Blog: violas
Charlie Charlie

What a truly seasonal British Valentine’s bouquet looks like – hellebores, daffodils, primroses, snowdrops, violets and more

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Seasonal British Valentine's bouquet - hellebores, daffodils, primroses, snowdrops, violets // Flowers from Forage For // The Natural Wedding Company

I love roses, but garden grown and in season, not on Valentine’s Day. But what does a seasonal British Valentine’s bouquet look like? We asked Anne-Marie from Forage For to make us a Valentine’s floral creation – she is quite renown for her stunning floral designs.

So from one corner of Suffolk in a walled garden, this is what was seasonal this year – and it’s worth noting that this has been a particularly unusual year, with unseasonable weather resulting in quite an array of flowers.

The above floral heart features bellis daisies, witch hazel, primroses, hellebores, snowdrops, heather, daffodils, violets, violas, scabious, muscari, blossom and cow parsley (yes really). This crazy unusual weather means that Anne-Marie still has one cow parsley plant that’s hung on all winter and is still flowering. Incredible.

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Charlie Charlie

Pastel iced doughnuts decorated with edible crystallised primroses, cowslips and violas for a spring wedding treat

Charlie

pastel_crystallised_flower_doughnuts

Pastel iced doughnuts decorated with crystallised edible flowers and mini chocolate eggs? Could these be any more pretty and totally perfect for a spring wedding.

Made by TNWC Recommended Supplier Eat My Flowers, inspired by Martha Stewart, these doughnuts are made using bought doughnuts, a simple icing, and crystallised flowers. I would love to try this out with mini ring doughnuts (if such a thing exists!) – packaged in individual brown craft boxes wouldn’t they make lovely wedding favours? In fact I don’t think they’d make it home!

pastel_crystallised_flower_doughnuts2

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Charlie Charlie

A DIY guide to decorating your wedding cheeses with edible flowers and petals from The Edible Flower Shop

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Goat's cheeses with edible flower petals from The Edible Flower Shop http://www.theedibleflowershop.co.uk/

It’s so nice to hand the blog over to guest writers once in a while, so today we are joined by Rachael who runs The Edible Flower Shop to teach us how we can decorate cheeses with edible flowers and petals to make a unique addition to your wedding feast.

Cheese wedding cakes are increasingly popular so why not make them even more beautiful with edible flowers. I particularly love these soft goat’s cheeses above that have been decorated with edible calendula and cornflower petals – such a riot of beautiful colours! I so want to try this out this summer.

Over to Rachael…

Wedding cheeses are becoming ever more popular and are often the centrepiece at a wedding breakfast. To personalise your wedding cheese and add stunning colour and beauty, why not have a go at decorating them with your own home grown edible flowers?

Individual cheeses with edible flowers from The Edible Flower Shop http://www.theedibleflowershop.co.uk/

Using edible flowers is a wonderful way to incorporate any colour theme from your wedding in to your food, and adds a really personal touch to your wedding breakfast. Not only that, but if you grow edible flowers for your wedding you can also use them for table decorations, button holes and to decorate cakes. The possibilities really are endless…

Base of Brie decorated with violas and goat's cheese on top decorated with dianthus from The Edible Flower Shop http://www.theedibleflowershop.co.uk/
Base of Brie decorated with violas and goat’s cheese on top decorated with dianthus

Edible flowers can be used to decorate either hard or soft cheeses but the methods used are quite different. Popular edible flowers for decorating cheeses are nasturtiums (flowers and leaves), chive flowers, calendula, violas, pansies, dianthus, borage, primulas, rocket, mustard, radish, sunflowers and cornflower petals to name but a few.

Viola 'Sorbet Raspberry' from The Edible Flower Shop http://www.theedibleflowershop.co.uk/
Viola ‘Sorbet Raspberry’

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Charlie Charlie

Edible spring flower lollipops with violas and primroses for sweet Easter wedding favours

Charlie

Edible spring primrose lollipop wedding favours

I’ve been meaning to share this idea with you for a while, but what could be more perfect than sharing them now – well, apparently it’s supposed to be the start of spring although the snow across the UK suggests otherwise.

These homemade lollipops each hold a pretty edible spring flower, such as these beautiful primroses, and would make lovely wedding favours for an Easter or spring wedding. These ones were made by our lovely TNWC businesses Forage For.

The tiny violas or violets are just the right size to be kept whole in a lollipop, whereas the larger pansies can have an individual petal carefully removed and used instead. You can find a recipe for the edible flower lollipops at Sprinkle Bakes – I particularly love that you don’t need to buy special lollipop moulds, but can in fact use powdered sugar to create your mould! If you’d rather not add another item to your already lengthy ‘to make’ wedding list, then I’d recommend checking out Eat My Flowers who make them with their homegrown edible flowers – you’ll find them in their shop.

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