I ordered flowers for a wedding shower as a trial run before the actual wedding in July. I wanted to see what they would look like when they arrived, how many arrangements I could make with them, and practice the processing and arranging. All the greens and filler flowers were foraged from generous neighbors. A few things I learned: don't take the guard petals off of garden roses. They looked absolutely beautiful, but I read AFTER processing them that they're supposed to stay on garden roses to help them keep their shape. Rannunculus, anemones and scabiosa are much easier to use in water-filled vases. I tried inserting them into wet floral foam, but their soft stems make it difficult. I kept the straws on the scabiosa when I used them in the foam. The flowers were exquisite and I plan to use all of them again for the wedding. I'll reserve the flowers from the dedicated garden DIY flower combo for small vases on cocktail tables and use the roses in centerpieces. Of all the flowers I ordered, there was just one anemone I couldn't use. The rest were perfect.
The shower guests were most impressed with the ranunculus and anemones. They were absolutely stunning and were the star players of the day. When I order garden roses for the actual wedding I'll let them open more ahead of time. I was afraid they'd open too much so I was careful to keep them in the cool dark, but they get prettier the more open they became.
With the help of foraged greens and Japanese tree lilacs I was able to make three centerpieces and had plenty of flowers left over for smaller arrangements.
