2013 Wedding Floral Trends

Did you miss Waukesha Floral & Green House showcasing 2013 floral trends on The Morning Blend's Wedding Week? As we head into the New Year it is time to finalize important details for spring and summer weddings. We know your schedule is busy. Watch the online copy of the interview here.

Visit Waukesha Floral at The Wonderful World of Weddings this weekend, January 5-6th from 10:00 am - 4:30 pm. This premier wedding event brings together respected exhibitors with the latest fashions, products and services to ensure a memorable wedding. Be sure to stop by and see examples of beautiful bouquets first hand.

A few additional tips from organizer Jay Partington for bridal show:

• Wear comfortable shoes. 
• Bring address labels so you can easily sign up for drawings and raffles that the exhibitors provide. 
• Come hungry because there are cakes, treats to sample. 
• Grab a seat early for the Fashion Shows – they cannot be missed. Floral bouquets, with gift certificates and vouchers from exhibitors, will be tossed into the audience throughout the show. 

Would you rather talk one-to-one than attend a bridal show? Our wedding specialists are on-hand to help with questions. Email or call 262.542.8152 for information or to schedule an appointment.

PS: Find ongoing wedding inspiration online with Waukesha Floral. Join us on Pinterest and Facebook for wedding ideas, floral inspiration, DIY projects, decorating tips and more.

Join Us Monday 9am for The Morning Blend

Waukesha Floral & Greenhouse has always taken pride in being a source for original inspiration for today's modern bride.

We are honored to help kick-off
The Morning Blend's Wedding Week this Monday at 9am on TODAY'S TMJ4. We will be showcasing new wedding floral trends for 2013. Save the date! 

You can also find ongoing inspiration online. Join us on Pinterest and Facebook for wedding ideas, floral inspiration, DIY projects, decorating tips and more.

Best Holiday Shopping for 2013!



Regularly $29.99... Now $15



Only 363 days until Christmas!  Stop in for the best holiday shopping of 2013... all holiday gifts and remaining poinsettia plants are 50% off, including this great climbing santa and elf with LED powered lights on the tree.  For the Santa collector, he can be purchased and tucked away for just $124.99.  We also have some beautiful ornaments, candles, stockings, snowmen, garlanding, wreaths and so much more.  Inventory starts next week, so the more we sell the less we count!  Stop in today through Saturday, open 8-5. 

Holiday Centerpiece by Teleflora

Busy days here at Waukesha Floral!  We're working hard to provide beautiful gifts and happy surprises to all those receiving flowers this year.

Here's one of our favorite centerpieces, the Teleflora Sparkle of Christmas bouquet.  The cut glass bowl is just beautiful and could be used later for an elegant dip vessel or more flowers for any season.  The silver leaves and red candles are quite nice for a holiday centerpiece.

Hope you are enjoying the first snow of the season!  Feel free to stop by this weekend, we will be here for pick-ups or deliveries through Monday!

Holiday Greetings from the Elves at Waukesha Floral

The Waukesha Floral Elves are hard at work!  Please click on the video above for a special Christmas message.  We wish you the merriest Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year!

Getting into the Spirit of Christmas!

 The beauty of Christmas is reflected in the tree we decorate for the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee.  The tree is located in the Pihos Building.  The day we decorated, a talented group of church members were baking wonderful cookies in a ring shape.  The lovely aroma of baking delights wafted our way, and after sampling, we purchased a dozen for the girls back at Waukesha Floral.  They were heavenly!

We're in the home stretch towards Christmas day!  Waukesha Floral still has some beautiful poinsettias, Norfolk pines and as always, a huge array of fresh flowers.  Give us a call or look at www.waukeshafloral.com.

Keepin' it Clean

Waukesha Floral's Christmas decorating season is almost complete!  We have been "on the road" to businesses, churches and homes since November 12th, making sure every space is decorated for the happiest of holidays.   Our elves tend to pick up a lot of glitter... and so do the spaces we decorate.  Here, Marty shows how adept he is at using the vacuum to make one final glitter pick-up in our client's home.  And if you need a little decorating... give us a call!  We'll bring the glitter AND the vacuum!

New Poinsettia Varieties

"Ice Punch"

"Sparkling Punch"

"Ice Crystal"

It's Poinsettia Parade Week at Waukesha Floral!  Here are three of our new varieties for 2012, all in wonderful shades of pink with variations in the colored brachts (or flowers!).  Stop by and see all of our beauties!

It's Poinsettia Parade Time!

This weekend starts poinsettia parade time!  Officially, the poinsettia plants are ready for sale.  They have been grown with copious amounts of TLC in our greenhouses... we fed them, we watered them, we pinched them... and it's a beautiful crop.  We will have our 14 varieties of poinsettias identified so you can see what's new and what's classic.  Pick up poinsettia care sheets.  Remember we are open Sundays 10-4 through December 23rd so stop by!

Holiday Decorating Time

 Our decorating crew at Waukesha Floral is just wrapping up our commercial business accounts and is in full swing making homes look beautiful for the season.

Many of our commercial accounts have color schemes that are nontraditional; such as these beautiful orange, gold and copper trees and wreaths.  Many of our homes like the traditional look of green, red, silver and gold.  We have done any color imaginable on our Christmas items, all made to enhance their surroundings and add festivity and fun.

If your business could use some new decorations, our group is ready with new ideas and can implement them for you.  Just give us a call.

Happy Thanksgiving...Greenhouse Pictures...Small Business Saturday!

Waukesha Floral wishes you a very happy Thanksgiving day!  If you need anything for your table, we have some gorgeous centerpieces and blooming plants available.  We will be closed on Thursday to celebrate with our families and friends.

Remember to visit this weekend and see the glorious beauty of our poinsettias!  In fact, this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 24-25, you can have your holiday photos taken for free by Art's Cameras Plus in our poinsettia-filled greenhouse!  Suzi from Art's will be here from noon to 3 p.m. this weekend, so bring the family and get ready to say "holiday cheese"!

Don't forget Saturday, November 24th is the shopping day to support "Small Business Saturday".  We have some great gifts for the holidays and those beautiful flowers too!  Stop by and see us. Also, we are open Sundays now through December 23rd, 10-4.

Special Funeral Tributes

 Helping create funeral tributes is a privilege for the designers at Waukesha Floral.  This past weekend Denise and Marty created a butterfly and a teddy bear to celebrate the life of a dearly loved lady.  This type of design is called "set work", and begins with a  styrofoam or Oasis floral foam base in the shape of the design.  The base is attached to an easel and completed with flowers, almost like the old paint-by number pictures.  In this case, Denise chose spring colored flowers and used Gerbera daisies as a focal point.  She accented the butterfly with spirals of colored wire.  The teddy bear is composed of all white cushion mums with a pink ribbon and pink flowers.  Making these designs is both labor intensive and requires a fairly large amount of flower heads, but we think the memorial tribute is both memorable and meaningful for the family and friends of this special lady.

Thanks to everyone who came out for our holiday open house last weekend, and congratulations to Mary, Renee and Lori, winners of our door prizes.  For those who didn't make it last weekend, we still have plenty of holiday items to choose from, and our poinsettia crop is beginning to color up nicely!  For the holidays, we are open on Sunday from 10-4, so stop by soon.

Ho-Ho-Holiday Open House This Weekend

Join us this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 3 (8-5) and Nov. 4 (10-4) for our Ho-Ho-Holiday Open House.  The store is bedecked for the upcoming season and we have ideas for gifts and decorating for you.  Enjoy:
50% off sale merchandise, 15% off all in-store
Fun children's holiday crafts to make and take
Free popcorn and warm cider
Register for door prizes
Coupons and samples (in limited supply)

Our greenhouse features these free design shows:

• Mod Lodge     10 am Saturday - Repeated 1 pm Sunday
• The woodsy ambiance of this wintry look is created with organic tones and nature-inspired for  Wisconsin's modern style
• Metallic Majesty   12 pm Saturday - Repeated 3 pm Sunday  Rich, reflective surfaces and complimentary floral hues will make the season shine brilliantly!
• Holiday Party Time    1 pm Saturday - Repeated 11 am Sunday                From grand celebrations to cozy get-togethers, our designers show you the latest in holiday party decorations, fun favors and appreciated hostess gifts.
• Green Scene   3 pm Saturday (not repeated Sunday)                 The wonders of green, from evergreen to apple green and everything in-between!  Beautiful holiday plants, fresh flowers and decorations are fabulous when green is the star of the show!

October Weddings Are So Popular!

October is such a popular month for weddings.  The cooler weather and beauty of fall inspire us to make gorgeous flower designs!

This past Friday we helped make 5 weddings more beautiful, including our own Tom, one of the brothers who owns Waukesha Floral.

Here are some pictures of the attendants and their bouquets, with colors inspired by the fall shades they wore.  Flame colored mini calla lilies, red spray roses, purple lisianthus, brown shaded orchids and blushing hydrangea picked up colors from each of the girls' shade of dress worn.

 The church was decorated with white flowers and candlelight to set the stage for a beautiful evening wedding ceremony.  The church hall decorations consisted of submerged tropical flowers in fall tones with nests of orange and red rose petals and floating candles.

Fall inspires us, and we hope it inspires you too!  Best wishes to Tom and Dori and all their children (who were the beautiful attendants).

Ladies Night: Howl at the Moon #4

"First Lady of Fashion Jackie Kennedy"

Group Project:  Old Glory!

"First Lady of Fashion Grace Coolidge"

The 4th annual Ladies Night: Howl at the Moon event is now a sweet memory!  Over 170 ladies enjoyed food, fun, flowers and fashions provided by Goodwill Industries volunteers.  "The First Ladies of Fashion" were portrayed with beauty and grace, and embellished with flowers that portrayed the times or came with a specific meaning related to the presidency or the legacy of that first lady.  The election year was celebrated with style!  We thank all of our ladies who contributed a red, white or blue carnation to create the fabulous finale:  a set piece portraying a stylized American flag.

Make sure to put next year's date on your calendar:  Friday, Oct. 4th, 2013, and join us to Howl at the Moon!

Window Dressing

Looking out through our bridal showroom window on a rainy day is brightened with beautiful garden mums!

The hardy mums are perfect for planting or dressing up your patio right now, and the huge sizes are a great price for the splendid color they bring!

Best yet, these hardy mums can re-bloom in future years, by planting now to establish a root system and by    mulching them after the killing frost.  Mum plants can take some light freeze and still bloom.

So plan on stopping by or calling us and sending one to a friend.  This weekend should bring some promising weather to get outdoors and beautify for Autumn.

Loving Memories Guitar

Tribute to Guitarist

This past week, we had a beautiful casket spray for an avid guitarist, someone who also liked the outdoors and "up north".  Our designer, Mary Jo, used a combination of red twig dogwood, cat tails, sunflowers, deep red roses, bark peel, spruce, arbor vitae, long needled pine and cones to create an interesting and fitting tribute.  We hope it created many good memories for both family and friends.

Autumn Flowers Now In!

Outdoor Mums are ready!  This size $10.99

 This weekend is calling for cooler Autumn-like weather.  Many yards have lost colorful flowers as the result of a dry and hot summer, and we have just the remedy.  Our beautiful outdoor hardy mums are now available, and perfect for planting or filling in an empty container on the patio.

Hardy mums are different than our greenhouse-grown mum plants.  These have been grown outdoors and trimmed to dome-like perfection!  Hardy mums are considered a perennial here and we recommend planting them early in the Fall and providing plenty of water to establish the roots.  A
light mulch will help over-winter, and we recommend not cutting them back to the ground in Fall.  Finally, it is  helpful to "pinch" the buds back in the spring--once at Memorial Day, once at July 4th and at Labor Day (but only Labor Day if you want to delay the re-blooming).  You will have plenty of blooms for next year.

Also featured here are purple Aster plants, a nice compliment to the mums with beautiful pink and purple flowers.  These are also perennial plants here (so they will come back too).

Fall Magic Pots can't be beat for fast, easy color in the yard.  Each contain an annual grass with fluffy grass flowers plus a huge kale plant, mums and mini petunias for color.  The kale and grass will easily take you up until the snow flies (which we hope is a long time away!).

Fall Aster Plants

Fall Magic Pot  (the kale is huge!)

There's that Thing on Your Head!!

While unpacking fall and Halloween items, we came across these fun headbands with silly eyeballs, bats, cats with hats and googly-eyed spiders.

Here, some of our favorite models preview what will be all the rage for headwear this season!

Hey, things sometimes slow down in August and we like to laugh a little.  But seriously, if you need one of these we've got 'em!

Preview Fall

 OK, we might as well admit it.  The signs are all there... kids building their dorm room collections, back to school forms are due, the mail carrier traded his shorts for long pants today and the air conditioner at home is off!  Fall is coming.  It's in the lengthening shadows and the bus drivers practicing their routes.  It's in the stores and it's here at Waukesha Floral!

Besides the chipmunks hiding acorns in the greenhouse, we've seen autumn merchandise making its way in... beautiful earth tone pottery and baskets, lovely permanent flowers, rich colored scarves and purses, gathering baskets and scarecrow rakes and brooms, spicy candles and autumn textiles.
 

Sure, there will be more hot and sticky days (we hope just a few!).  There will be more bright pink bouquets and summertime arrangements to make.  But if you're like us, we like the lengthening shadows and beautiful sunsets that Autumn brings.  The smell of withering leaves and the distant honking of traveling geese is comforting.  We know that not far behind is the scent of pine and fresh baked cut-out cookies.  And we appreciate each season in Waukesha for the joys they bring.

Stop in anytime for a taste of Fall.

Wedding Room Re-Do

We hope many of our customers have had an opportunity to visit our wedding consultation room.  It is located in the Victorian house (the original flower shop owner's home) right next to Waukesha Floral.  It's a beautiful space but it's time for a make- over!  For a few weeks, our bridal customers will be welcomed to the transformed employee lunchroom to talk about wedding flowers while we work towards a modern and fresh feel in our consultation space.  As soon as the work is finished, the new room will be unveiled here!  Of course, anyone is welcome to visit and see the progress being made.

Mudpie Baby

Looking for a fun baby gift?  Look no further than Waukesha Floral!  Super soft, bright and ruffly for girls; sports minded and jungle themed for boys or clothing suitable for either gender is in store.  Add a plush animal, gift socks or a bud vase of flowers for mom and you've got a unique gift to send to home or hospital.  Sizes to fit 0-6 or 9-2 months.  Call us or stop in for availability!

Amy is a State Fair Winner!

Congratulations to Amy on her first place State Fair ribbon for the lovely three-part arrangement she made Saturday in the design competition.  Three designers were given the same components and all three designed different and beautiful arrangements using purple gladiola, hot pink roses, yellow gerbera daisies, ginger, bird of paradise, fuzzy green carnations, fatsia leaves, grasses and pottery, floral foam and other detail ingredients.  Amy used a combination of massing of colors, proper form and use of space to make a series of designs that fit together as one.  Good job, Amy!  We are proud of you!

Grand Champion Floral Challenge is On!

Our own Amy made this pretty and creative corsage!  If you'd like to see Amy live and in person, join the audience this Saturday, August 4, 12:00 noon, at the Wisconsin State Fair Horticulture Building.

Three designers will will take the stage and compete in a 50 minute design competition for the "Grand Champion" and "Fairgoers Favorite" titles.

See you at the Fair!  Go Amy!

There is a Place for Queen Anne's Lace

The place for Queen Anne's Lace is in a beautiful bouquet!  This time of year, Queen Anne's Lace and wild chicory make a lovely fringe of white and blue on the country roadsides.  This bouquet of blue bachelor buttons, hydrangea, stock and yellow aster is softened with the addition of lovely Queen Anne's Lace.  Also known as wild carrot, Queen Anne's Lace is a popular choice for bridal bouquets and is cultivated for cut flower use.  It grows in all 48 continuous states and is considered a noxious invasive weed in some areas.  But at Waukesha Floral, we like Queen Anne's Lace!

Wedding in the Woods

 July is a wonderful time for an outdoor wedding!  This past weekend was a celebration for our bride and groom at the Schlitz Audubon Center.  A lovely ceremony was held in a wooded glen at this beautiful park, with reception to follow in the nature center.  The pine building is very classy and just a little rustic.  Garden flowers were beautiful in the bride's mason jars, featuring white stock, daisies, yellow marigolds, tulips, sunflowers and eucalyptus.

The birdseed favors were done by the bride - a perfect remembrance of the Audubon Center, and so cute!

London Olympic Flowers

These gerbera daisies reminded me of the Olympic rings and that the opening ceremonies for the London games is happening tomorrow!  Although little is being said about the festivities, one of our hort  magazines did report this:  London's Olympic Stadium - in addition to simulating Britain's bucolic countryside, replete with synthetic rain clouds - will contain Maypoles representing Britain's four nations, each topped with its national flower:  the rose for England, the thistle for Scotland, the daffodil for Wales and flax for Northern Ireland.  So keep an eye out for the floral symbols above the leaping lords and ladies this Friday!

Blue and Green Reception Flowers

 Lakefront Brewery was the site for the reception.  Here, wreaths of flowers including electric blue hydrangea, orchids and kermit mums surround cylinder vases with deep purple (almost black) callas under water, topped by a floating candle.  Sheer blue overlay tablecloths added to the refreshing blue and green motif of the room.  A beautiful celebration!