October wedding flowers

christmasdiane

Hi, I have a polytunnel and I’m wondering what flowers or bulbs I could grow for my son’s wedding in early October .

looksee

We did something similar, except we didn't have a polytunnel. some 15 years ago for my son's wedding. My dil is a keen gardener so between us we got a nice lot of stuff going. One thing we found was that while things grew well they didn't quite have the long stemmed, tidy look of commercial flowers so the alter flowers ended up being purchased. Otherwise we grew sweet peas and other small annuals that were out into test tubes mounted on backgrounds for the ends of the pews. A huge display of foliage and larger flowers including amaranthus caudatus aka love lies bleeding (probably not the best name for a wedding!) which was very easy to grow and looked spectacular, went into the porch.

October is just getting a little late for summer flowers but there should be some that you could get started from seed soon. Have you any idea what kinds of colours or how do you want to use them? I would be thinking of some interesting foliage especially, as it would make a good foil for just a few flowers.

Cosmos (don't overfeed them or you will get loads of leaf and few flowers), nerines, snapdragons, Nicotinia, Salvia would all happily grow outside but at least in a polytunnel you would not lose them to a September storm. It might even be too sheltered in a polytunnel for them, I'm not sure. Senecio cineraria will give you lovely silver leaf foliage. The cosmos, nicotinia and snapdragons - get a tall variety - can be easily grown from seed this spring. Nerines grow from bulbs, they need both sun and shelter and not too rich soil.

pat2167

Dahlias, alstromerias, callas, roses, gerbera or sunflowers)

wildwillow

Train the flowers to grow longer stems by pinching out side shoots. I presume you also have outside space so hedge your bets with the weather by using that too. Depending on the weather, things like delphinium, agastache will give a second flowering.

Things like chinese lanterns and sedum, rudbeckia are a good bet. I did flowers for a late October wedding a few years ago and found foliage was very important. The bride specified no pink so that reduced my choices.

If you can decide on a colour range now you can plant at intervals and use pruning to get the best blooms.

Alchemilla Mollis is great for foliage for smaller arrangements and will be fresh in October if you cut it back a few weeks earlier.

christmasdiane

Thanks for the info, bridesmaids dresses not decided on yet,

just wondering if I could start gladiolus bulbs later than usual to bring them in for that time ?

wildwillow

You woud probably need to keep the bulbs cold if delaying the planting as they will sprout anyway,

Your best bet is to choose plants which produce multiple flowers as you can cut back and encourage later flowering, eg cosmos, dahlia, asters, anemome.

Make sure you have a source of foliage, lots of gardeners are happy to provide it. Things like little ornamental apples can be very useful also.

The part of the counrty also matters as some areas are more prone to early frosts.