nivea.  

Pimelea Nivea

My "Plants of Tasmania" book tells me it's common name is Bushman's Bootlace.  I found out why it got this name the first time I tried to pick it.  The bark or outer coating of the stem is incredibly strong and fibrous, and when you try to snap a branch the bark won't break, instead coming off in long, seemingly unbreakable strips. Next time I used my shears!  The leaves are small and richly green and glossy.  The growth habit of the plant is long and slender, with lots of long upright branches covered in the green leaves.

Underneath, the leaves and stem are white and softly sueded.  The contrast is really charming.  Pimelea Nivea also has lovely flowers in spring and summer.  Clusters of dainty white flowers appear on the very ends of the stems.  I love using this foraged foliage whether its in flower or not.  And the adventure of picking it in the "wild" adds to my enjoyment of it!

This is a recent vase of flowers I made for my house, using entirely foraged foliage and a few of my summer pincushions.  It was such fun to combine the colours and textures of the foliage, and highlight them with the simple orange pincushions.  

I couldn't do a blog post about foliage without making a special mention of eucalyptus foliage.  Our own australian gums provide some of the world's most popular foliages.  Again, the variety of colour, texture and shape is almost dizzying.  Some eucalyptus foliage has that incredible silvery white bloom that, combined with the colour of the leaves underneath produces some spectacular colour effects.  This basket above is filled with foliage from a medium sized gum behind my house.  People often ask, "what is that flowering tree?" when they see it from a distance  The foliage is almost iridescent, glowing purple.  I'm not sure of the type gum, but I find myself coming back to it again and again for inspiration.  Silver dollar is one of the most well known eucalypts sold as foliage.  But considering we are surrounded by them, why not experiment!  Have a look in your back yard and see what you can create!

What's In the Basket

A bit different to the usual "what's in the basket" post - I had a bit of fun foraging in the bush this weekend.  Our property has a significant portion of bush which hasn't been touched since the 1960s.  There are some fabulous local plants growing in the understory and one in particular that I love to pick in season.  It's commonly called Bushman's Bootlace but has the proper name of Pimelea Nivea.  It has gorgeous little glossy deep green leaves with white 'suede' on the underside.  The stems are long and slender and the leaves are neatly arranged all along the stems.  In spring and summer, little clusters of white flowers emerge on the tips of the stems.  Great as a foliage plant and also in flower, I have used this often since I first found it growing wild on the edge of a steep wooded hill.  I went up in search of some on the weekend and come home with an entire basket of foliage ranging from the small leaves of the Bushman's Bootlace to extra large blue grey eucalyptus foliage - leaves bigger than my hand!  I found some lovely banksia foliage, she oak, ozothamnus just coming to the end of its flowering time, and some fresh Blanket Bush foliage.  Such fun!

Simple fresh foliage can be so beautiful in a vase.  I'm planning on having some fun with it in the near future!

My Week in Flowers

Yesterday, I did some flowers for a wedding at the Port Arthur Historic Site, a world heritage listed historic site - and probably Australia's most famous.  If you've never been there, its definitely worth a visit.  Beautiful, fascinating, and thought provoking.  The locals call it "the Site".  Until the 1980's, it was just part of the local township.  Many of the buildings that are now part of the site were once peoples homes.  It has a fascinating history and its a place I love.  I think it would be a fabulous spot for a wedding. 

These little pots were table decorations for the dining tables.  Simple seasonal Pink Ice Protea with lots of lovely foliage, including some Grevillea, Risdon Peppermint and Thryptomene (not yet in flower but with lovely red flower buds dotted along the stems).  There is also some foliage from Brunia Albiflora - the bright green soft furry stems, and the first of my leuco's for the season.  Red Gem are often my first to be ready.  They are a spectacular colour at this time of the year - new, bright and fresh.  Every year I forget what fabulous colours they can produce and they really took my breath away this week as I picked them.  They glow.

I did some larger arrangements too, but ran out of time to photograph!  Its been a busy week with earthmoving machinery, doctors appointments, orders and a wedding.  

Earlier in the week, as often happens with the floral industry, there was an order to remember the death of a loved one.  Flowers really do say it all!  

Hope you all have a great week ahead.

What's in the Basket

I did a spot of picking for a few small orders this week, accompanied by my cat Tabitha. Tabby has been with us since she was very young, found by a forestry worker in the bush and abandoned by her wild mother.  She has always come picking with me.  Until I had her, I didn't know that cats liked to go for walks with their significant humans!  She frolics around while I pick, and talks to me every now and then.  When I'm finished, I whistle and she comes running to go home.  Just like a dog really ...

In the basket, I have some Pink Ice Protea, a lovely Banksia Occidentalis in deep red, some (hidden) new season Red Gem Leucos which seem to be a bit late this year.  The deep pinky red at the top are a plant I've only added in the last 18 mths.  They are a lovely variegated form of Leuco called Jester - rich pinky red with a central green stripe. This is the first time I've picked them to use, and while there's not enough for a commercial crop yet, they are lovely to use in small bouquet orders.  There are also some fabulous stems of eucalyptus foliage.  I'm not sure of the variety but they are a type of peppermint I think - they certainly have a similar growth habit.  The leaves are covered with that lovely greyish blue bloom that some eucalypts have, and they smell fabulous. The insects haven't found them either so they are lovely and clean.  Fun to use in a bunch adding colour and texture.  You can also see some short stems of Brunia Albiflora I've picked in readiness for a wedding this week.  They are smaller flower heads and will be great in the table arrangements in short pots.  

The Silver Tree

At Swallows Nest Farm, we grow one of the most beautiful foliage plants of the proteaceae family.  It's commonly named the Silver Tree, but its actually a Leucadendron with the proper name of Leucadendron Argenteum.  (Just Latin for silver, really!)  It really does look spectacular at this time of year, and provides the most beautiful soft textured foliage with a silvery green colour that perfectly compliments the other proteas flowering at the same time.

The Silver Tree does actually grow to small tree proportions, but if it is picked regularly, like it is in the cut flower trade, it remains at a reachable height.  Some of our trees have been unpruned for a while and we were so excited to find that the female trees began to produce the most spectacular cones.  They begin as a soft silvery green, like the leaves, but look like they are made of metal.  When they dry, you end up with a beautifully structured cone, about the size of a tennis ball, on the end of a long stem.  They make a great statement in a vase, as a dried flower.

The bark of the Silver Tree is unusual too.  In their native South Africa, they were at one stage used as a firewood tree, because they grow quickly and burn well.  It's unusual wood - quite light, but the bark! I think it looks like elephant skin!

It's a remarkable tree, and we love growing it!