May in the Garden
May’s weather has certainly been mixed this year but our glorious rhododendrons have certainly not disappointed us with their grand display of colour. From mid-May they have been blooming in various shades of colour from pure white and delicate pinks through to bright and jazzy purples, reds and hot pinks.
May is such a wonderful month in the garden with all our deciduous trees coming into full leaf, the shades of fresh greens look wonderful with all the colour provided by the bluebells, lilacs, alliums, azaleas and of course the rhododendrons. It has also been a very busy month for us showing lots of couples around our venue and gardens and discussing their wedding plans. Our beautiful court-yard marquee has also been fitted this month and is now ready for couples to view and we are busy adding the finishing touches to this ready for our first wedding this August.
Flowers for Weddings in May
For this months look at British flowers to use for weddings in May and together with our florist Penny of Crown House Flowers we decided on a bright and colourful theme taking inspiration from all the bright colours which are currently on display in our gardens.
Penny created a wonderful vase of flowers using bright pink and orange rananculas, fragrant dark purple lilac, lavender blue nepeta, and the wonderful purple sensation alliums with their rich purple globed shaped flowers. Foliage was provided by the greyish white felted leaves of lambs ears and large hosta leaves were used to wrap around the inside of the vase.
Penny also created a wrist corsage using a bright orange ranancula flower and an elegant acid green viburnum flower which were finished with a small spray of orangey-red broom and delicate purple tinted briza grass flowers. Finally, and continuing with using rananculas as our focus flower, Penny also made a fabulous boutonnière with a rich dark pink shade of ranancula which was offset with sprays of nepeta, yew and ivy leaves.
This month we also welcomed guests for our Wedding Flowers Workshop where attendees were expertly guided through making hand-tied bouquets, buttonholes and corsages. The workshop also included a tour of our gardens by Penny where attendees were able to cut some foliage for their own designs and pick-up lots of tips and guidance on flowers and foliage they could use at home and maybe already grow in their gardens. Our next Wedding Flowers Workshop will be on Friday 11th September 2015 – please see our Workshops page for more information.
Finally, and with June just around the corner we are delighted to be supporting British Flower Week which runs from 15th to 19th June 2015. As a warm-up we will be holding a Fresh Floral Arrangements Workshop on Friday 12th June 2015 where Penny will be guiding participants through how to prepare and arrange a stunning vase of flowers using seasonal flowers and foliage. Further details on this course can again be found on our Workshops page.