later and it becomes off-season in either the North or South.
Garden Parties, which were common during the Victorian Period, can run the
gamut from a dressy afternoon tea to everyone arriving in their gardening
ware to help work in the hostess's garden. The garden party is, also, an
excellent idea to bring people together for gardening clubs, a wedding
shower or for the first time homeowner. Each guest brings a plant (small
shrubs, ornamental grasses or other perennials) and a tool, or other piece
of gardening equipment, whether new or a gift from the guest's own tool
shed.
For parties with gift exchanges, guests can bring items relating to
gardening such as a plant, tool, container, garden ornament, etc... The
hostess will need to somewhat define what types of items that guests should
bring such as indoor, outdoor, flowering, non-flowering, tools, etc.
One way of giving away plants as favors is to use small potted plants on the
tables as all or part of the table decorations or tiny potted plants can be
used as place card holders. The nursery pots can be covered with tissue
paper, burlap or other fabric and tied with a colorful ribbon or twine or
even repotted into inexpensive decorative or plan clay pots. Plants that
work great for this are: herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage, lavender), mini
palms, mini schefflera, perennial plants such as Shasta daisies, sunflowers seedlings, young
ornamental grasses or bamboo as well as starter plants such as tomatoes.
Handing out seedlings as wedding favors has been popular for quite sometime.
However, there are some considerations to keep in mind.
- Seedlings are seasonal and only available November through May. During the summer months, one would need to select small potted evergreens or potted herbs.
- Plants need to be ordered 6 to 8 weeks in advance from the nursery or greenhouse so that delivery can be timed for the week before the wedding.
- Designate a person, or persons, to be responsible for separating the seedlings and bagging each one with a handful of moist peat. This needs to be done within a couple of days before the ceremony so that they are still fresh and then kept in a cool, dark area such as garage, basement or pantry.
- Where will the plants be held (at the ceremony or reception) before being handed out? It should again be a cool, dark area out of the way. Heat and sun will dry them out possibly causing the plants to wilt severely or kill them. Depending on how many guests are expected, these boxes can take up valuable space.
- The most commonly used plant varieties for handing out as favors are: pines, spruces, dogwoods, lilacs, red maples, even late spring/summer flowering bulbs.
- Be sure to keep in mind your guests lifestyle. If most of your guests are city dwellers residing in apartments, they are not going to have anywhere to plant most shrubs or trees, so herbs or flowers would be quite thoughtful.
