Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

When should you plant? Last Fall. How is your Time Machine working? We feel like we are going to have to open a Wedding Planner Department, we get so many questions from people who want a lovely natural look for their wedding, but they don't understand how plants work. We just answered a similar question which you should read, although you probably don't want to drive to Austin to the Plant Sale and the plants would not all be appropriate for Aransas County, anyway.

So, what to do? If you went to a nursery and bought bedding plants, got them in the ground and cared for them diligently, you might get some big enough to put on some blooms, but the stems would probably be short. This particular member of the Smarty Plants team had a garden that we had worked on for about 35 years when our daughter got married in it. Because we had many old native trees that were there when we built the house, plus adobe brick walks we had laid down, an herb garden and colorful variegated leaved plants that were attractive in all that tree shade, we needed no more flowers than were already blooming in the beds. . We went to a nursery the day before the wedding and bought a few potted blooming plants which stood on the ground at turns in the walkway, or hung from tree branches, just to make it a little more festive. We had a professional florist make the bouquets. Truly, if you went to all the trouble and expense of trying to get flowers up big enough to make bouquets, you would probably still spend more than for flowers from the florist. Of course, there is the chance of sudden hard rain, heavy wind or deer having a nice wedding bouquet banquet.

We wish you all the best in your marriage!