By Michelle Domocol
Nowadays, many event designers, party planners and hosts want to incorporate “sustainable” floral bouquets and “sustainable” floral décor to make their party gorgeous and delightful. The request for more sustainability has increased as people realize the negative effects of corporate floristry practices.
In short, standard flowers require lots of agricultural chemicals, fossil fuel-sourced transportation, and energy-intensive refrigeration. Many choose sustainable floral options to avoid flowers grown in this industrial way. One very fun way to get your own sustainable Bouquets and Floral Decor is growing a Party garden.
Below are 10 ideas for your own Party Garden:
- Party Gardeners might like to grow in a group of medium-sized pots or raised beds. This may be more manageable and easier to re-arrange when necessary.
- Plants with similar water, soil and sun requirements should be grouped together.
- If you have a spare garden space, then go ahead and plant the Party Garden florals directly in the ground. Just make sure your garden is well-contained with a fence so the decorative flowers don’t invade natural areas that may be near your garden.
- Choose flowers that are easy to cultivate repeatedly bloom in your area. Depending on your region’s climate, this may be zinnias, coreopsis, begonias, marigolds or dahlias. You may also want to choose varieties that have long stems (Photo 1).
- Grow plants with elegant foliage like coleus, local ferns, lilies, and irises.
- Select some bouquet fillers. Grow some grasses, vines, or long-stem herbs to add volume to your boquets. This can be amaranth, thai basil, pea vines, or passionfruit vines. You can also choose local field grasses (Photo 1).
- Make sure you incorporate wide paths or enough space around your plants. Always make it comfortable for you to cut and harvest your flowers and foliage.
- Have buckets of water or baskets ready when you cut and harvest your living decorations.
- Mulch with dried leaves, rice hulls, or coco coir. Mulch around your flowers so the weeds are supressed. Then they won’t consume your beautiful party garden plants.
- If you notice your flowers or foliage is dying or looking diseased, replace the weak plant with new seeds or seedlings and fresh compost.
And here’s some inspiration for using your Party Garden plants:
Once you have a successful garden, there are so many was to use your harvested decor. You can create fresh bouquets, floating flower designs, dried bouquets, framed dried flower collages, garlands that wrap around arches, and more.
For a simple & fresh bouquet, remember to:
- Cut the stems at an angle and remove the lower leaves before you place them in a container of water. It can be a vase, flower frog or other receptacle.
- Remove any lower leaves or petals submerged under water. Submerged foliage invites unwanted bacteria. This might infect your lovely bouquet.
- Make an arrangement you want. Generally, I add a graceful spiral of filler and foliage plants. Then add a few featured flowers. But you can have themed bouquets based on edible plants. Or add a combination of large foliage and long-stemmed tropical flowers like gingers and heliconias. Experiment with Party Gardens and have fun!