Hi Patty, welcome to the Far North forum! What month is your daughter's wedding? You will not have all those flowers in bloom at the same time, but some of them would be pretty easy to manage. If it's a spring wedding, you will be able to have Lilies of the Valley (although I would be careful using them in bouquets as the sap is poisonous) and tulips at the same time, and maybe Bleeding Hearts although they might be later. Snapdragons and Lilies bloom at the same time. Most orchids are fussy and need to be grown indoors, and are expensive too. If she's set on orchids I would try posting on the Orchid forum and they could probably help you find a suitable one.

Also, is the wedding this year? Some of those plants need a year or more to get established and produce reliable blooms, if you don't already have them in your garden.

If you have to start from scratch and don't have time to plan, you will probably have the best luck with continuous-blooming annuals that you can cut pretty much all summer and/or fall. Snapdragons are good for that if you plant a lot. Gerbera Daisies are also popular in bouquets. Geranuims are reliable but they stink.

Maybe you should tell us when the wedding is planned and we can get more specific. Some of us here have done flowers for weddings before so you'll get lots of help.

The fancy orchid types will have to bought in a florist shop, however we can grow hardy wild orchids (Cypripedium) but those take a few years to establish.

Welcome to the FN forum and best wishes planning your daughters' wedding.

Sharon

Yes, knowing the timing of the wedding would help greatly ....

"So, her picks are Orchids, Lilies, Lily of the valley, tulips, snapdragons and bleeding hearts."

... As others have said, forget about thinking about orchids as something you'd be able to grow in your garden.

... Lilies are a great idea, though tough being able to get the timing right, and also you'd need to plant LOTS of bulbs, and HOPE they'd bloom the first year! Also, this would not be an inexpensive option.

... Lily of the valley, forget about these, unless you know someone who has an established patch ... a new planting would not likely even flower the first season!

... Tulips, sounds like a good idea if you have a spring wedding and the timing is correct. Otherwise, just takes a few days of extreme heat and they'd be toast!

... Bleeding hearts, now these bloom over a longer period, though would be finished flowering in early mid summer or so .... UNLESS, you have some of the smaller flowered fern leaf types that bloom their heads off till frost?

... Snapdragons are likely the best choice of all things you've listed, though not so great if the wedding is early in the season.

I'm sorry if I sound rather negative on many of the above selections, though I'd hate to see you do a ton of planting only to be disappointed! ... BUT, BUT, BUT, there's MANY very good ANNUALS you could look into!

Asters
Ageratum "Lielani Blue" in particular
Amaranthus
Bachelor Buttons
Calendulas
Cosmos
Rudbeckias
Zinnias
Sunflowers ... small flowered types

... As with any of the above, select varieties with long stems suitable for cutting. Also, cut some of each as a test to see how individual types hold up without wilting. You don't want a few wilted flowers to spoil the look of your bouquets!

HAPPY GROWING!

Terry

Thanks for all of the replies. It is sounding a little bleak as our wedding is August 25 2007. Yes, this year.. So any further suggestions that would be close to the flowers she loves would be helpful and maybe we can grow some of the flowers and purchase some as well.. Thank You for your help.

Well that is soon, but it's a good time of year for annuals to be ready. My pick would be gladiolus, plant lots of corms this spring... they are inexpensive and easy to grow, and rather like lilies in a bouquet. Snapdragons will still be an excellent choice. All of the annuals Terry listed above would be great too. I especially like Cosmos in a bouquet because it has pretty feathery leaves.

Oh, another thing that she might like is Cannas, you could buy rhizomes (bulbs) to plant this spring, and they are exotic looking and come in many colours. I'm not sure how long your growing season is but up here we need to start them early indoors to have blooms at the end of August.

And of course you could flesh it all out with bought flowers if you have to. But it's a nice meaningful thought if you can grow at least part of the bouquets :0) Good luck!

Welcome to the Far North Patty! I'm sure you're going to like it here, as we have a great bunch of gardeners here.

The end of August is a great time to have a wedding. In '05 my sister got married on Oct 1 and wanted my mom and I to grow the flowers for the table centerpieces. Not too much pressure considering our usual first frost is around Sept 20! But we did end up having a nice fall so we did manage to get a few flowers. Sweetpeas did the best, along with asters. We tried to plant glads late hoping they'd bloom late, but they were done too soon, so the end of August would be perfect timing for them. There's also a flowering bulb called Peacock Orchid, or Gladiolus callianthus which is very nice too. We had also tried(and really wanted) white oriental lilies. We bought 12 bulbs and didn't pot them up until the end of June, but they were done blooming the week before the wedding, so again they would probably be great timing for the end of August for you. We also cut baby's breath and German statice earlier in the season and let it dry and added them to the centerpieces as well. Don't forget to add the greenery like asparagus fern, hosta leaves, and pretty much any other leaves that still look good at the time, as they can be great fillers so that you don't need quite as many flowers.

Hopefully some of this will give you a few ideas for your big day.

Laurie

Patty, a good way to get lots of good cutting material is to plant dahlias, seed grown dahlias are particularly easy and inexpensive and would be in their peak at the end of August. Look for floriferous types with small to medium sized flowers, but DON'T choose the dwarf kinds, as the stems will be too short for cutting, and besides some of the dwarf types would bloom out by the end of August.

Terry

Thanks again for the great tips. We will get started on picking what we will plant. I will keep you updated on our progress.. Thanks to all of you.. Patty

I'm wanting to plant flowers for my daughter's wedding to be held next August (2012)...seed dahlias..would I plant those in the spring, would they be ready by August, or should I get bulbs? I just stumbled upon this site, and it looks wonderful! My daughter is thinking of going to a farmer's market before the wedding with her friends and just making a lot of bouquets for the tables, but I'd like to help out where I can, and I love gardening...all the ideas I've read above sound great..