Introducing...Cherry Brandy

Need something to warm your cockles on a blustery Autumn day? Well just feast your eyes on these beauties.

This fabulous rose is Cherry Brandy - gorgeously spicy and vibrant, its perfect for autumn and looks fab with rustic earthy tones, rich reds, browns, or more vibrant limey greens and citrusy shades.

If you're looking for flowers to compliment a mocha or chocolate brown theme for your wedding, these would work really well.

I wouldn't be averse to using them as a contrast to some of the shades of purple and plum that are around either. Just imagine how they'd zing out against aubergine bridesmaid's dresses. Scrummy.

Bridal bouquets

I hate to waste blooms and had a few spares left over from this weekend's wedding, so I put together a couple of bouquets. The roses were quite blown but its a shame not to do something with them.  As I've said before I love a bit of rustic and have been keen to use berries in bouquets for a while so thought I would experiment by combining them with Avalanche, and ivory spray roses. I also used a few Ornithogalum which I love for their tiny little black centred blooms. With whites and creams its a classic combination with a country feel.  A collar of ivy would look lovely too.

Then I remembered I had a vase of Craspedia, that have been cheering up my kitchen window sill for the last month (the colour and shape hold for for ages, even if the stems go a bit manky!) Their sunny yellow  hues added a fresh zestyness to the bouquet and brought out the cream in the Roses.  They'd work really well with the yellow and grey colour themes seen all over the net lately.

Which do you prefer?

Which Dusky Roses for your Vintage Wedding?

So many lovely roses in the shop this week, I'm spoilt for choice.  If you're looking for dusky shades to complement a vintage wedding theme.. read on.  You may have heard of Blue Curiosa, or Cool Water both of which are blue toned mauvey lilacs, that have been the go to roses for brides looking for dusky shades. I'll come back to these another time, but if you're looking for something similar how about these sweetie pies..

The roses above are Ocean Song, a soft, subtle lilac-pink rose and a really gorgeous shade. Neat and compact they're perfect for your bridal bouquet or for your bridesmaids and would work really well as a buttonhole for the groom and ushers - especially lovely with dove greys or browns.  The colour seems to be more intense in the centre, with soft paler tones on the outer petals.

 If you're looking for a slightly stronger violet toned rose, these beauties above are Pacific Blue. They're a little more lavender/lilac than mauve, so more blue and less pink. Think Parma violets.  They really are sweet and feminine but so sophisticated with it.  They have lovely pink guard petals (the outer petals), which personally I love to keep on, but they could be removed if pinks didn't work with your colours. Simply beautiful on their own, mixed with other antique shades, in a classic hand tie of soft muted tones, or wild and rustic - I just love a bit of rustic. How would you have yours?