Grasses make unusual decorations
Arrangements of growing plants bring the outdoors in and reflect per
Aug 7, 2006
Plan a wedding celebration that reflects your unique style by using eye-catching containers of effectively colored grass plants as decorations. Trends in party decorations, especially those of weddings, over the past few years suggest that themes are important. The notion that less is more is surely here to stay. Therefore, bring the outdoors in by using plants like ornamental grasses combined with simple but elegant bits and pieces from garden landscapes.
Grasses do not possess what individuals tend to recognize as classic flowers. However, they do match all the design criteria traditionally applied to simple garden-themed decorations. A wide selection of plant types allows choices that beautifully illustrate the celebration colors and theme. Choice turns into carefully selecting individual varieties that display desired line, texture, form, and color. For ideas and to get into the creative mood check out The John Greenlee/Euro American Collection of Grasses. You will discover that grasses possess:
- for the most part, simple and elegant lines;
- a diversity of leaf textures from narrow, needle-like leaf shapes to broad and rounded ones;
- a variety of forms such as vertical, rounded, somewhat horizontal and weeping; and
- a quantity of colors that either can boldly or subtly match the palette of any celebration.
"That all sounds pretty good," you might be thinking at this point. "However, I just want some relatively small table decorations."
No, problem! What you put on your reception tables is an opportunity for creative license. Grasses may loom large in the garden. Nevertheless, they can allow you to go to town and personalize your wedding reception tables. Here are ideas suggested to a mother whose daughter's color palette centered around espresso brown and blue-jay, but wanted grasses for table decorations.
- Choose a terra cotta or ceramic pot or container of a size which suits the table size. Then find a plastic pot which can easily slip inside this first pot. Germinate seeds or transplant grasses into the plastic pots and keep them happy until the Big Day. Not only are the plants happy, but the decorative pots stay fresh and clean.
- Slip the plastic pots into the decorative pots and hide the space between plastic and decorative pots with sphagnum moss. The decorating is done!
- Use clear plastic saucers to keep stray bits of soil and water from the table. Clay saucers, as nice as they look, don't do the trick because any moisture present will seep from them onto the table. There are clay saucers which are glazed inside, but they are expensive.
- Decorative pots or containers, plastic pots and saucers are easy to find at local garden centers, home stores or craft shops. Decorating the pots or containers is easy.
- Coming up with ideas for grasses in the bride-to-be's color palette of blue and brown was pleasurable and easy. Terra Nova Nurseries and Proven Winners are two wholesale growers with plant pictures online that made choosing bronze and brown-hued grasses easy. Favorites are Frosted Curls and Toffee Twist. There are also many cultivars of Festuca glauca that are small and blue, as well as a Festuca glauca 'Golden Toupee' which is kind of a gold color.
- Start tracking down suppliers as soon as you make a choice. Order small pots of chosen grasses through a wholesaler (some of them are very helpful) or your local garden center. It might be necessary to do a good amount of telephoning around before a supplier is located.
- On the other hand, you can purchase grass seeds to sow in plastic pots. This helps control plant size as well as cost. Thompson and Morgan can supply most wanted seeds. There are other suppliers whose products local garden centers might carry or be able to suggest.
- Another great idea and perhaps the simplest is to buy several packages of "Cat Treat" seeds from Renee's Garden. The grasses that grow from these packets are all shades and hues of green and the leaf textures will vary. Allow yourself plenty of time to play around with this one!
©
Text and photograph by Georgene A. Bramlage, August 7, 2006. Reproduction without permission prohibited.
