What Blooms in the Fall: Local Treasures
Sandy Swagger Jones
Sustainability is very important to us. We work very hard to source our flowers and floral ingredients within their natural season, from local farms to ensure the freshest and most ethically grown ingredients for your floral arrangements. Doing this allows us to guarantee that your flowers will arrive as vibrant and in full bloom as possible.
Fall is such a beautiful season. When it comes to florals, blooms, and plants, it affords us much warmer, richer, earthier, and deeper tones than spring, many of which can be sourced right here, in Central Virginia. And because we annually experience the fall season, Central Virginia is able to consistently produce the highest quality of flowers, plants, greenery, and other ingredients every year.
Here’s a little peek of what Central Virginia has to naturally offer during the fall season.
Amaranth
Amaranth
Loved for their cascading, long-lasting blooms, these showy plants are available in a variety of colors including pink, green, and golden brown. Truly versatile, thanks to their colorful flowers, grains, and spinach-like leaves, amaranth pairs perfectly with just about any color palette and wedding theme.
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum
Also referred to as ‘Mums’, these sturdy flowers offer large, robust blooms, that are available in many varying shades of yellow, orange, lavender, red, and purple. Chrysanthemums are often bicolored and are also available in white.
Dahlia
Dahlia
An industry favorite, dahlias are some of the most versatile and beautiful flowers you can find. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors and shades…minus blue. These layered beauties have long, singular, sturdy steams and grow between three and four feet tall. They can provide height when needed, depth when needed, texture when needed and even large pops of color if needed.
Gomphrena
Gomphrena
Commonly referred to as “globe amaranth”, these flowers look like small pompoms and come in beautiful shades of pink, purple, red, and white. A beautiful flower that dries easily while retaining most of its color, these gomphrenas are perfect for enjoying long after your wedding day.
Muhly Grass
Muhly Grass
This perennial sedge-like plant grows to be about three feet tall and three feet wide. This plant produces two layers of foliage: first a green, leaf-like structure that surrounds the understory, and, second, a purple-pink flower that outgrows the leaf-life structure from the bottom up. This plant is striking and at a distance, their plumes of feathery, pink flowers will look like colorful soft smoke.
Spicebush
Spicebush
Another shrub, this plant is known for it’s showy, yellow leaves that give off a spicy fragrance in the fall. Due to their strong smell, they are loved by birds, insects, and butterflies just as much as they are loved by people.
Celosia/Cock’s Comb
Celosia/Cock’s Comb
This edible ornamental flower is a sure stand out and are also a part of the amaranth family. Derived from the Ancient Greek word that means “burning”, celosia produces flame-like flower heads that bloom in deep reds, purples, pinks and golden yellow hues. They add a unique texture to arrangements offering blooms that are either plume-like or coiled, coral-like in shape.
Clematis
Clematis
Clematis are vines that produce blue, pink, red, white, or purple star-shaped flowers. These curling tendrils are perfect for adding unique shapes to wedding bouquets and floral arrangements. They are perfect for creating an arbor or covering an arch.
Dianthus
Dianthus
This flower has frilled petals and comes in various shades of pink, purple, and sometimes pink petals with white coloring. Some varieties of dianthus may carry a spicy scent, but overall these bright and cheerful flowers are easy options for livening up an arrangement or wedding bouquet.
Hydrangeas
Hydrangeas
Technically a shrub, hydrangeas produce the most elegant flowers in shrub history. They produce beautiful leaves in addition to their large and full blooms that can grow in either blue, green, pink purple, red or white. The tricky thing about hydrangeas is they are quite delicate, so be mindful and thoughtful of their placement within your floral decor.
Scented Geranium
Scented Geranium
If smell is important to you, this is an excellent choice. Scented geranium produces fragrant leaves that can mimic the scent of rose, pineapple, or even chocolate mint. Their leaves are also a generous green color and intricately shaped to add texture to any floral arrangement. Scented geraniums are perfect for centerpieces as they’ll refresh and entice your guests while complementing the larger blooms.
Strawflower
Strawflower
These hearty flowers come in glossy shades of red, pink, yellow, orange, purple and white. Strawflowers make colorful additions to evergreen bouquets, complementing the thick earthy nature of the bouquet while adding pops of color.
Toad Lilies
Toad Lilies
These speckled, orchid-like blooms will definitely be the talk of the town. Quite unique and intriguing, toad lilies come in different shades of yellow, purple, white, blue, and pink. They have large and wide green leaves that clasp it’s long stem and are perfect for bridal bouquets and boutonnières.
That wraps our Fall Season Blooms. There are plenty of more options out there and we would love to show them to you. If you would like to see what we’re currently working on, follow us on Instagram.
