DesignsandEvents: Foraging for Fall Flowers

Hey, there! I know it has been a while since I have been in touch but, September has been a very busy month for me! I wasn't expecting it to be this way and I am a bit off-kilter. Last year at the end of August I wrote about a visit I made to a local pick-your-own flower farm and subsequently shared the arrangements I made with flowers I purchased there. You can see that story here, if you would like. Honestly, that was one of my favorite posts from last year. I loved going to that farm.

I didn't have time to go to the flower farm this year with all my busyness and I truly missed it. However, recently, I noticed all the flower and plant material growing right here in my own garden and throughout the yard and thought maybe I should forage through my yard and see what I could find. Our property has some cool paths and cubby holes that make it pretty interesting to explore, giving me more reason to carry out my idea.

As a kid I loved going into the nearby woods with my friends and making forts and "homes" there. I am probably revealing my age by admitting this. I am not sure many children are able to have that kind of freedom now. To be honest, with all the mosquito and tick diseases that we have to worry about and the personal safety concerns we now have, I am not sure I would let my children go out and play the way I used to, anyway. However, I thought if I put on some bug repellant and was very careful, I could tromp through my yard and see what treasures I might find.

The first place I visited was my garden. There I picked some sedum, dusty miller and lace-cap hydrangea. These flowers were still in pretty good shape for picking. Of course, goldenrod is all over the place so that wasn't hard to find at all! I also collected some kind of wild grass I used last year in my flower farm arrangements. It has pink seeds on a small stalk and I find the texture very interesting. I also gathered some leaves and Siberian iris pods for added interest. You can see these "flowers" in the sampler photo at the top of the page.

I must confess that not all the plant material I used is foraged. I purchased some seeded eucalyptus and hypericum berries from my local Wholefoods because I thought these items would mix well with flowers from my yard. That foraging was done by way of my car :).

Once I collected my material, I decided to make a mini bridal party floral collection. For some reason it just seemed right to me. I made a bridal bouquet, a boutonniere and a corsage. Of course, this was all for an imaginary wedding in my head, one that I may have made up when I was a child playing the woods.

While I know I will not receive any awards for my little creations, I still think they are fun and pretty and, who knows? Maybe I will host a fall party and think about foraging through the yard for natural decorations. I will know where to find certain things now. Nothing is ever wasted when you are being creative~

I started with what turned out to be a pin-on corsage. I originally was going to make three boutonnieres but I kept adding to the first boutonniere (something that is a problem for me. I need to learn how to edit!) and it turned out to be too big for a boutonniere so I made it into a corsage. I then decided I would make only one boutonniere and go for making a bouquet instead of two more boutonnieres. The bouquet finished off the trio of bridal flowers.

In the corsage I added some fresh colored leaves. I really liked the look of the leaves mixed into the corsage. Unfortunately, these were the only small leaves I could find that had started to turn to fall colors. I guess that is the problem...and joy...of foraging. You can't be guaranteed what you will find or what you will not :). All of this is to say, only the corsage included the cute leaves, such a pity.

Next, it was onto the boutonniere~

I think that twine as a boutonniere wrap may be getting passé but, for my imaginary wedding it seemed to be just right. I didn't think ribbon would have looked right for foraged flowers. Don't you think the hypericum berries added a lot to the arrangements? I am glad I had stopped at Wholefoods earlier in the day.

Next, I made the bouquet. To be honest, I should have added more lace-cap hydrangeas into the bouquet but, it was getting late in the day and I was trying to get everything done in time to take photos in the good light. Next time I will know to cut more hydrangeas.

And since I already had the burlap ribbon, I used it to wrap the bouquet. I held the ribbon in place with three antique gold floral pins. It is a rustic look but that was what I was going for.

Once it was all done, I couldn't help myself. The floral designer in me had to label everything. I know it is silly but...

somehow the labels gave my little flower pieces some credibility. Haha!

Isn't this an elegant photo for my floral trio? Not bad for an afternoon of foraging, right?

Next up for me is to do the flowers for an actual wedding. There won't be any foraged flowers used there but, I had fun doing these flower arrangements. Even foraged flowers can be beautiful!

Happy foraging!

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