Do you have room to start them inside under flourescent lights? In northern Wisconsin they'll need all the head start they can get to be ready by July-hopefully latter in July?

tj

I have a heated one stall attached garage that is empty. The problem is not if I have room etc, but what to start and when.
July 19th is when I need the flowers. Any ideas?

Not to be mean, but I would have some kind of backup plan. Your beautiful flowers could be trashed by a sudden rainstorm. I would get in contact with the local Garden Club, so they could offer suggestions with your local conditions in mind. I know my stuff is 2 weeks behind my mother's same flowers, because she is 100 miles south, down by the MI State line.

Lilies are always beautiful, come in white and colors. You just have to select the varieties that bloom in your time frame. Maybe some of the early Daylilies would be going. My Peonies have come and gone by July. Roses are mostly gone. However the Fairy, small flower rose in pink and white, is a steady bloomer, all season. So are some of the Carpet roses.

Annuals might be your best bet. You could check with local Nurseries, for bedding plants that do well in your area. Some are very dependent on day length and light intensity for good flowering.

Some large pots of plants, could be very attractive as edging, focal points. I had wonderful luck with the small flowing petunias, Million Bells, in various colors, last summer. Bought the plants, made up the pots myself. Just plain large pots, which I raised on old bricks stacked up. Added height made the pots very nice. Lantana is a good trailing plant, steady bloomer. Small Dahlias in a pot, make a lot of color. Large flower Dahlias could do well, if started very early. Many styles and colors to choose. Tuberous Begonias can add a lot of color, just start them early. Calla lily flowers are lovely, not sure of bloom time after starting them. Many foliage plants with great color to fill out pots or bouquets.

Not sure Zinnias from seed would be going well, have lots of flowers by July. Read the seed packets to see how long a germination is needed, to flowering time. Much will depend on dirt tempeture. Cold dirt does not allow germination, molds the seed.

Attend some Bridal shows, quite popular right now here. When I got married, I ordered flowers from a vendor I met at the show. She made the various artificial flowers from wood fiber. You absolutely could not tell them from real, until you touched them. She did a beautiful job with my flowers, had them to me early for arranging. I wanted Rhebrum Lilies and Carnations for the flowers. Lilies were hugely expensive in Feb, had to be flown in. The fake ones were very inexpensive compared to real flowes. Price allowed me to have lots of both kinds of flowers for big arrangements. Florist arranged them with real filler flowers, we had great bouquets. The other factor in using fake was Feb weather. VERY undependable in the snow season then. My SIL had to cancel her wedding date the year before. Had to be moved to a week later when they got 3ft of snow on Friday night!! Roads were impassable. Lost all the money spent at florist. I thought with using the fake flowers I would have my arrangements, bouquets, all done, no losses or wilting if weather was a problem or caused delays. I lucked out, the snow was 5 days ahead of wedding, so roads were clear for guests. Temps were terrible, got UP TO -15 that day, but the new 3ft of snow on top of the 2ft we had, was cleared off for driving and parking by our wedding day.

Maybe some of your friends could plant some flowers for you, so a storm would not wreck all the flowers. Or you could have some fake flowers made up into arrangements to bulk out your other flowers. My other SIL made fake flower arrangements for her reception, in colors of the wedding party. Her friends helped out, had a lot of fun doing it way ahead of time. All very attractive, saved her quite a lot of money for the multiple tables she needed done. My mom made the candles they used. Looked as nice as any purchased florist stuff.

Hope this is helpful. Doing your own flowers is great, just that real ones might be undependable, no matter how hard you try. Gardens are subject to outside conditions you can't control. You sure don't need any extra stress at the last moment, if possible.

Best wishes, in all your labors to prepare. Remember to have some fun at your wedding! That will give you happy memories to look back on, not worries of the day.

Thank you very much.

I got married in northern MI july 8. I used annabel hydrangeas ( off white color) for my bouquet. they had to be cut the day of and lasted just long enough for the reception. they were cut locally from my MIL's plant in bloom. also grew a few lilies. went to the nursery the day before and bought 4 ft long trailing petunias for 20 dollars each. at the nursery begonias were in bloom as well as geraniums and roses. my backup plan was to pick wildflowers, and there were a ton avail, but i didn't have to.

sorry this doesn't help much with growing instructions, but good luck and congratulations!

liz

Congratulations! Check out the Winter Sowing forum. There is a similar post there. A mother is preparing for a 2009 wedding, but there are ideas for annuals she can grow starting next winter. You might explore Sam's club for flowers. Some stores have a large garden department. A friend ordered a zillion roses and lillies for a surprisingly reasonable price. The mother ordered 25% extra expecting poorer quality, but we were able to use almost every stem.

Here is a link that might be useful: flowers for 2009 wedding

Sorry to be a downer, rednekgrl44, but honestly, though this sounds incredibly romantic and practical (growing your own wedding flowers), it can also be a really, really bad idea. Here's why:

1. You need those flowers to be in perfect shape on a certain day. Even if you know what to sow when, you can't predict (a) how well it will grow (b) whether you will have any flowers in bloom on that day (and you can't very well carry a bunch of leaves and little green buds) and (c) that nothing bad will happen to them and mess up the plan (storms, bug infestations or bugs feasting on them, not enough good stems to go around, you name it -- with nature, anything can happen).

2. You're going to have a lot going on (you will probably be amazed at how much -- nothing could've prepared me, even though I was super-organized Martha Stewart bride). Tending to your flowers as carefully and often as they might need could be something that gets lost in all of the other stuff.

3. If something does happen, you're stuck in the position of trying to get some nice flowers a day or two, or on the day of the wedding. Don't think that's pressure you really want. These are going to be part of your wedding photos and your memories -- are you really going to be happy if the nicest, freshest thing you can find are those blue-dyed carnations from the grocery and some yellow daisies?

4. You may have bridesmaids and other flowers to consider, too. That's a lot to have riding on some seeds you're going to be sowing now.

I think you might be very well served by taking some earlier advice and having a backup plan: Get your wedding flowers set now from a florist or whoever. Then sow some seeds. If everything comes up and looks good, add them to your bouquet and the other flowers. Then you can have that little extra personal touch. But, if something goes wrong, you still have beautiful flowers and you don't have to stress about anything extra.

Good luck with it!