WEDDINGS: Joy is in the details
W e d d i n g s |
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Love in Blooms By Carol Stocker |
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| When it comes to "personal flowers" -
that is, the flowers worn by members of the wedding party - brides and grooms are getting
down right practical. The mothers of the bride and groom no longer routinely pin on corsages at the ceremony. They don't wear well on people who are expected to hug 100 people in a three -hour period, and today's delicate fabrics rip too easily. Good jewelry is the accessory of choice for modern moms. Those moms and grandmas who do want flowers increasingly choose to carry a nosegay or have flowers that can be pinned to their handbags or worn on their wrists. |
Pauline Runkle of
Floral artistry in Manchester-by-the-Sea makes bracelets of the women's favorites, such as
delphinium florets, held by lightweight wire. "It doesn't get in the way or get
crushed," she says. For the bridal party, the bride's traditional mixed bouquet remains popular, though not always for throwing. Many brides prefer to keep their bouquet, while others find the notion of asking their single women friends to congregate in the front of an audience and grapple for flowers somewhat demeaning. The custom endures, though, and Runkle says many brides change their minds about the toss during the reception. She advises her clients to have a smaller "throw bouquet" made to cover all contingencies. |
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The quixotic gardener Perfection, she came
to realize, By Lois Boemer |
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| This
spring, I am in search of the perfect garden. When I find it , I hope to
incorporate ideas I find there in my own perfect garden. I want to gaze
out of my windows onto the hillside in the backyard and enjoy all four New
England seasons, with flowering perennials in the spring and summer, along
with a few annuals for cutting, and colorful leaves or dried flowers for
arranging indoors in the fall or winter. It seems my garden lacks a
certain continuity as we move through the year, and by late July or early
August, my garden starts to look, well, ratty. I want to change all of
this, and of course, I want the final product to be low maintenance.
My quest has taken me to several friends gardens and lead to discussions with many a garden professional. From them, I have learned that I am on the right track when I plant my beloved flowering perennials. Where I’ve gone wrong is in thinking of my garden as isolated pieces instead of as a whole. And, not surprisingly, I have come to realize there are few things you can plant then neglect. Pauline Runkle, an award winning horticulturist and principal of Floral Artistry, a floral design firm she started 30 years ago, has, with her husband, Joe, created what to any visitor would seem the ideal garden around their contemporary farmhouse in Manchester-by-the-Sea. There was nothing planted on the 4-acre site, formerly a pig farm, when they bought it 15 years ago. Since then, they have planted approximately 2 acres with a full-sun perennial garden, an herb garden, plus a small miniature-fruit-tree orchard. This is the ultimate cutting garden, one that Pauline Runkle uses extensively for her floral arrangements. She lavishly blends antique roses and fragrant herbs with chartreuse lady’s mantle and bold designer leaves from hostas. (Some of the hostas leaves are as big as a frying pan, she says.) A hydrangea collection borders the meadow, and the plants are cut for arrangements during spring, summer and fall. From the herb garden, she cuts large bouquets of fragrant mock-orange. From the perennial garden, she plucks old-fashioned spirea. The Runkle’s sunny expanses only serve to remind me that I must work with what I have: a small hillside garden on a shady lot. I can’t ever imagine my hostas growing large enough for a grand floral arrangement. Nor would I ever produce herbs enough for a houseful of fragrant bouquets. Meanwhile, Joe Runkle maintains a vegetable garden and grows dinner plate size dahlias that Pauline uses in the huge tents she is hired to decorate for parties. Last year, for their grandchildren, they planted half of the meadow with eight varieties of pumpkins and 10 varieties of sunflowers. "It was stupendous," says Pauline. By mulching all their gardens with compost every spring and fall, the Runkles nourish their plants and keep weds down. Lady’s mantle, planted along the edge of each individual garden, also stems weed growth. |
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