What Do You Know About Baby’s Breath?

Are you searching for the perfect flower and getting ready for your next planned event or wedding? Sometimes there is no right or wrong flower but a matter preference as to what fits your needs or what fits your personality. The 101 series is a series of articles helping to educate everyone with the contrasts of various flowers. You may want to read the others in this series as well as many other helpful articles.

There are four things to know about Baby’s Breath:

1.    Baby’s breath is a species of Gypsophilia that originated in the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. Many tiny flowers are produced on branched stems giving a delicate, lacy, snowflake appearance.

2.    Baby’s breath is available in either pink or white varieties, which you can also get tinted. Re-cutting stems will encourage full blooming. Make sure to keep it away from all external sources of ethylene, such as fruit, carbon monoxide and decaying plant material.

3.    Gypsophilia is primarily used as a filler flower to accent greens and fill voids between flowers. Using Gypsophilia in bouquets and arrangements creates more depth and dimension. Gypsophilia is very popular in Victorian style arrangements and wedding flowers.

Here are some other helpful facts about Baby’s Breath:

Names:  Baby's Breath, Gypsophila, Gyp

Varieties:  Gypsophila

Colors:  White.  Pink is available, but uncommon

Scent:  A sweet, distinct smell that is only associated with this flower, giving it its name.

Freshness:  Yes, very sensitive

Vase Life:  5 to 7 days.

Availability:  Year Round

Costs:  Inexpensive

Meaning:  Baby’s Breath got its name from its smell.

Arranging Tip:  Baby's Breath is a very popular (and sometimes overused) filler flower.  Small clusters of blossoms also work well in wedding and corsage design.

Growing Tip:  Gypsophila comes from the Greek for "gypsum-loving" in reference to the plants favoring of high calcium soils.

Here are some varieties we have available:

-       White
-       Yellow
-       Blue
-       Green
-       Pink
-       Red with Dark Pink Cast
-       Orange
-       Assorted

7 Ways to Use Rose Petals during Your Wedding

Rose petals are the classical wedding compliment. They’re absolutely vibrant and beautiful—soft and so alive. The rose has always been the universal representation of love. Here are some creative ways to incorporate organic, eco-friendly rose petals into your wedding decorations. Here are seven creative ways to use rose petals in your wedding plans.

1.   Showering them down the aisle – Nothing looks more like a dreamy fairy tale than to have a rose petal-covered aisle. From the moment the bride walks down the aisle till the transition of parent to husband, rose petals cushion their steps. Nothing pictures a commitment of love more beautifully.

2.   Surrounding the stage area – Arranging your rose petals around the stage area is a romantic way of exchanging vows. Use different colors from the assorted freeze dried selection to create a unique pattern that symbolizes the kind of love you two share.

3.   Sprinkling on tables and centerpieces – By adding some lavender rose petals to your table and sprinkling some around the base of your centerpieces, you can create a scene from a royal wedding. Rose petals look good on guest sign in tables too.

4.   Scattering on the couple after they say, I do – Get your photographer ready then have your guests have paper cups filled with pink and white rose petals. Create a beautiful shower of nature’s rose petals and enjoy the refreshing display.

5.   Smothering your wedding cake – Next to the bride, the wedding cake is the most visual part of the wedding. Peach rose petals cascading around it, creating a beautiful pattern will make your cake come alive.

6.   Sanctifying the props for photographs – Add some spice to your photographs by filling the ground with orange and yellow rose petals, creating a soft bed of curling petals, looking like fresh, fallen leaves.

7.   Sensualize the hotel room – There isn’t a better way to top of your day of love with the perfect decoration of red rose petals. Top it off with beautiful black magic roses in the center.

Create a more visual wedding with rose petals. Hopefully this gives you seven great ideas on how to use them in your wedding. Good luck with your wedding and planned event.

Finding the Right Tulips – Top 7 Favorites

Still searching for the perfect wedding flowers? Have you considered going with Tulips? Traditionally, tulips were popular, particularly in most of Europe and Holland. During the 17th century people were going crazy for them, popularly known as the Tulipomania.

Tulips are very popular in the springtime, and the third most popular flower next to the rose and chrysanthemum. If you are considering tulips it is good to be reminded of their incredible variety of colors, heights, and shapes. You also may want to consider their fresh fragrance, cheering up any celebration or festive occasion.

 

 As usual, I took some time to study the most popular kinds of tulips and I came up with my Top 7 list of favorite tulips for weddings. Please browse through these most popular choices and see if you can find the right tulips for you.

1.            White Tulips – White is a symbol of purity, humility. I chose this tulip first because it seems to convey the traditional image of any marriage. When this variety is displayed, there seems to be an aura of honor resounding from wall to wall, from floor to ceiling. Enjoy the rich spender of their white beauty.

2.            RedTulips - Red is a universal symbol of love and romance. If you decide to go with red alone, or combine with the purity of white, nothing but love it what is felt from this variety. Whenever I picture a bride and groom holding hands at the altar, I picture red flowers in the background.

3.            Purple Tulips – Purple has always been a symbol of royalty. During biblical times, every king or someone of great wealth was adorned in purple. It was one of the most profitable colors of fabric sold in New Testament times.  As a wedding flower, I can imagine a royal princess surrounded by the love of her charming prince. You could even mix, red, white, and purple tulips.

4.            Pink Tulips – Pink is also a color of love, but it is a bit quieter and says, I will never forget you.” Pink, red, white, and purple blend naturally together, but pink says it without words. Besides red, pink is a universal color of love and will fill any wedding attendance with love.

5.            Yellow Tulips - Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. This variety of tulip will bring to life any wedding. Tulips are a spring flower and seem to portray the marriage of a young couple in the springtime of their lives. Yellow and orange make a nice compliment to each other.

6.            Orange Tulips – Orange combines the happiness of yellow and the romance of red, displaying natural sunshine to all who partake of their beauty. Orange will make your wedding and reception feel warm, loved, and inviting.

7.            Assorted Tulips – Technically, assorted is not a color, but after studying the different colors of tulips, you may want to display some of each.

Tulips are rather affordable, around $1.50 a stem. If you want to go a little fancier, French Tulips are a bit more but have longer stems and larger heads. Flowers are an amazing gift from nature to represent the love you want to honor. Once again, I hope this list is helpful. Please look at our website and choose from over hundreds of varieties of flowers. Good luck on your wedding or next planned event!

4 Ideas in Making Single-Stem Bouquets for Your Wedding

A quick, simple, and inexpensive DIY project for you or your bridesmaids’ florals is to create single-stem flowers to use in place of bouquets, or fashioning a simple ribbon wrap to cluster informal bunches of flowers for a more casual wedding.

Single-stem and bunch bouquets, by virtue of being easy to create, are also great budget-friendly choices, as there is very little labor involved. The ultra detailed Biedermeier bouquet, which can take hours and hundreds of tiny flowers to affix in painstaking concentric circles, using both glue and pins. With this style of bouquet, you have just three easy steps.

Your bouquet choice always coordinates with the formality of your wedding and the design of your dress, so these styles offer the simplest class of effort for both formal and informal weddings. For instance, a single-stemmed calla lily works for a formal wedding, while a single-stemmed Gerber daisy suits an informal wedding. Your choice of ribbon must also work with the style and formality of your day, so look at lovely satin ribbon, some containing tiny pearl edges, for your more formal event, lace ribbon for your romantic Victorian garden wedding, or bright satin ribbon to match the color of daisy for your casual backyard wedding. In the informal realm, brides are choosing striped ribbon, plaids, and even ribbons with funky circles or color blocks to add a punch of creativity to their self-made designs.

The type of ribbon you use to create your single-stem or bunch bows and ties can also be used as coordinating décor for other parts of your wedding day, such as fabric placeholder in your guest book or the ribbon you use in your DIY favors, and even the ribbon you use in your flower girls’ hair.

1.    Using Single-Stem Roses

•    Choose a rose with a head that’s about to bloom for best appearance on your wedding day.
•    Choose a rose with a straight stem, strip it of leaves and thorns, and cut the stem to a length of 12 to 14 inches.
•    Ribbons wrap either the entire stem or simply tie a bow. Store your ribbon-bow-only single-stem flowers in a vase of water until it’s time to walk down the aisle.

2.    Using Single-Stem Callas

•    Gather the stems, perhaps moving the green leaves to the top of the collection, nearest the blooms.
•    Wrap the stem and leaves in place with floral tape all the way down the stem.
•    Wrap the entire stem with satin ribbon to give the flower enough sturdiness, or skip the tape and ribbon wrap and just tie a satin bow around the top third of the stem for decoration

3.    Using Single-Stem Daisies

•    Carefully remove the plastic brace set just below the flower’s head for support during shipping just before it’s time to walk down the aisle, but leave it on as you wrap the stem.

•    Daisy stems should be wrapped tightly with floral tape to give it extra strength, then covered with a ribbon wrap and tied with a ribbon bow.
•    If you cut the stems to a six-to eight-inch length, you can wrap them with lace instead of ribbon.

4.    Using Bunches

•    Gather your chosen wild-flowers, tulips, peonies, daisies, or other flowers and begin assembling your chosen arrangement of blooms.
•    Begin with larger flowers in the center; then build in circles around the outside.
•    Wrap the entire collection of stems with floral tape, cut across the bottom for a uniform cut level, and then wrap the entire stem collection with ribbon or lace in spiral fashion, going once down and then up to tie in a bow at the top.

Creating a Doorway Garland

Create a dramatic doorway with a garland bursting with spring flowers. Luscious greenery is entwined with Alstroemerias, wax flower, and baby’s breath for a decorative garland perfect for draping anywhere—from doors, arches, and windows to tables, candelabras and chairs.

To create these beautiful pieces you will need the following: Alstroemerias, wax flower, foliage, Plumosa, baby’s breath, paddle wire, and petite water tubes.

1.    Remove all thorns – If the stems of the Plumosa are thorny, use a hand towel to safely strip the thorns off.

2.    Begin Garland – Start by crisscrossing two stems of Plumosa and wrapping paddle wire around the center to secure the stems together. This will create one end of the garland.

3.    Continue Adding Stems – Begin to form the garland by adding more stems of Plumosa.

4.    Layer Stems – Layer each stem of stems (depending on desired fullness) one after the other.

5.    Wrap Stems with Wire – To secure the stems of Plumosa, hold the garland with one hand and wrap the paddle wire around it with the other. The paddle wire should be wrapped over some branches, but others can be loose and free.

6.    Cut Stems – Any excess stems may be cut with clippers as you form the garland.

7.    Finish Plumosa – Continue adding Plumosa until the desired length is reached. Finish off the end of the garland by adding last Plumosa stem in a crisscross fashion. Make a slip knot with the paddle wire to secure it at the end of the garland.


8.    Add Baby’s Breath – Cut branches of baby’s breath and space them along the garland. Wrap the stems into the garland with paddle wire.

9.    Add Foliage – Cut stems of foliage and lay them underneath the entire length of the garland. Wrap paddle wire from one end to the other to secure the stems to the garland.

10.    Add Waxflower – Add stems of wax flower to the garland and wrap with paddle wire.

11.    Add Alstroemerias – Cut stems of Alstroemerias approximately 8” (21cm) long and insert into water filled tubes. Place the flowers in various directions along the garland. Wrap paddle wire around the water tubes to secure the garland.

12.    Secure Flowers – Wrap the wire once more around the completed garland to secure everything. Wrap wire under individual flowers and foliage as needed. Cut the wire and bend the ends into the center of the garland.

13.    Store and Maintain – The garland can be made up to 48 hours in advance of the wedding. To prevent wilting, lightly mist the garland, and then coil it inside a dark plastic bag with a few air holes. Store it in a cool, dark place.

What are the Best Flowers for Each Season?

If you are planning a wedding and are preparing bouquets and centerpieces, the availability of fresh flowers is something to keep in mind. Availability and much lower prices depend much on whether they should be shipped from Holland, Ecuador and Colombia. While any flower could be found available year round from around every corner of the globe, it’s always best to focus on in-season flowers to ensure the most beautiful selection and avoiding global weather fiascos that could potentially ruin a crop and prevent your shipment (or make it triple the price!).
This is a starter list of the types of flowers that are considered in season at certain times of the year. Keep in mind that this list is considered a national average. The weather may be milder in November where you live, so you might have access to additional summer flowers in addition to your locally grown florals and greenery.
Use this chart to research further and ask Whole Blossoms for additional ideas on what is current in the floral availability. As you explore these lists, you may be inspired by mention of a flower you never thought to bring into your décor plans, and your groom too may discover a flower type that would be perfect for his own boutonniere or as a gift for honored women on his side of the family.

SPRING WEDDING FLOWERS
•    Anemone
•    Bells of Ireland
•    Daffodil
•    Delphinium
•    Hyacinth
•    Peony
•    Ranunculus
•    Sweet pea
•    Tulip

SUMMER WEDDING FLOWERS

•    Alstroemerias
•    Bells of Ireland
•    Chrysanthemum
•    Lavender
•    Freesia
•    Gerber Daisy
•    Hydrangea
•    Iris
•    Larkspur
•    Lily
•    Lisianthus
•    Queen Anne’s Lace
•    Snapdragon
•    Stephanotis
•    Stock
•    Sunflower
•    Turberosa

FALL WEDDING FLOWERS

•    Allium
•    Aster
•    Alstroemerias
•    Amaranthus
•    Anemone
•    Chrysanthemum
•    Dahlia
•    Freesia
•    Gerber Daisy
•    Gladiolus
•    Hypericum Berry
•    Iris
•    Lily
•    Orchid
•    Rose
•    Star of Bethlehem
•    Sunflower

WINTER WEDDING FLOWERS

•    Amaryllis
•    Anemone
•    Bells of Ireland
•    Carnation
•    Chrysanthemum
•    Daffodil
•    Gerber Daisy
•    Orchid
•    Phlox
•    Ranunculus
•    Star of Bethlehem
•    Sweet pea
•    Tulip

WEDDING FLOWERS AVAILABLE YEAR-ROUND

•    Baby’s Breath
•    Calla Lily
•    Carnations
•    Delphinium
•    Gardenia
•    Gladiolus
•    Lily of the Valley
•    Orchid
•    Rose
•    Scabiosa

11 Flower Buying and Care Tips

Here are 11 helpful hints to keep in mind when buying flowers and their prolonged care before a wedding or special event.

1.    A commercial flower food will prolong to life of cut flowers. Sugar, sparkling lemon-lime sodas, or aspirin added to the water will also keep the flowers healthier longer.

2.    If you are using flowers from your own garden, they may not last as long as commercially grown flowers. Garden flowers, like bought flowers, should stay in fresh water before use.



3.    Make sure that any containers used for soaking flowers are clean and bacteria-free. Rinse them with water containing a little bleach before using.

4.    Look for bright yellow stamens on lilies; old lilies (of all varieties) have dark stamens.

5.    Make sure lily stamens are removed; their pollen stains anything it touches bright

6.    Spray table arrangements with water to keep them fresh and the oasis moist.

7.    Keep all finished arrangements somewhere cool and dark, but don’t be tempted to store any flowers, including boutonnieres and corsages, in the fridge.

8.    The length of a teardrop bouquet should be tailored to the height of the bride: the taller the bride, the longer the bouquet can be. For petite bride, a tied bunch is probably more flattering.

9.    For pinning boutonnieres to lapels, use pearl-headed pins, which look more special than normal straight pins.

10.    Some of the longest-lasting flowers are chrysanthemums, carnations, orchids, roses, tulips, and calla lilies. Sweet peas and poppy anemones, though beautiful, have a short life once cut.

11.    Prices of exotic flowers such as callas and orchids can rise markedly during the peak wedding months (May to July), or if supplies are low. If you’re on a budget, go for the flowers less prone to fluctuations in price, such as roses and carnations.