You could do zinnias. There are a lot of colour options, you might be able to find snapdragons in that shade. Some carnations are very dark as well.

Calla lily comes in various shades of purples from light to dark and is really lovely and easy to grow. You could have them still glowing in pots or use as cut flowers. Especially like the hyacinth bean thought as it's not only the right color, but the vine is equally as beautiful. Not sure of the climate difference, but in the home of the Kentucky Derby, HB have been in full bloom for several weeks. You could do pots of lavendar lantana and move around where needed ~ just be sure you buy a mounded variety as they are not only beautifully full as well as the green/purple family, but are so easy to do. I grow tons of blue salvia every summer, but there must be a 'purple' version of this. Good luck with your plans. My daughter's wedding is in 4 weeks and I'm doing all the flowers in white/ivory/cream with hints of jewel toned green, blue and purple. Hope this helps ! annie

I was looking into zinnias but I can't seem to find a good purple.

I did see some nice calla lilies but you don't seem to get as much bang for your buck when buying those bulbs as opposed to other seeds. Having never grown them before I'm not sure how many flower stems one bulb would put up but each bulb seems to run around $3. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places?

Here is what I have so far:

Lisianthus (I will do I dry run now so I can time it out)
Matsumoto Asters
Scabiosa "Black Knight"
Snapdragons
Salpiglossis
Trachelium
Statice
Sunflower "Chocolate"
Cerinthe (in pots because it is so cool!)
Datura (for pots on the tables)

What do you think? Anyone have tips/suggestions or think it's a bad idea to try any of these. Come to think of it the Scabiosa might be blooming too early for a July wedding.

Question. Are you planning on buying seeds and germinating all these flowers? Or are you going to try to find plants to transplant to your garden? If you are planting seeds you will need to start your Lisianthus at the end of January to bloom by mid July. Plus, it is difficult to germinate and grow early on. Callas would actually be a good choice because you get many blooms per "bulb" and last for weeks in bloom. You are going to have to be real flexible on your colors. Not many flowers come in plum purple. For green, you could use envy zinnias.

Yes I am planning on germinating them myself. I did try lisianthus this past winter/spring and it germinated fine but I began to neglect it so it died. I didn't realize that it wouldn't do much of anything for a couple of months .
I'll have to look into calla lilies then since they are more productive than I thought. I have no problem being flexible since I love pretty much all flowers. I probably won't go with zinnias though. I'm just not a huge fan :-\

Too bad you are not a fan, because my first thought was also zinnias! In particular Envy for the green.

My one thought/question to you is, can you really take this on? Weddings can be stressful with all the planning and family, etc., and if you have a bad season or bloom times are off, you may be searching for last-minute flowers!

Speaking of bloom times, things are so off this year I'm afraid to suggest anything! I've got stuff in bloom for the past two weeks that don't usually bloom till the end of September or so.

Otherwise your list sounds like a good start. I think though that sunflower Chocolate is more of a brown than a plum...?

And look into dahlias. Lots of nice purples, but look closely at bloom times. Some may bloom too late for you. And how about gladiolus? Maybe not for a bouquet but for other uses?

Best of luck! And congratulations!

:)
Dee

P.S. Oh, also look into amaranthus. There are some nice green ones (emerald tassels comes to mind) and some of the burgundy-ish ones may work as fillers for you.

Yes, I am worried about the time involved in raising and arranging these myself (and of course with family!). I've decided that my back up plan for weather problems will be to order some flowers online from fiftyflowers and then use whatever we can salvage from the beds. I'm not too picky on type or color I just want real ones! We also have a relative that owns a floral shop in town so if things really go south we can ask her for assistance.

It was really hard to tell from the picture if it was a brown, burgundy or deep purple. Maybe Moulin Rouge would be better? Do you know of any burgundy/purplish sunflowers?

I did see some very nice dahlias but for some reason we have a terrible time growing them! I don't think my mom has tried for 5 years or so now because the bugs would just eat them up. I forgot about gladiolus. They would work for table arrangements or whatever I can think of. They are so stately!

Hmm, I've never done amaranthus. I'll have to check that out.

Thanks! Keri

Are you (or anyone you know) a member of Sams Club? You should go on their web site and look at bulk flowers. Cheaper than fiftyflowers and very good quality in my experience.

Hi Keri
A suggestion would be to see if there are any specialty cut flower growers near you that you could purchase the flowers from or have them custom grown for you. Could save alot of time and headaches. Here's a link to the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers web-site that lists growers in your State.
Cheers Kim
Billabong Fresh Flower Farm

Here is a link that might be useful: Cut Flower Growers in Iowa

Hi,

I don't really have any suggestions other than talking to cut flower growers in your area to find out directly which flowers should be in bloom then. However, I wouldn't use Datura on my table--it is quite a big plant, very poisonous, and not too many flowers per plant.

I'm thinking Salvias might be a good choice for you. Here's a link to Stokes Seeds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Salvia purple sizzler