The bride is open minded or I'd never do it.
growing flowers for a wedding!
Depending on the plant, yes about three to four weeks for new blooms. Some like the Zinnias could be less time and it will also begin branching which can be cut again to help increase. Also if needed you can pinch off flower buds to prolong time til bloom when necessary. you'll have to experiment. I've already been pinching my snapdragons I started from seed this winter and are all beginning to nicely branch. so when they go out to the garden I will have nicely branched plants. I've been pinching the tips of many of my seedlings already, Dianthus, Snaps, Monarda Lam Bada, Ammi, Salvias, Platycodons. In fact, I've clipped back my Dianthus atleast 3 times already.
Also you can control the size of blooms sometimes by what they call disbudding, like your Dahlias for instance. If you take out side buds with pinching, and let one on a branch develop, it will be a larger bloom..(can work on other plants also).
Pix are some that frequently multiply branching with pinching or deadheading. 1&3 Salvia nemerosa, white and purple
pix 2 is Dianthus X Loveliness (all 3 happen to be all season bloomers)
Since it's early in the season, do some pinching and see how long it takes for branching (every pinch should produece 2 more branches and so and so on... Salvia in pix1 is 1 plant, in pix 3 is 3-5 plants. The Dianthus is 1 plant.
Any plant that produces blooms at only one part of the season (ie Peonies, Iris (german) and some of the others ) will not produce branching. Altho disbudding side buds on peonies will produce a larger bloom but not more branching blooms (the flowers are set last fall).
Do you think pinching might delay bloom time and at this point I'm feeling like I might be pushing it just to get blooms from the zinnias snaps and dahlias etc. I wish I had a little more time.
Do you have a hort college in your area? I would definately give them a call if possible...You want to make sure your timing is good.. And remember the weather can set thing s back or move things up too... I see you live in California.
1. What stage are your plants at now...how big, how old, etc...Have they been in the garden for a month? Few weeks? Need more info... (I just had 5.5" of snow yesterday, all my babies are still under lights or remay on them). I see your in Zone 9, so let me know what stage they are. Include pix and descriptions if you like... We'll try to time it for you..
Geums will bloom the whole summer if deadheaded..In fact you might want to pinch off blooms and any branches that don't have blooms yet. Every branch that is pinched will produce TWO more. Then in a few weeks you can pinch those back. I would stop pinching by the first week of June, definately the second..
Are your plants in the ground yet or still in pots? Have you used any fertilizer? Miracle Grow, truely is fantastic...Liquid would be the fastest for those in the ground.
Stop potting on if they don't need it, give them a chance to fill in and out for a week or so, they have to readjust every time. Are any ready to go into the garden? If they are big enough to plant them, give them some peat moss mixed well with the g. soil (mix good, no more than 1/2 and 1/2. And mulch if possible, keep the soil moist. ( dried leaves, dried grass clippings 1 week to dry fresh, not big bark crud, they might smother your babies..)
Of the flowers you listed above: snaps, zinnias, larkspur, linaria and roses. They can all be pinched. If they are seedling wait till they start to develop the third set of leaves and then pinch. Remember, the first set of leaves are not true, only the second set is true to the plant, the first set will always drop off.
Remember to harden off any that are new seedlings before going into the garden. A few hours a day, for several days. When planting in the soil can water in with a root stimulant, they work wonders....Available at Home Depot, or could even
use 'SUPERthrive'. It's not cheap but works miracles, it's a root stimulant also. Sometimes it's even available at the grocery in the floral dept.
Hope a few of these ideas will help, you would be suprised at how fast they will grow if you do some of the things I've shared, they are some of my personal favorites..lol. Good luck, and get back and share more if you can...
Might try to get some zinnia seed and direct sow them into the garden, and keep them moist til they sprout. They will catch up in a short time... Also Cosmos grow fast when seeded into the garden, they begin blooming fast, again pinching would do wonders after they are up and growing.. Kathy
HOw's it going? Are you on target for the deadline? I sending you good thoughts, energy and prayers!
Thank you! It's going well! I think it's going to work! Just trying keep everything deadheaded and such.
You know you're going to have to provide LOTS of pictures when the time comes!
Definitely!
So,
It looks like things are on the right track! All the Dahlias have 1-3 blooms! The bachelor buttons are 1-3 blooms, the sweet peas have been kicking out blooms for a couple weeks, campanula medium is blooming, zinnias all have buds. Trechelium is budded but not showing color, the snaps are all budded up, geums are sending up all new new spikes! I think it's going to work, but the roses are looking like they're in between flushes and might not rebloom in time. Linaria, rudbeckia and cosmos all starting to bloom. The anemones are still blooming and some of them are just starting up, they might just be blooming still on the twenty-ninth. Sunflowers are budding. Balloon flowers are have tiny buds. Everything is looking good but I've got some pests that I don't normally bother with but for wedding flowers I don't want bitten blooms. Cucumber beetles, baby grasshoppers, and leaf hoppers are nibbling the dahlias, and roses, bah! I'm thinking of spraying neem but I don't want to hurt the bees! Like I said, I don't normally bother with them but....?
Would garden soap be a more conservative option than neem? I don't know which is safer on buds....
I'll look into that.
Well can't find insecticidal soap recommended anywhere but there are a lot of methods Like traps but they say they can just attract more. Hot pepper spray was recommended, I wonder if that would effect the blossoms?
Careful with pepper spray it can burn leaves.... Try Home Depot for insecticidle soap or local nursery....can even lame your own (it's made from dish soap, much cheaper...google for recipe). Kathy
Does it work on cucumber beetles and baby grasshoppers?
ooops, sorry for the mispelled word.lol, that's what ya call a typo....lol. I know there's a grasshopper meal that you sprinkle about but can't think of the name....word was 'spose to be: make your own. Insecticidal soap and garden soap same thing... Made with Joy or Polmolive dishsoap and some other things, usually in the kitchen if I remember right.
Grasshopper meal? I might have to get some of that every bloom has a little bite out of it! Here are some tester bouquets.
Roses
Dahlias
Anemones
Rudbeckia
Linaria
Cosmos
Having difficulty uploading
And
Weird!
bright and beautiful!
Thanks! I've got a little more dark pink than I know what to do with as the bride just said no pink and purple together. The color of those cosmos is a hard one to match anything with. The Linaria 'Flamenco" works perfectly but nothing else seems to go.
Our model for flower girl wreath practice.
Aww -- she looks perfect!
Ah! I just googled grasshopper meal, yuck! Meal of grasshoppers! Whoops.
They are going to be lovely! I hope the weather stays in your favor.
Marcia
So just two more weeks! Very exciting!
Good Luck!!!!
So, just tested the different post harvest treatment or conditioning recommendations I've gathered and it is interesting. The biggest influence on vase life seems to be hands down the maturity of the blooms. I'm surprised! All Dahlias were picked in the morning around 10 am treated with Gerbera protab over night then put into fresh water with Crystal Clear flower food.
Of the three:
The first:
Put directly into several inches of hot water for 5-10 min.
Then into cool water with the Quickdip solution for 3 min.
Then into cool water with Gerbera Protab over night.
Next morning water change with flower food.
Second:
Older blooms
Quickdip 3min
Cold water with Protab
Next morning water change with flower food.
Third:
Least mature blooms
Placed directly into cold water with Gerbera Protab
Next morning water change with flower food
Results were:
Hot water treated blooms were slightly wilted on outer petals by the second night. Still beautiful though.
Quick dip only flowers were less wilted but still a little.
Least mature Blooms only treated with Gerbera Protab for 24 then flower food were not wilted at all but were smaller so a little less impressive.
So,
It appears that the treatments have less to do with longevity then the maturity if the blooms.
Have any of you used any if these treatments and come up with drastically different results?
What are your methods?
The pic is of the Dahlias being tested.
Why are my pix sideways?!?!
WOW... that's a lot of experimenting. no idea on the photo.
Did you turn your camera sideways when you took the photo?
It's my iPhone so I thought it turned it for me, the enlarged shot is rotated but stretched.
I have no idea. Maybe you can save them to your computer, fix the photo, and then upload it to DG?
Nicotiana lime green and strobilanthes, white dahlia. Getting closer to the look she wants.
I love this project -- it is so much fun to see it evolve.
Just curious, on the Nicotiana, does it close up dring the day, most of the shorter varieties seem to close or droop their littles heads til it gets later in the day. I've never tried using them for a bouquet because of such.
It seems that sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I have the tall variety and a medium stature one. The medium height one doesn't seem to droop ever even in the garden, but the tall white and pink variety droops in the sun. Strangely, when I cut them and bring them inside they all seem to stay perky most of the time. It stays pretty cool here most of the time though.
wow, sure hope they are the fragrant varieties...will have to try and cut some for the vase this summer if I ever geet them planted...lol... Kathy
Mine reseed easily. You could just throw some seed out under a dripper?
iPhone pics: make sure the camera eye is on the left high corner. This will give horizontal pics that are oriented correctly for these forums. DG 'squashes' vertical pics. I found out through trial and error, have no more problems.
