Seasonal Flowers

Arranging flowers is an easy way to welcome any season to your home. Below I am sharing a list of my favorite flowers from each season.

Spring. Local anemones, ranunculus and sweet peas from Lynnvale Studio, a flower farm in Gainesville, Virginia. Andrea, the owner, has colors unique to the market and her sweet pea stems are long and sturdy. She works the Dupont Circle and Palisades Farmers Markets on Sundays. Another favorite - blueberry branches and mint foliage! I have sourced them from Greenstone Fields in the past, but you can buy the plant at the garden store too if you wanted. I also love bearded irises, they just don’t normally have long vase life. I would use them for personal arrangements or certain events, especially if they were for a few hours. But I wouldn’t include them in a regualar wrapped bouquet to sell.

Above: Green viburnum, pink ranunculus, and white/pink ice cream tulips.

Above: Various colors of sweet peas.

Above: Bearded iris amongst Japanese garden roses, ranunculus, spider lily foliage, autumn olive foliage, hyacinth, hyacinth root, anemone, flax flower.

Summer. I love incorporating fruit branches and herbs into my arrangements. I also like foraging for wild honeysuckle which is abundant in the summertime. Honestly honeysuckle is invasive so I feel in cutting them down, I am doing the county a favor. Floral wholesalers are able to source tea roses and garden roses such as David Austin and Japanese garden roses year round. However I do love the old heirloom garden roses from Rose Story Farm in California. They grow heirloom garden roses and some are not as big as David Austin garden roses, but when grouped together they make such a gorgeous, visual impact. 

Above: Zinnias, blueberry branches, raspberry branches, and mint.

Above: Raspberries at Butler’s Orchard.

Above: Wild honeysuckle.

Above: Old heirloom garden roses from Rose Story Farm: “St. Swithun,” “Claire Renaissance,” “Old Wollerton Hall,” “Queen of Sweden.”

Above: Garden roses, ranunculus, dahlia, peony, Japanese spirea, foxglove, periscaria, cosmos, white clematis vine, clematis vine seed pod, trailing babies breath, basil, hyacinth bean vine, cherry tomato, nasturtium, blueberry branch, stevia.

Fall. Local dahlias, basil and tuberose. I always love buying local dahlias and tuberoses, the wholesale version pale in comparison to buying them fresh (literally cut the night before) from a local flower farmer. My favorite scent is tuberose and basil mixed with garden roses which I can only get in September. Lynnvale Studios, Wollam Gardens, and Don's Dahlias have an amazing selection of dahlias starting in August through October. 

Above: Garden roses, tuberose, basil, chocolate cosmos, hydrangea, apple branches.

Winter. Hellebores, pieris, white kale, evergreens (Carolina Sapphire is a favorite), persimmons. And kumquats! Fruit is probably one area where I break the rules. Technically it’s not good to keep your flowers next to fruit. Fruit releases ethylene which is what causes fruit to ripen quickly. But this can also cause flowers to age more quickly. But I still like using fruit in some of my work anyways! Silver bells eucalyptus is pretty cool as the pods are gray and sometimes they open to a white flower.

Above: Roses, white kale, hellebores, astilbe, tallow berries.

Above: Ranunculus, “Putomayo” carnations, kumquats, persimmons, succulents, cedar.

Above: Various persimmons in different stages of ripening.

Above: Silver bells eucalyptus.