Mid August Wedding Flowers and Planning.

8 years ago

New to this forum, but have been on GW since about 2011. Mostly in the bathroom, laundry, and kitchen forums. Glad to find this forum about Iowa gardening. My next few years are devoted to getting the outside of my yard organized and growing. I live on a family farm in central Iowa, north of DM. But now those plans of major yard work are scaled back this year because I am planning on doing all the flowers at my daughters wedding in mid August.

DD will have a rustic woodland prairie theme wedding. We will be at the Iowa Arboretum so the only flowers I will be responsible for are the center piece flowers. I have access to at least 1 small 5 acre prairie on our farm and several friends have prairies, one quite large. I am interested in having mostly flowers and a few grasses. From what I know about prairies is that the flowers will diminish and be over taken by grasses, unless burned, or grazed. Our prairie hasn't had either for 4 or 5 years, and its CRP ground so can't be grazed.

I am thinking of planting seeds in the basement under some lights. This will ensure that I have some flowers that are available when the prairie might be lacking. Her colors are purple and blue and ivory/light gold.

I have grown seeds of purple cone flowers, blanket flower, blackeyed susans with some luck, years ago. I need something that will bloom in August and this year. I am willing to plant other annuals other than natives too.

Any thoughts about my project will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading my plea :)

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Comments (2)

OldDutch (Zone 4 MN)
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Liatris makes very nice vertical accents, available in both white and blue. Oriental lilies and Stargazers are also attractive. Also echinaceas and balloon flowers. See also - your local florist shop, you may find that they can supply you in some sort of bulk at reasonable expense as well as having the flowers you want available exactly when you need them. Some of the larger super market flower stands will also do special orders. BTW the miniature orchids and African violets can be gorgeous with a significant color selection and then can be kept either for yourself or as momentos. Zinnias are often nice and should be in full bloom and maybe snapdragons as well.

Timing and selection will be a big issue and may be impossible to manage if you are growing your own.
enduring
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you so much! I have considered liatris and echinacea, because they might be blooming in our prairie, or our neighbors prairies, I have 3 prairies to choose from. My one neighbor has a huge patch of echinacea and said I could pick some from there too. But I don't want to ruin his patch.

I like the idea of filling in with items from the local florist and supermarkets. African violet plans are a great idea too.

I also plan to get out to the prairies periodically and pick interesting things throughout the summer and press the items and use as a flat layer on the table under the more vertical layer of vases/candle containers. I can use candles but they need to be in a container. I thought there could be some interesting leaf shapes and grasses.

The horticulturalist at the arboretum gave me some seed packets of bachelor buttons, prairie mix that includes liatris and echinacea, several different native asters, and something else I cant think of off hand, but not native.

I thought about making moss features too. I'm told by the horticulturalist that I can find some moss hiding around on our farm and at the base of white oaks. He said I can just go out and get it (have to remove a little snow) and prep it as directed and get it going. He said to use distilled or well water to mist it, because the chlorine and chlorine extenders that are in municipal water supplies will kill it.

Again thanks Old Dutch for you excellent suggestions.
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Hi bobzitt, I see you just joined GardenWeb just today. Welcome to the party. I guess if you have that hailstorm that Ken mentioned, you could consider that as "a sign" and call the wedding off. Just kidding. If you consider a variety of seed sources, there are some ornamental peppers that are bright red and some that are almost black, like the variety Black Pearl, which has very dark foliage and peppers. The "white ones" like the undeveloped Prairie Fires, might be a little "iffy". They would be in your container category, and not cut flowers. For cutflowers, you might consider celosia, or cockscombs. They have some good reds in a variety of forms and sizes. Once again, their "whites" are pretty lame. On the red and white zinnias, their colors can be good, including the whites, and they could have varieties that are good cut flowers and smaller varieties that could be considered for containers. You might want to try more than one variety of red zinnia and white zinnia, and include the varieties that are bred specifically to be cut flowers, like Benary's Giants and Oklahoma. I have never raised sunflowers for cutflowers (I have raised some for edible seed), but Johnny's Selected Seeds has some cutflower sunflowers that might interest you. The ProCut Red is red after a fashion, and the ProCut Red/Lemon Bicolor has an almost red-black and white look. There are no truly black sunflowers, but the Chocolate variety and the Moulin Rouge variety are pretty dark. I am not connected with Johnny's, except as a satisfied customer, but I recommend you get the Johnny's catalog and/or browse the website for cutflower ideas. Johnny's caters to cutflower growers and market gardeners, as well as home gardeners. Scabiosa Black Knight is almost black. There used to be a zinnia called Black Ruby that was almost black, but it has been unavailable for many decades. I keep hoping to find that color in my zinnia breeding hobby, but so far, no luck. ZM
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You will need annuals of course rather than perennials and the red color choice limits you some but then you already know that. Still I would also post this over on the Annuals forum here for more suggestions since that is the focus of that forum. There are several past discussions there on specific color recommendations. My suggestions would be reds: Century Fire Celosia (start indoors now, seeds will germinate in ten days at 70 degrees), Scarlet Sage Salvia (somewhat difficult and slow to germinate so start ASAP and they need light to germinate 12 to 15 days at 70 degrees to 75 degrees), and Aztec Red Verbena (easy to germinate indoors at 75 degrees). And of course there are always the common red geraniums. Hope this helps and good luck with all the wedding plans. Dave PS: just me but I'd toss in a few black flowers spots too just for contrast. :)
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Mid August Wedding Flowers and Planning.

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OldDutch (Zone 4 MN)

enduring
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Mid August Wedding Flowers and Planning.

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OldDutch (Zone 4 MN)

enduringOriginal Author

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enduring
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