Fragrant Flowers for Wedding Centrepiece
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Grace Fung
Posted on: January 20, 2006

I’m planning an October wedding, and would like to place on reception tables as centrepieces, groups of fine china tea cups, potting flowers, herbs, and plants in them. Natural fragrance would be charming! But, the height probably should stay short, or no more than just over a foot, even given combination-planting. Then, at the end of the evening, each guest will be gifted a tea cup with its matching saucer.

I’ve done some research and wondered if the following plants would work: lavender, sweet alyssum, rosemary herb, wishbone flower, impatiens. I’d also like to combine the flowers with sprigs of english ivy, which I’ve already got growing.

do you have any recommendations, especially given Richter varieties? if possible, for practical purposes (since it’ll be the fall as guests reach home with their "mini gardens"), are any especially suited for indoor growth?

Since the wedding is going to be in fall, there is not going to be much in bloom. Why don’t you opt for scented geraniums? They are available in variegated forms and in a great variety of leaf shapes, so that you can get great beauty even without flowers. Given reasonable light and moist but not soggy conditions indoors they overwinter indoors with no problem.The best varieties would be Lemon Frensham, apple, peppermint, fingerbowl lemon, Prince Rupert and variegated Prince Rupert, strawberry, variegated mint rose -they have wonderful fragrance and don’t grow too tall. You can nip out the tops to get bushier plants. For texture and colour contrast you could try fernleaf, skeleton rose, fair Ellen.

I can only speak with experience about the plants that we carry and I know that rosemary would provide a great texture contrast to scented geraniums. Lavender would not overwinter in a house very well.

I feel that impatiens are very pretty, but so common in street plantings and almost every garden that they would not provide a special touch. Wishbone flowers are lovely, but you would have to ask someone who sells them how well they would do indoors over the winter.

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