I've been photographing some of the beautiful blooms we're growing this summer here at Sterling Flower Farm in Sterling, Connecticut. I'm building up a library of "flower portraits" as I call them, with the labels built into the picture, to help better communicate the beauty and seasonality of our blooms with couples who are considering having us as their wedding florist. There are many more flowers available from our farm in July than just those captured here. These are the ones I managed to snap photos of recently. We're so proud to be growing all the flowers that we design with . . . from our farm to your wedding!
First up is our eucalyptus, which is in season year-round from our greenhouse. I'm very grateful that for the past three years, our eucalyptus trees have given us an abundance of beautiful greenery to design wedding flower arrangements with. Because we often include eucalyptus in our flower arrangements, I've used it here as a backdrop to photograph the flowers.
Next up is zinnia queeny lime orange, formerly known as queen lime orange. This muted orange beauty is in season in our flower fields from mid-July through early September. It's also available in June and October when we plant it in our greenhouses. The queeny series of zinnias is known for its subdued hues that play nicely with other colors, and also for its many layers of beautiful, ruffled petals. Below you can see how queen lime orange blends beautifully into these bridesmaids bouquets.
Above, bridesmaids bouquets made with zinnias, dahlias, eucalyptus and celosia. All flowers grown at Sterling Flower Farm LLC.
Above, a couple other queeny zinnias that we love to grow. They really are the queens of zinnias! Queeny lemon peach comes in shades of muted gold, while queeny lime with blush has pale green and pale pink petals, with a stronger pink center.
Dahlia "golden scepter" is our earliest blooming variety on the farm. At the time when I took this photographs, in mid-July, our dahlias were just starting to bloom. Golden scepter was blooming in abundance, while the other dahlias were just starting to trickle in. Golden scepter is the perfect size to use as a boutonniere flower, and holds up surprisingly well outside of water.
New on the farm this summer, we are loving dahlia "marionberry milkshake" for her pastel purple-pink blooms, her beautiful rounded shape and many layers of petals. We planted some marionberry milkshake in our greenhouse, so although she's new on the farm, we've already had a few months of designing with her beautiful blooms. She has been tucked into our centerpieces, bridal bouquets and arch sprays, and we just love her! We're hoping that she makes lots of tubers so that we can have even more of her next summer.
Scabiosa are sweet little blooms that add a fun texture to flower arrangements. They are great in wrist corsages and boutonnieres. In addition to the burgundy "black knight" and the purple "oxford blue," we also grow white, ecru, and red scabiosa.
After posting the burgundy "black knight" scabiosa, I am following up with zinnia "Oklahoma Ivory." She's a beautiful cream color, and cream with burgundy has been our most popular color combination for our fall 2023 weddings. I can't wait to create gorgeous wedding flower arrangements with these beauties.
Below are some more of the flowers we grow, photographed in the "flower portrait" format against a backdrop of our eucalyptus. Please let me know what you think of these flower portraits. We hope they are helpful to you as you plan your wedding flowers with us. I hope to take more of these pictures before the season is over.
