Monkshood in Wedding Bouquets

Unfortunately, monkshood is poisonous. Personally, when I used to have my shop and worked with fresh flowers, I wouldn't buy them and you don't often see them in the wholesale markets either. They are quite big flowers too - how is she incorporating them into your bouquet just out of curiousity? I certainly wouldn't have them near children to be honest. What about muscari? Another alternative would be to mix and match fresh flowers with artificial blue flowers. You could use artificial bluebells which has the same purpley blue colour.. these are artificial bluebells:-

Thanks for replying. On one hand it's reassuring to hear that I'm not being stupid worrying about the flowers being poisonous, on the other it means we're back to square one with them. I know you mentioned muscari, can you think of any other blue flowers that would be available in early March and might be suitable? I don't think I was very clear in my original post but I ideally would like flowers that *aren't* a purple-y shade of blue (agapanthus and hyacinth were a couple of suggestions made by other florists but the ones I've seen are more purple than blue and I don't think that'll go with the rest of the theme). I also did consider using artificial flowers but decided against it; I've seen some really nice ones but the symbolism just doesn't quite sit right with me.

I think part of my problem is that this florist is the one used by the venue for the table arrangements that are included in the package and I feel like it's probably a good idea for continuity reasons to use them for everything else as well. They're reasonably priced - about average from what I've seen - but she doesn't seem all that keen on the blue theme and it's been like pulling teeth to get her to even suggest monkshood.

There is delphinium which look splendid in centrepieces and the individual flower heads can be used in bouquets. Delphiniums comes in all shades of blue. Anenomes also come in a blue but it can sometimes be a 'lavender' blue rather than true blue, eryngium which is sea holly or thistle which has a blue centre and iris but iris aren't very long lasting and can be a bit unpredictable for wedding flowers. Unfortunately, there are very few true blue flowers in the natural world and most of them do have purple undertones such as the agapanthus and hyacinth. It is a difficult colour scheme to use in fresh flowers so chances of getting an exact match are pretty slim I'm afraid.

One other point worth mentioning and this may be one of the reasons why the venue florist is uncertain about using blue in the venue flowers is that blue is a receeding colour (as is purple) so in large rooms, particularly rooms which don't have a lot of natural light, the colour disappears and it gives the impression of 'holes' in arrangements where the blue is.

She may also be worried that on the day, she won't be able to provide you with the "correct" shade of blue in the flowers given to her by the wholesaler. With fresh flowers, florists are very much at the mercy of the wholesalers they order them from and although wholesalers do their utmost to provide flowers in the shade requested, Mother Nature can only provide what's available at the time which is why nearly all florists who work with fresh flowers will say they will do their best but can't give any guarantees.

The only cast iron guarantee of getting your shade of blue would be to use ribbons. feathers or beading to accent the blue rather than trying to match it with flowers. Probably not what you wanted to hear but hopefully this has helped a bit! Brenda

Delphinium is a dark blue:

Muscari looks lovely with Sweet Peas or Roses:

There is also Erignium or ( Sea Holly)