Day One....My aunt Kathy took me to a FABULOUS garden center called Calgo Gardens. Man do they have the right idea. Not only is the gift shop to die for but the grounds are breath taking! I loved their color combinations....container gardens comprised of bright orange pumpkins and fabulous foliage, mini succulent gardens, the most amazing garden pottery, a garden shed where a portion of the roof was planted with succulents (if you follow the blog at all you know how much FBS looooooves succulents!), impressive grasses, fall mums and more.....! Their selection of materials coupled with out of this world containers has me ITCHING to design fall planters (Don't forget that we at FBS we also love to do this sort of thing)!!!!! And by the way....don't underestimate the beauty of tall grasses! For fall weddings, these beauties make great ceremony pieces (especially when planted in a fabulous container)....especially if the ceremony is outdoors. Sometimes the most beautiful designs are just that simple!
(I'm pretty sure Luke loved this place as much as I did!)
Day Two....Aunt Kathy took me by a friend's farm who has a passion for dahlias and grows about 400 plants every year "just for fun". Ummmm...why can't he live in RI!!!!!!!!!!???? Check out how well maintained his plants are...each supported with a decorative iron stake....the colors of his dahlias are outrageous!!! Makes me hang my head in shame when I think about my measly 50 plants that are sharing the garden with 8 million weeds. Oh well....maybe next year I can do better....
Day Three....My Aunt is a master gardener and walking around in her yard is like walking around at the Roger Williams Botanical Garden! Seriously...I've never seen anything so beautiful. Where she is located in NJ, they are one planting zone different than we are in RI so she has the ability to plant things that we can't........its just not fair! Beautiful flowers, foliage and berries that I can't plant in my own yard??! I wish I had never seen what I've been missing!!! Anyway...check out these amazing photos of her yard...especially the meandering ponds!
Day Four....After walking around her yard for four days now and picking out all my favorite plants and flowers from her garden, I muster the courage to ask Auntie if she will allow me to create some floral arrangements from her garden! She said yes and so I took a golf cart and some pruning shears and away I went! After an hour of picking and a full golf cart later, I set up shop at the the dining room table. Using some antique pottery as containers I went to work. The pictures don't do it any justice at all (darn that inside flash!) but the colors, textures and materials that came out of that garden were AMAZING. Check out the mango colored coxcomb, the magnolia pods, the cat tails and the rusty colored sedum! The big lesson here is that our yards are filled with FABULOUS, unexpected material perfect for a floral arrangement...even at this time of year when our gardens have seen better days. Think outside the box! I used things like green tomatoes, stems of unripened raspberries, a branch of ginkgo, feathery grasses, and unusual pods. These kinds of things make the best arrangements!!! So get creative, go out in your yards, and whip up something totally unexpected! Even some weeds are gorgeous!!!!!!!!
(Notice the little guy taking notes in the background?)
Last but not least...just had to share my new favorite fall palette with you (in case there is a bride out there who needs some help in this department!). Inspired by orange-mango colored coxcomb planted close to a soft grey foliage that I have to discover the name of....I am loving the thought of different shades of grey with deep oranges, mango hues and even a hint of rusty reddish-orange. Somebody please indulge me!!!!
