Creating a garden for a wedding

If you love your garden what could be better than combining your two loves in a garden wedding. Preparing a garden for a wedding may seem like a big task but Tui have some suggestions and products to make it easier.

A lush lawn is beautiful to get married on and the colour looks fantastic in photos. Wildflowers work well with a more informal style wedding whereas well trimmed tight buxus hedges are a fantastic framework for a formal garden wedding.  Hanging baskets can add a dash of colour and height to a garden setting and of roses add romance to any setting.  Allow at least 12 months to prepare the garden for the wedding expecially or even longer if designing a new garden.

Preparing the garden beds
This will depend on the quality of your garden soil. For established garden beds dig in plenty of Tui Organic Compost and Tui General Fertiliser 6 weeks before planting. This provides a rich base for plants to grow. If your soil is lacking in nutrients or contains clay create nutrient rich soil first by adding Gypsum and Tui Super Sheep Pellets.
 

Containers and hanging baskets
Compliment garden beds with contrasting container plants. Plant seedlings into containers and hanging baskets one month prior to the wedding date. Use a high quality potting mix like Debco Pot Power. A premium mixture is necessary for your special and delicate potted plants and your piece of mind that plants will grow.
 

Choosing flowers
There are thousands of varieties and colour combinations to choose from. Simplify the process by selecting quick-growing and long-flowering plants which produce masses of flowers.
Choose three to five key varieties that match your wedding colour scheme and plant in large groups.
 

Flower varieties by colour

Silver foliage: Astelia, lamb’s ear, artemisia, snow-in-summer, Cineraria ‘Silver Dust’, Dichondra, Buddleja ‘Silver Anniversary’.

White flowers: Flower Carpet Rose, mignonette, alyssum, cosmos, petunias, lobelia, marguerite daisies, dahlias, bacopa, brachyscome, sutera, felicia. White hydrangeas, white calla lilies, sweet lily of the valley, lisianthus, and lush peonies.
 

Black foliage: Black mondo grass, flaxes, ajuga, Aeonium ‘Schwarzkopf’, Alocasia ‘Black Velvet’, Cordyline ‘Caruba Black’.
 

Fuchsia (pink and magenta) flowers: Bougainvillea, Superbells Petunia, Happitunia ‘Fuchsia Belle’, Echinacea, penstemon, cosmos, dianthus, fuchsias, zinnias.
 

Yellow flowers: Flower Carpet Rose Yellow, Dahlias, Garvinea ‘Santana’, Inca, daylilies, daffodils, hibiscus, petunias, zinnias, coreopsis.
 

Blue flowers: Blue Hydrangea, anchusa, petunias, lobelia, plumbago, brachyscome, felicia.

Red flowers: Anthuriums, Gerberas, Freesias, Tulips, Alstroemeria
 

Purple flowers: deep lavender roses, purple calla lilies lavender, sweet peas, astillbe, and agapnathus.
 

Orange flowers: maryllis mix, gold calla lilies, Leonidas roses and ranunculus

For the bouquet choose varieties that are specifically bred for their long stems – dwarf cultivars may look cute but their short stems won’t give you much to grip. Select plants that are labelled as ‘tall’ not ‘bedding’.

Pot up table decorations to match the planting scheme and highly scented plants for entranceways and seating areas: Heliotrope, dianthus, gardenia, port wine magnolia, Cosmos ‘Coco Chanel’.

Plant extra flowers. Whether you plant new flowerbeds near the place you will say your vows or in the backyard to use for bouquets and cut flowers, you cannot have too many flowers for a garden wedding.

Ask friends and family to grow back-up flowers for the day or to take care of one area of the wedding flowers like the centre pieces.
 

Sprinkle wild flower seeds in areas that look bare. These are quick and reliable to grow.
 

Planting times
Seed packets usually state the time it takes from sowing to flowering. However, those dates assume perfect growing conditions – late frosts or cold weather will set back flowering so add on a few weeks to allow for all eventualities.

To break up the work and ensure constant flowering plant in succession. Sow the same flower every two weeks for 3-4 months to ensure most are in bloom at the time you want. Plant all seeds into Tui Seed Raising Mix. It is suitable for use in seed raising trays, containers and garden beds and has added gypsum for early and strong root development.

Growing bulbs for your wedding
Bulbs are difficult to grow for a specific date as they are less dependant on final flowering time as they are on how cold the winter is, how much rain there is and how early or late spring comes.
For an early spring wedding you can get bulbs to flower earlier by placing the bulbs in the chiller at about 4 degrees. Do this in March and then plant them in the garden in late May. The bulbs will think they have had a winter and will roar into growth, flowering about 3-4 weeks ahead of normal.
Plant bulbs in a specialized growing mix like Debco Bulb Mix, it is specially formulated for optimum growth and flowering in all bulb varieties. Debco Bulb is a premium grade formula that contains Saturaid for better drainage, calcium to prevent bulb and corn rot.
 

Growing roses for your wedding
There are literally hundreds of types of roses that you can grow in your garden. With such a selection to choose from, it can be extremely difficult to choose the rose that’s right for you. Roses come in varieties of high maintenance to no maintenance. Most roses, though, do require a certain amount of time to get started and to care for adequately. Minimal care roses that produce maximum results are ideal for beginners or those still somewhat new to rose gardening.
 

Feeding flowers
Look after growing blooms by feeding with good quality products to make sure they look and perform best.
Annuals grow quickly and flower generously but they need all the help they can get. Feed with a balanced fertiliser like Tui General Fertiliser initially, then, in the last month, switch to one that’s specifically for flowers from the Tui Garden Remedy range.
Apply Tui Flower Booster 1 month prior to the date to boost leaf colour and growth.
Apply Tui Fruit & Flower a month prior to the date to enhance the colour and quality of flowers.
Tui Hydrangea Blue will deepen the colour of hydrangeas – apply the season prior to the wedding. This is a great tip for a blue wedding colour scheme.
To brighten blooms of pink Hydrangeas apply Tui Lime.

Preparations for other areas of the garden:

• Mulch all garden beds with Tui Mulch & Feed 2 weeks prior to the wedding. Because it contains pea straw, blood & bone and powdered sheep manure it has a rich aroma that will not be pleasant if applied the day before the wedding! Applying two weeks in advance will mean plants will get a final boost from the nutrients in Tui Mulch & feed and will provide a tidy ground cover.
• Apply a high quality lawn fertiliser like Scotts Lawn Builder to the lawn 10 weeks prior to the wedding. Scotts Lawn Builder Regular is suitable to feed all lawn grass types and is guaranteed not to burn lawns and leave brown patches if used according to instructions.
• Liquid-feed the entire garden 2 weeks prior to the wedding with Seasol plant tonic to boost growth and maintain plant health.
• Mow the grass, deadhead the flowers and pull any last weeds two days in advance. This will ensure your garden is lovely on your wedding day.