Seasonal Flower Guide: Summer

Summer Flower Guide

Friends, we are SO excited about a brand new column we’ve been working on for you, featuring one of our most favorite topics: flowers! Our seasonal flower guide will help you plan out your wedding floral design, letting you know if your favorite bloom will be in season on your big day. Or, if you’re flower obsessed (like we are!) and don’t have a date set yet, maybe you’ll even plan your celebration around your favorite florals + foliage!

We wanted to share some fun untraditional varieties that you may not be familiar with, as well as some well-known favorites, to help you achieve the look of some of the amazing bouquets + arrangements you’ve seen here on GWS (you can browse our bouquet galleries for lots of great inspiration!). We’ll be sharing a similar post for each season, highlighting the best of the best of what is available to you during that time. We hope this feature will help you to brainstorm ideas with your floral designer, give you the ability to DIY your own wedding day flowers, or just help inform you a little bit more so you can properly plan for a fun party you’re hosting or so you know what to pick up for your home the next time you have guests in town!

summer flower guide


Some of our favorites that are only available in the summer include: Cafe au Lait Dahlias, Clematis, Freesia, Pink Veronica, Blushing Bride Protea, Snow on the Mountain, Poppy Pods, Helios Garden Rose – and one of my faves for a sweet wildflower bouquet, Chamomile Daisies!

garden roses


Garden roses are one of our favorite flowers, second only to peonies we’d say. Early summer brides might luck out + be able to get their hands on the last few peonies of the season, but for those of you who love the fluffy garden flower look, garden roses are definitely for you! They are the perfect focal bloom – it’s kind of hard to tell in the photos, but some of those romantic antique garden roses actually rivaled peonies in size! – and they look amazing paired with untamed fillers + vines, desert-y succulents + air  plants, or really just about anything! There are lots of different types of garden roses and the three above – Helios (orange), Romantic Antique (dark pink) and David Austin Juliet (blush) – are some of our most favorites.

garden roses

cafe au lait dahlias


Dahlias are one of the most popular wedding flowers around, and it’s not too difficult to see why. We love that no two are exactly alike and Cafe au Lait is our most favorite variety, with gorge shades that range from blush, to peach, to champagne, to ivory. You can typically get one of the 19 types of dahlias at some point during the year, but lucky for summertime brides, this pretty variety is usually in season from June through September, give or take depending on environmental conditions.

cafe au lait dahlia

cafe au lait dahlias

blushing bride protea


It’s no shocker that we are in LOVE with proteas here at GWS. Some of our most fave weddings have incorporated them in such fun ways. But their lesser known variety, Blushing Bride Protea, is only available in the summer, making it one of the most covetable flowers around – for those who have heard about it at least! We love how unique + textural they are, and their small size makes them perfect for boutonnieres or to add in as an accent stem to your bouquet.

Chamomile Daisies probably win for cutest filler ever. For brides going for that quintessential wildflower look, you practically have to have these guys in the mix to pull it all together!

chamomile daisies

Flowers Available Year Round


If your wedding date isn’t set quite yet, but you were hoping to get a feel for what types of stems are available year round, we’ve got you covered, with a little list of our fave finds you can almost always scoop up! Astilbe, Scabiosa, and Lisianthus would pair together beautifully to craft a textural, blush-hued bouquet and lotus pods + leather leaf fern are great for brides who wanted something a little funkier or tropical-feeling! Queen Anne’s Lace is a fun filler for a more wildflower bouquet and of course you can accent with pretty garden roses!

scabiosa

poppy pods

flower collage


When talking to your florist, or planning out your wedding flowers, always remember that mother nature can be tricky at times, so there is always the possibility that certain items will not be available. Luckily, there is usually always something similar you or your florist can substitute to achieve a similar look!

pretty wedding flowers

pretty wedding flowers


We hope you guys enjoyed this fun new feature as much as we enjoyed sharing it! We loved getting to play with all the vibrant, pretty blooms available in the summer months, and for brides who are planning a fall wedding, be sure to check back soon for our upcoming fall seasonal flower guide!

If you’re loving the flowers we’ve featured, but don’t live near a great flower market, you should check out BloomsByTheBoxBloomsByTheBox has a wide selection of blooms that can be shipped to you.

Thanks so much to Katie Pritchard for the photos!

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