Banner Flower Farm

For our farmer market customers we make hand-tied bouquets. Essentially, this simply means arranging the flowers while holding them in our hands -- as opposed to arranging them directly in a vase. This process becomes easier and more relaxed after a period of time. Usually, we find the novice bouquet-maker's initial attempts to be a bit stiff and contrived. All the flowers stems are vertical. After awhile they relax and find that if one holds the flower stems at a slight angle, and turns the bouquet as they work, a more pleasing result is accomplished.

Many bouquet makers have their own style; and, our arrangements tend to be whimsical. While we may think there is nothing more beautiful than a monotone bouquet of all 'Kenora Lisa' dahlias, the average farmers market customer isn't always in agreement. There is a small segment of high-end consumers who do purchase a monotone bouquet. However, the average market customer is young and generally less sophisticated. They want lots of color in a mixed bouquet.

There are four components in a bouquet: focus flower, filler, foliage, and fragrance. Since we are dahlia farmers, the dahlias are the flowers we use as our focus flower most of the time; but, not always. Early in the season when we are growing lilies, they are the featured flower; and, the dahlias are then used as a filler flower. Sarah Raven, the guru of cutting gardens, refers to the focus flowers as the bride, and the filler flowers are the bridesmaids. So, our dahlias are sometimes the bride; however, many times they are the bridesmaid.

The colors in a mixed bouquet are sometimes a little tricky. Generally speaking, there are two color groups within which you can comfortably work. There's the white-pink-purple-blue, and the red-orange-yellow-blue. And, if you're a little hesitant about which colors work well together, it's best to stay within one of the groups. If you have confidence in your sense of color, then by all means bend the color rules. I never knew these color rules existed. Maybe this is a good thing, or maybe not. It does, however, work for us. We tend to break the rules, and find that we like to add alot of orange to the group of white-pink-purple-blue. Sarah Raven refers to this method as "gatecrashing." We think it makes the bouquets pop with a riot of color. Many times we will add small, white, 'Sophie K' dahlias to mediate between some of the antagonistic colors.

During our growing season, we use many summertime classic flowers as fillers in our bouquets; and, they are:  acidanthera, agrostemma, amaranthus, asclepias, asters, calendula, campanula, celosia, cleome, cosmos, delphinium, dianthus, digitalis, feverfew, gomphrena, kale, larkspur, leucanthemum, lisianthus, miniature gladiolus, polygonum, phlox, rudbeckia, scabiosa, salvia, snapdragons, stock, statice, tuberose, tithonia, and yarrow. You'll find many of these filler/bridesmaid flowers in the photos.

Foliage is an important element in our bouquets. We use amaranthus, ammi, artemisia, bupleurum, dill, eucalyptus, euphorbia, fennel, grasses, hostas, herbs, and moluccelia.

The beautiful thing about dahlia bouquets is that one cannot help but give in to their exuberance. When market customers see the display of dahlia bouquets, their eyes light up, and a smile creeps across their face. "Wow," is usually the first word out of their mouth. That truly is what makes this passion of ours worthwhile.