Short notice wedding- home grown flowers?

[BlackishTulips]

Hi,
I am getting married around easter time. It’s not a fancy wedding, just the legal part followed by a meal in a restaurant. I am trying to keep it low budget, but I do love flowers. I’d like a bouquet and a vase of flowers for each table at the restaurant (6?)

I’m wondering if it’s too late to plant tulip bulbs for example for them to flower mid April? If not are there any tips for choosing bulbs which will flower around this time?
Are there any other spring flowers which I can plant now and have a chance to come up by mid April?

I love Anemone, Ranunculus, paper whites but wonder which spring flowers have the best chance of actually flowering so soon.

I wish we had planned this back in autumn, but planning anything has seemed so difficult so we decided just to go for it.
Any advice or tips would be so welcome!
Thanks

Short answer: do a quick run round all the supermarkets, garden centres, etc and see what excess Valentine's stuff they may have that they are now selling off cheap.

Somebody will have a better answer in a minute.

It'll be cheaper to buy supermarket tulips when you need them than buy bulbs now.

Where in the country are you? Easter is a tricky time for garden flowers, I'd ask everyone you know with a nice garden if they think they'd have any flowers they could cut for you around that time. The other option for the table settings would be cut branches with blossom on them. Too late for catkins or ivy probably by Easter.

I would visit a cheap and cheerful florists in a market, I think. Spring bulbs are planted in Autumn - you can buy them in the Spring in a pot, but they'll be super expensive in the quantities you'll need.

Congratulations - how exciting for you, love a spring wedding!

Rather than a vase of flowers for the tables, how about living plants? You could make lovely arrangements of primrose, pansy, violet, ivy, moss. You may get forget-me-not, too.

Spring bulbs need several months of being below 7C to start sprouting. Even if you can find spring bulbs for sale, they won't bloom in time, sorry. You can buy forced bulbs, pre-chilled bulbs ready to sprout, but they are expensive (more than cut flowers) and I doubt you will find any at this time of year, they are usually sold in autumn for Christmas.

Bouquets of daffodils from the supermarket start at £1.50, tulips are usually £3+. That would be your cheapest option. You can usually get pots of hyacinths, muscari (grape hyacinths) and dwarf narcissus tete a tete in the supermarket for under a fiver, if you want pot plants rather than cut flowers.

Other "cheap" supermarket flowers that you could use are carnations, chrysanthemums, alstroemerias, and roses. I currently have 6 stems of alstroemeria that cost £3. In full bloom, 3 stems would be enough for a small table posy.

It's a bit cheeky but the flower subscription service I use is always giving out vouchers to send a free trial bouquet to a friend or your first 2 bouquets are only £12.50 when you join anyway. You could probably get enough flowers for 6 tables from 3 bouquets if you sign up and recruit some friends... Or ask on here, people are always offering the free bouquet vouchers (the person that sends them gets a discount on their next order). You would have to remember to cancel the subscription though.

Thanks so much for your replies!
Ooh yes, I will have a look at valentines sell offs, but suspect you are right, buying tulips in april will work out cheaper than buying bulbs now. And guaranteed results!!!
I do have a certain number of tulips growing in my garden so I’ll be happy to cut them. I also have an enormous rosemary bush which needs a massive cut back, so was thinking of using some of that for foliage.A friend has cherry trees, but hit and miss when they bloom so I think I might see what’s available at the time and then add some cut flowers from the florist.
Perhaps she will be able to get me some anemones or ranunculus if they are in season for a fair price. They wouldn’t be in season but I love spider chrysanthemums - i just don’t want to spend much, and I’m keen to use what is available locally, and love the idea of the flowers coming from my garden.
I’m in the north east so spring comes late here!

Spider chrysanthemums are beautiful and last forever and a day. You could always mix a few of them with cheaper blooms, foliage and flowers from your garden.

YES cheshire... i think that’s what I’ll do. I particularly love green goddesses but don’t want to go to the florist with a prescriptive list of black tulips, purple anemones and green chrysanthemums, as they might not be the best value on the day. I’d love to go to the wholesale flower market myself and choose from what they have on the day, but it’s trade only round here.

There are wholesale florists online but delivery is often £10 so maybe it wouldn't be worth it for a small order. M&S and Waitrose often have green chrysanthemums, black tulips and mixed anemones. The Co op often have the green or other "fancy" chrysanthemums in their cheap(ish) mixed bouquets (£6-8).

I would check out what the supermarkets have then use the rest of your budget for fancy stuff at the florists.

It might depend on where you live, but in a small market town near me there is aWI market every week, where people sell local produce.
I contacted the organiser and reserved their whole flower stall fit the week I married and got about 12 buckets of flowers for less than £50. It was a very flowery wedding!

Another vote for just picking up supermarket flowers. Morrusons were the best value when I did mine and had a good range.

pretty unanimous then... planting anything now is too late!

I’ll see what i can get when the time comes, hopefully will be able to pick up a few nice things dor the tables. Might discuss with the florist ahead of time and see what she thinks. She’s also a fruit and veg shop so not too high end but still gonna be pricey

If you decide to do planted pots for the table you could pick up trays of bedding from B&Q or similar

Good idea deplorabelle. PERhaps i could pick up some pretty bowls/ serving dishes from charity shop and plant them up

It will be too early for summer bedding plants. You could probably get some small spring bedding plants now, such as pansies or primroses, and grow them on. You would have to buy more than you need for the tables to guarantee that you have 6 plants that are in bloom and look good on the day. A large plant in bloom bought in April will cost as much as a supermarket bouquet.

If you do decide to have plants in pots, thyme bought in the supermarket can look good as a foliage plant tumbling over the side of a bowl, as well as smelling delicious.

Thyme is a great call- my favourite herb!
I’ll keep my eye out for what is available, but thinking i’ll need to grow them indoors? Or they won’t get far.