Easter Ready

If there is ever a season for arranging your own centerpieces, it is spring. You can embellish a beautiful table by gathering stems of seasonal flowers and displaying them in a pretty container. Creating a festive setting for Easter is simple when you have the pick of some of spring's most vibrant blooms, like Protea, Leucospermum, Leucadendron, Grevillea, plus lush, textural greens. Your centerpiece can act as inspiration for your table settings and other floral arrangements on display in your home.

Some of our favorite centerpiece ideas don't require you to go out and buy a new container — utilizing a galvanized bucket, clear glass vase, moss filled basket or even a colorful flower box will help you create an eye-catching arrangement. Spring centerpieces call for fabulous blooms, which means you can feel good about using simple elements to style your seasonal centerpiece including moss, branches, and just about any other flowers and foliage you can forage from your garden.

Winter Gatherings

Have you ever watched a chef peruse his vegetable garden, getting excited while scrutinizing the fresh herbs and veggies that will later be used to create a fabulous meal? That's me with flowers. I'm most in my realm when I'm surrounded by seasonal blooms and foliage, visualizing the array of bouquets and arrangements I could create. Usually, I start by considering things like color, texture, shape and size when I’m picking flowers, and I never know what I’ll end up with until I’m finished!

In the case of this arrangement, I was immediately drawn to the vibrant winter colors of the Leucadendron contrasted with the sweet pink hues of the Protea and Grevillea. Since the Banksia Candles and Grevillea flowers were similar in texture, I added a few stems of Protea nitida to create a unique, exotic feel. Nitida also brings a new shape to the mix without veering to far from my chosen palette. Finally, the Banksia’s piney, green foliage complements both the Protea and Leucadendron’s texture injecting an organic looseness to the design. I'm enchanted with how it turned out, and even more importantly I had a wonderful time gathering the flowers and creating it!

Flower News: November’s Stories of Interest from Around the World

5 Ways to Make Your Wedding Flowers More Sustainable

We’re pumped to see businesses and couples alike becoming more conscious of the environmental impact of weddings, and floristry is one area where this has become a real priority. And before you start picturing foraged posies and native-everything (not those things aren’t awesome) let us assure you that sustainable practices can still mean high end floral design.

Read more here.
_____________________________________________________________

An Autumnal Boho Wedding with Rust Bridesmaids Dresses, Spicy Fall Florals, and Copper Details

There’s something about Fall color that is just truly magical. Burnished yellows, spicy rust tones, pumpkin orange and coffee really bring the warm and cozies to a wedding day! When Chels and Danté began planning their lavish Fall wedding at Giracci Vineyards, they knew they wanted every detail to represent them. Based on their vibrant and fun personalities, we’d say their color palette choices were spot on!! With the help of Weddings by Cortney Helaine, they planned a boho fête that was full of lush fall florals, macramé decor, copper details and the cutest rust bridesmaids dresses!

Read more here.
_____________________________________________________________

How to Dry Protea

Dried flowers add long-lasting beauty to any decor and can be made into keepsakes for weddings, anniversaries or birthdays. Drying your own flowers at home saves money and allows you to preserve flowers from your garden that otherwise would wither and die. Protea is a large, exotic flower available in many vibrant shades, such as dark pink, blood red, bright yellow and caramel. Once dried, the colors will fade over time, leaving behind tan flowers which look gorgeous in wreaths or bouquets.

Read more here.
_____________________________________________________________

Relieving Stress During the Holidays

While a wonderful season, the holidays can sometimes bring on as much stress as joy. From shopping, to organizing the guest lists, to putting up the decorations, our growing to-do list can add to our feelings of overwhelm and worry about how we are going to get everything done. According to a recent poll, 68 percent of people feel stress on a weekly basis, and 32 percent experience stress daily.

It’s important in these hectic times to step back, breathe, and take opportunities to have a moment of calm, so we can enjoy the holiday festivities, rather than stress over them.

Read more here.

Country Blooms

The word ‘Country’ means different things to different people. For some, it is a place. To others, it is a state of mind. For flower farmers like us, it means a little of both. Flowers that look as if they’d been freshly picked from the field or garden are reminders of a special time or place, even if it’s simply a place you remember from a trip out of town. For my design, I mixed a few different Proteaceae, including Leucadendron, Leucospermum, Grevillea, Isopogon and even some twigs from my garden.

A container such as a watering can is a cherished emblem of the 'country style', a way of decorating that is cozy and informal and easy to live with. Another might be a milk churn or perhaps, a small wine barrel. So, why not forage a bit around your yard or garden and bring the spirit of the country indoors? It’s a great way to celebrate spring.

Leucospermum Cornocarpadendron

Leucospermum High Gold

Leucadendron Discolor Cream

Leucadendron Pisa

Leucadendron Galpinii

Grevillea Flowers – Moonlight

Grevillea Ivanhoe

Isopogon Yellow

Fennel Flower

Mulberries

Spring Outing: In the Field with Taylor Morgan

On warm, sunny days we love heading up into the hills to share the beauty of flower farming with friends and acquaintances. For the ultimate April excursion, we teamed up with Taylor Morgan from Garden Collage, to forage through the fields in search of ingredients for an incredible spring bouquet.

Taylor writes for Garden Collage a new type of lifestyle gardening publication whose mission is to bring back the garden into peoples’ lives and inspire readers to incorporate a new, dynamic concept of “gardening” based on a collage of perspectives from a global community of gardeners. And, since we have a pretty amazing garden here in Rainbow we thought she’d enjoy a little of our perspective!

The perfect ingredients for our kind of spring bouquet – Enjoy!