Alluring Blooms

Sometimes my cooler hoarding of beautiful old blooms pays off...

Like when some of the first dahlias of the season are 'Lakeview Peach Fuzz' and I still have dreamy peonies and ranunculus leftover to create a magical mix of spring and summer 😍

This house. These gardens. It's A LOT, I'm not gonna lie. But damn, I'm so blessed to live this flower filled chaotic life.

This arrangement features astilbe 'Peach Blossom', 'Blue Angel' hosta flowers, feverfew tanacetum 'Vegmo Single', dahlia 'Lakeview Peach Fuzz', old fully blown open ranunculus, poppy pods, oxeye daisy, foxglove and an unknown peony variety that was here when we bought the house.

Last weekend my dear friend Laura at The Kind Flower invited me to a pottery sale downtown on the lake. I stumbled upon this stunning ceramic bowl by and knew it had to come home with me.

It's such a beautiful piece, and today I took a break from planting (yes, I'm still planting - this neverending rain has me weeks behind my normal schedule) to design something for our kitchen.

Flowers blooming, digging in the dirt, birds chirping, bees buzzing...these are the things getting me through these days.

This arrangement includes cimicifuga (actaea) racemosa, old blown open ranunculus, yarrow 'Sassy Summer Taffy', roses 'Distant Drums' and 'Abraham Darby', lonicera (honeysuckle) 'Gold Flame', heuchera 'Little Cuties Blondie' and the first dahlia variety to bloom this year 'Jitterbug' - all from my garden.

What's most gorgeous in the garden today:

Foxglove, poppies, mint, fleabane, astilbe, dogwood, garlic scapes and yarrow, plus a couple dry packed peonies and leftover ranunculus, along with some imported orange spray roses for a pop of brighter color.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Picked the last of the ranunculus this morning and pulled the corms out in between showers. They should have been left in the ground for a couple more weeks to die off naturally, but bed space is limited in our tiny yard, so out they came to make room for the next crop.

I've got a plethora of pretty blooms in the cooler (all from the garden - including the last ranunculus and peonies of the season), so DM me if you want a floral pick me up! After this, things will slow down until zinnias and dahlias start producing in a few weeks.

This little mini features ranunculus, feverfew, astrantia, astilbe, garlic scapes and honeysuckle.

There isn't much in bloom in the yard yet, but in a couple weeks it will really be spectacular. There are so many buds beginning to form.

Here's a little sampling of what IS flowering at the moment after a quick stroll through the garden tonight: hellebore (two unnamed seedling varieties), tete a tete narcissus (mini daffodils), hyacinth and muscari 💙

The prettiest little tray of bouts and corsages from M & S's wedding day long ago. More tweedia inspiration because my seedlings have germinated and I'm so excited!!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Mine will be filled with consults, more seeding and lots of time in the garden weeding out scilla and aegopodium - the invasives that just won't go away.

📷: the one and only

Sowed seeds for this little beauty last week - tweedia! (also known as oxypetalum - the delicate star shaped bloom in the center) 😍

This is my first year attempting to grow tweedia from seed. I've always just purchase cut flowers through my wholesalers. It's always fun experimenting in the garden and trying new things. Here's to hoping for success! (And a moment of silence for the hundreds of plant babies who've perished in my care 🤣 - not all experiments are successful)

📷 :

Spring life thus far:

Emails, consults, admiring the hellebore in the garden, seeding flats and flats of seedlings for planting out in May, more emails, writing proposals, more emails, more admiring the hellebore, seeding more flats of seedlings, checking on dahlia tubers, PLANTING ANEMONE AND RANUNCULUS!!! (I'm super excited about that one)

Tomorrow the anemone and ranunculus get tucked into their rows in the cutting garden. They've been out in the 40° garage for a month and a half now growing strong root systems. In a couple months we'll have buckets and buckets full of beautiful blooms. I can't wait!

Walking through the garden this morning and seeing all the hellebore in bloom here in Wisconsin (see my stories) has me reminiscing on a phenomenal hellebore class I took with .creative years ago.

If you have the opportunity to take one of Alicia's classes I highly recommend it! She's a fantastic teacher and her class demo inspired this lush, dense arrangement which is out of my normal dancey, flouncy, whimsical wheelhouse.

P.S. I STILL covet this urn of hers all these years later 😍

I pulled the dahlia tubers out of winter storage this weekend. Unfortunately I suffered more tuber loss than normal, but this variety is a constant champion - 'Peaches n Cream'. I love the color shift from orange to white.

I bought this variety in 2015 (the first year I grew dahlias) and have managed to keep tubers year after year since. This will be my 10th dahlia growing season. I'm really looking forward to seeing these blooms again in a few months!

Took a quick walk through the back yard today on my lunch break and discovered the fritillaria are poking up through the snow! (The wild looking orange flower in the arrangement above)

In other garden news, the hellebore look like they'll bloom in a couple weeks too. Dreaming of spring blooms even if it is only February.

Just think, in a few months these babes will be in bloom again! And they could be in YOUR hands if you buy one of our spring flower subscriptions!

My spring garden is truly a thing of beauty - peonies (both the traditional fluffy kind, and my personal favorite the single varieties with delicate outer petals and bold yellow centers), spirea, anemones, geranium, pansies, geum and even a few bedding plants like petunias make their way into my arrangements. And the best part? They're sustainably grown in our garden on the south east side of Madison with no pesticides or herbicides. Just healthy soil, lots of beneficial insects and tons of love.

Sami will have certificates available at her pop up at the studio THIS Saturday Feb 10th from 11am-3pm. Stop by and shop her selection of hand curated vintage finds, and pick up some dried flowers or a subscription for fresh flowers once the season is underway!

Pulling photos for Flower Subscription listings on the shop site and reminiscing on flower filled days ❤️

Missing the garden full of blooms. This arrangement featured dahlias, garden roses (including my absolute favorite in the yard 'Abraham Darby'), sedum, aronia berry and ninebark.

Dreaming of spring blooms 😍

There are so many gorgeous event florals that have left our studio doors that I haven't gotten around to sharing on social media. My passion is for growing and designing whimsical, romantic flowers. Sharing photos of them with you after the fact is something I really drop the ball on.

Apologies for not sharing more of the beauty and giving these stunning blooms and amazing clients their moment in the spotlight!

This day will forever be a favorite.

Some sunny blooms to brighten your feed as we enter the longest night.

Happy to be celebrating solstice and welcoming more daylight in the coming weeks (even if that also means officially welcoming winter).

This arrangement featured fritillaria, ranunculus (both standard and butterfly), poppies, pieiris japonica, tulips and caramel antique garden roses in a vintage brass footed cup.

It's always fun when releases their color of the year. I love seeing how those predictions carry through in the upcoming seasons events.

This year I think they picked 'Peach Fuzz' JUST for me. This color is SO prominent in our cutting garden, and I can't wait to use it again next year! From ranunculus in the spring to lisianthus and zinnias in the summer to dahlias in the fall, and so much more, we'll be sure to bring the 🍑🍑🍑 in 2024!

We added SO many new rental items to our inventory this season but these modern looking minimalist concrete taper candle holders from and sand colored taper candles from may be my favorites 😍

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The end is near. Today I'll be out cutting the last of the garden blooms. I expect that we'll wake up tomorrow to dead, slimy, blackened dahlia foliage.

It's been an absolutely amazing growing season. I'm sad, but also grateful, to start the big job of putting my cutting garden rows to rest for the year.

I use the autumn as an opportunity to feed my soil for the upcoming growing season. After rows are cleaned out I add a generous layer of finely chopped leaves, a good sprinkle of compost full of organic matter and soil microbes, and top it with a layer of organic straw. As the autumn rain and winter snow pile up on the beds the leaves break down, and in the spring I have a rich, beautifully replenished bed to plant into. I'll share my process on stories this weekend as I work.

I'm a firm believer that healthy soil means healthy plants, and the fall is a great time to make it happen!

And here's my demo arrangement from Sundays garden arranging class 💛💛💛

Last Sunday I had such a great time during our dahlia and arranging classes.

I promised to share some of the students work with you, so here it goes. This arrangement was made by one of last weekends workshop participants, Anita. Her use of texture and color were fantastic, and she MADE this amazing stoneware compote. Isn't it stunning?! The color in real life on that stoneware was just breathtaking.

You can find her pottery in the future on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/shop/PotteryByAni (her shop is currently on vacation mode, but will be back up and running in the coming months)

I can't wait to see her shop open again - I need some gorgeous handmade vessels in my rental inventory! 😍😍😍

Another side by side with names, because the bold singles are getting all the ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ and 🔥 🔥 🔥 over on stories!

This was a quickly thrown together piece with leftovers from the garden arranging class on Sunday. No one gravitated towards the rich jewel toned purples and blues so I just had to see them put to use.

Everything picked from the garden except the Holland hyacinth 🪻

Bringing you more of the absolute beauty that was the 2023 wedding season.

J & S were an absolute dream to design for! We went with a classic look using light purple and white roses with hints of stock and greenery to add texture.

The day was perfect in every way, and I was so honored to put together some pretty blooms for their day!

I had an absolutely PHENOMENAL time with everyone who joined us for today's classes!!! A giant thank you for joining me to learn all about dahlias, flower arranging and photography.

Days like today truly feed my soul. It feels so good to share my passion for pretty blooms with others. I snapped this pic of a students arrangement over another students shoulder while we were working on how to get better cell phone photos of your flowers.

I will share all the students arrangements over the next week. It's so cool to see what flowers and color palettes each person selects. And in true Alluring Blooms fashion, the frost held off and we were able to walk the gardens to clip the perfect bits to each arrangement!

Last chance to sign up to join us tomorrow for Dahlias 101, Garden Inspired Arranging & Photography or just come for garden Q&A/last chance end of season dahlia gawk!

Here's the plan:

Sunday 10/22 10am-noon
DAHLIA GROWING 101 - $60
We'll walk through my dahlia growing process from start to finish - from tuber planting to the growing season to pest management to digging/dividing/storage - hands on dividing experience and take home tubers included

Sunday noon-1pm
LUNCH - free/at cost
Bring your own lunch or I'll be ordering take out from Forage Kitchen in Monona if you'd like to add on to my order - Informal Q & A session / garden chat while we eat (please feel free to come join me for lunch and gawk at dahlias even if you don't want to take either class - I should have over 50 dahlia varieties on display and always LOVE chatting all things flowers)

Sunday 10/22 1pm-5pm
ARRANGING & PHOTOGRAPHY - $150
Wander the gardens (HOPEFULLY) with me to clip whatever is calling to you, then make a lush arrangement in a take home container of your choosing - we'll go over flower selection and design technique and end the day by going over how I photograph my work - photo of your arrangement during golden hour included (NOTE: the forecast this evening looks like we might finally have a killing frost - no worries, I've cut a ton of product for you to choose from even if Mother Nature takes the gardens out)

DM me for address if you'd like to join us for any or all of tomorrow!

Today was SUCH a good day! I got to spend time with my mom and aunt - we laughed, shared seeds and plants, and fawned over dahlias. And while I was looking for a packet of ageratum seeds to share with my aunt I came across a random bucket full of ranunculus corms that have been sitting outside on my potting bench since they were pulled out in July 🤦😆🤪

This is what the growing season is like. Flitting from one thing to the next, trying to keep it all together (sometimes successfully, sometimes very unsuccessfully 😂), and being incredibly grateful for plants resilient nature. Let's hope they survive their months of outdoor neglect, because I need these babes in my life next spring.

I will go on record right now to say 2023 is in the running for most beautiful wedding season in Alluring Blooms history.

H & N were so fun to work with from start to finish, and they put the meaning in the words "Dream Team" when we got to collaborate with a list of vendors like this:






I cannot wait to share more from this absolutely stunning day!

The last time I taught a hands on design class in my garden was October 2021! I've done presentations and arrangement demos between now and then, but there's something special about the classes where you get to wander the garden and create something magical with whatever speaks to you.

This is the sample arrangement I created in that last garden hands on class. Many of these goodies are, indeed, still in bloom in the garden right now and will be available for you on Sunday. Things like tardiva hydrangea, tricyrtis (toad lily), 'Small World' dahlias, gomphrena, green currant tomatoes - and other things not in this arrangement like fall foliages, sedum, celosia, textural things like hyacinth bean vine pods, crabapples on the branch, hops on the vine, etc. On top of my garden goodies, I'll have some other lovely locally grown and imported beauties to choose from as well like scabiosa, roses, butterfly ranunculus, mums and so much more!

ALSO ---> even if you aren't able to or interested in joining us for either class, everyone is welcome to come join us for a FREE informal garden Q&A and dahlia gawk while we break for lunch! Bring your own food, or add onto our takeout order. Sit on the deck/porch with us, and chat flowers. Browse the 50+ varieties of dahlias that should be in bloom/on display on Sunday, take a picture under the hyacinth bean vine arch or just say hi - I'd love to see you.

Hey, hey, hey.... IT'S ME!!!!

READ THROUGH THIS POST FOR A QUESTION AT THE END 😍

I rarely make an appearance on this feed, and two posts scheduled in one day nonetheless; but I had that absolute pleasure of having my previous studio mate out to photograph me in my happy place a couple weeks ago and I just had to share!!! (If you're looking for branding photos, you've gotta check her out, she's fantastic!)

Anyway, hi 👋 I'm Amanda - the human behind all the pretty flower posts. I've loved flowers for as long as I can remember and started Alluring Blooms in 2010. This was my FOURTEENTH wedding season, and I can hardly believe it. It seems like yesterday that I was excitedly/nervously flowering my first event. Hundreds of events later and working flowers STILL give me those excited butterflies.

And that's where my question comes in. In a rare turn of events, we haven't had our first hard frost and I still have dahlia blooms cranking out in the garden. And I don't have an event booked this weekend. I'd love to share my excitement for flowers with you. Would you be interested in a last minute dahlia class THIS WEEKEND? Sunday, 10/22?

Here's what I'm thinking:

Sunday 10/22 10am-noon
DAHLIA GROWING 101 - $60
We'll walk through my dahlia growing process from start to finish - from tuber planting to the growing season to pest management to digging/dividing/storage - hands on dividing experience included

Sunday noon-1pm
LUNCH - free/at cost
Bring your own lunch or I'll be ordering take out from Forage Kitchen in Monona if you'd like to add on to my order - Informal Q & A session / garden chat while we eat (please feel free to come join me for lunch and gawk at dahlias even if you don't want to take either class - I always LOVE chatting all things flowers)

Sunday 10/22 1pm-5pm
ARRANGING & PHOTOGRAPHY - $150
Wander the gardens with me to clip whatever is calling to you, then make a lush arrangement in a take home container of your choosing - we'll go over flower selection and design technique and end the day by going over how I photograph my work - photo of your arrangement during golden hour included

DM me if you'd like to join me!

Mid-October and the dahlias are still THRIVING!

This arrangement was particularly special for me to create because it includes some incredibly meaningful blooms to me:

*The tardiva hydrangea that are the reason we have our home (that's a REALLY fun story, if you haven't heard it, I always love sharing it... ask me sometime!)

*The bold, cheerful, fun watercolor stripe 2023 single petal style dahlia seedling I hope to be able to cultivate, store and grow again next year.

It also includes other garden goodies (strawflower and dahlias 'Miss Amara', 'Rock Run Ashley' and 'Coralie, along with another 2023 dahlia seedling that is fluffy and the prettiest papaya color) and some imported blooms (bronze mums, peachy pink ranunculus, golden spray roses, crocosmia pods and calcynia heather) - all in a reusable rustic corrugated tin planter.

A moment of appreciation, please, for J & B's boutonnieres.

I've been doing this wedding flower thing for 14 years now, and J & B had one of THE most beautiful and unique weddings I've had the pleasure of flowering. It was an absolutely enchanted day.

I cannot wait to get the professional photos back from their day to be able to share more than just a quick boutonniere sneak peek I was able to snap!