Wedding Flowers from the Garden- Tulips Part l

What do you think? I am so excited to have tulips blooming now... well actually my tulips are coming to an end, but it has been wonderful these past few weeks to go to the garden and pick big, beautiful blooms in such luscious colors. And then there are the other spring flowers- muscari, euphorbia and pieris, not to mention hellebores which have been going strong for over a month. I am working hard to have a variety of blooms for my March and April brides- so if you are planning a wedding for spring of 2012- think Springwell Gardens!
These tulips are known as Triumph tulips, a cross between Darwin tulips and Early Tulips that produce nice fat blooms. This year they started their blooms a little early because of the record high temps. Normally they bloom around the last week of March into early April. Tulip bulbs are available to purchase from catalog vendors in late summer and they are shipped in late September. The key to having great tulips in the South is prechilling your bulbs for about ten to twelve weeks. So I usually plant my bulbs in late November through mid December.
The lovely dark blue flowers in the bouquet are known as muscari. These flowers come from small bulbs that are also planted in the late fall. These guys will multiply in the garden and are a wonderful welcome sight from mid to late March. They are not fussy like tulips. The lime green flowers that light up this bouquet are euphorbia. They came to my garden from my great friend, Karen (who is also responsible for the darling Love In A Puff pods that I use in my summer and fall designs).
So much is happening in the garden now. This week I have been planting summer seedlings in the garden beds: zinnias, gomphrena, celosia, Snow on The Mountain, craspedia, and a whole lot more. I can't wait to post pictures of these flowers in bouquets when they start to bloom.
Next week look for Tulips Part II- the lovely Peony Flowering Tulip known as Angelique.