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.

 

Flowers for Weddings in April

April  has brought us some glorious sunny days and our beautiful gardens are certainly bursting into life now!  This month and together with our florist Penny, from Crown House Flowers, we were spoilt for choice when deciding on which flowers and foliage to use for our April wedding flowers arrangements.

The daffodils have put on a fantastic show this year and the delicate shades of pinks and white blossom on lots of trees is such a lovely sight.  As you walk through our gardens at this time of year you can also enjoy the wonderful scents from lots of flowers, including narcissus, hyacinths, osmanthus and, of course, the wonderful magnolias.

For our April wedding flowers we decided, in the end, on using the fabulously scented narcissus, plum and green shades of elegant hellebores flowers, white blossom and the delicate white star shaped flowers found on amelanciers.  For foliage we used sprays of broom and cotoneaster all of which we grow in our gardens.  Penny created two bridal bouquets, the first was a loose asymmetrical hand-tied arrangement containing the creamy-white clusters of the aptly named Bridal Crown narcissus and single and double flowering green and plum hellebores.  The second bouquet was a simple arrangement of Obdam narcissus which has large double blooms of cream and soft yellow and both bouquets were finished with long flowing ribbons – stunning!

Penny also used a hanging crown decorated with hellebores and rustic hanging jars filled with more hellebores, bridal crown narcissus and sprays of osmanthus, a very fragrant white flowering shrub, to decorate branches of our Lawson Cypress tree.   These arrangements would be perfect for any wedding in April and were all made using seasonal British grown flowers from our gardens at Swanton Morley House.

If you are interested in learning more about floristry using British grown flowers please have a look at our flower workshops or contact us for more details.

 

We are delighted to have received our Wedding Licence and are now an approved venue for marriage and civil partnership ceremonies!

We have already been showing lots of couples around our venue and our wonderful gardens and are very much looking forward to our first wedding in August this year.  If you are planning a wedding for 2016 or 2017, we would be delighted to show you around and discuss your wedding plans too so please do get in touch.

We also still have availability for 2015 so please do not hesitate to get in touch if you are looking for a wedding venue for this year.

Flower Workshops

We were delighted to welcome our guests to our recent Spring Flowers Design workshop which we held earlier this month.

Penny, from Crown House Flowers guided participants through making an elegant Spring Flowers Design with lots of floristry tips along the way.  It was then over to our guests to work on their own designs, with Penny’s assistance, using tulips, larkspur, roses, viburnum and blossom branches.  Everybody made a beautiful arrangement which was perfect for Mothers day or could be used as a wonderful table arrangement.

Some kind words from some of our attendees…

“I have just come back from the most gorgeous morning at a flower workshop at Swanton Morley House and I had to share a photo of my finished creation (now sitting in pride of place in my mum’s hall).  I am usually a “bung the flowers in a vase and hope for the best” kind of girl, so this was a revelation.”

“Thank you both so much for such an inspiring teacher and setting!     I so enjoyed both – and am just amazed at what I brought home!”

“Thanks Caroline and Penny, I really enjoyed this morning, great atmosphere with everyone, great fun and great cake Caroline, looking forward
to the wedding workshop in May.”

Our next workshop on Wedding Flowers on Friday 22 May 2015 is filling up fast so please do get in touch asap if you are interested in joining this workshop which will cover beautiful table centres, hand-tied bouquets and gorgeous button holes.  We also have a Fresh Floral arrangement workshop coming up on Friday 12th June where participants will be able to learn how to create a stunning vase of flowers.  May and June are also wonderful months to see our gardens with the rhododendrons and azaleas in full bloom and also with our flower cutting garden stocked with many different annuals, these courses will be a floral treat!

 

Flowers for Weddings in March

This month’s look at flowers for a March wedding was extra special as together with Penny from Crown House Flowers we styled and dressed our elegant ceremony room.

Taking inspiration from the beautiful white camellias which continue to bloom in our gardens, we decided on a fresh green and white theme.  Large urns were filled with viburnum opulus with its stunning acid green pompom flower heads and the more delicate viburnum tinus.  We also used ferns, silver eucalyptus, white blossom branches, and white broom for contrasting foliage but the large soft white camellia flowers took centre stage in the large arrangements and the garlands which decorated the oak beams.

The windows sills were decorated with arrangements set within large ceramic candlestick holders and continued the same floral theme.  These arrangements also contained green dogwood stems, white ranunculas and green lisianthus and were surrounded by silver tea lights.  Finally, the aisle chairs were decorated with hand-tied arrangements and fresh green ribbons to finish this simple but stylish look.

Our thanks to Penny for all these beautiful arrangements and also to Norfolk China Hire for providing the chairs for our ceremony room.

 

 

 

 

Flowers for Weddings in February

It’s the last day of the month of February and as we get towards the end of Winter and the days get longer, it’s lovely to see our gardens welcoming in the Spring. The snowdrops, aconites, hellebores and camellias are still going strong but are now joined by dwarf irises, crocuses and even the first daffodils are now in flower. With stunning foliage provided by pink and white viburnums, rosemary, eucalyptus and christmas box there are plenty of flowers and foliage with colour and wonderful scents available for wedding flowers in February.

This month, our florist Penny has used the foliage from our gardens plus hyacinths and dwarf tete-a-tete daffodils, which have been grown inside, to create these elegant button holes.  The scent of the hyacinth is wonderful, whilst the use of a rosette of spurge (euphorbia myrsinites) gives a lovely texture to the arrangement.  But our favourite is the cheerful  buttonhole made using tete-a-tete, wild green hellebore, ivy and silver birch – a lovely reminder that Spring is just around the corner…!

 

Our next flower workshop is coming up on Saturday 14th March 2015 and we are delighted to welcome back Penny from Crown House Flowers who will be guiding participants on how to make a beautiful Spring flower arrangement which will be perfect for Mothers Day or any special occasion. Gift vouchers for our workshops are also available and these would also make a wonderful Mothers Day Gift!

For further details please see our workshops page.

 

Flowers for Weddings in January

It might be cold but this does not stop our gardens being full of beautiful flowers and foliage. This month we have picked camellias, snowdrops, hellebores and viburnum to name just a few and then it was over to Penny at Crown House Flowers who has created these stunning buttonholes and a very elegant flower girl wand. The snow white flowers and dark glossy foliage are perfect for a winter wedding. Each month we will look at seasonal British flowers with ideas for wedding floristry and if you are interested in having a go at flower arranging yourself have a look at our workshop page for details of our upcoming flower workshops.