Is Autumn my favourite season? I think it might be...

I don't think many people will disagree, Autumn really is a special time of the year in Australia.

Apart from April having numerous public and school holidays, the nights are cooling down and it's easier to sleep but days are still nice and warm, and for those near the coast, the water is as warm as it will get all year!

But what I love about it most is the flowers, and I have to say, this particular time of the year (mid to late April) is the best part of the season.

For some reason, not just the colours of the seasonal flowers, but their hues, are a bit softer than the the summery flowers, still pretty, but softer and more relaxed. It's like the flowers are starting to take a step back, but aren't quite ready to go into hibernation yet.

The combinations can also pretty special, especially when there is that really unique cross over time mid-late April, where the late summer flowers blend with autumn beauties - the first cymbidiums are starting to arrive, and combined with the roses, which I would say are at their best this time of year, the achillea, the autumn hydrangea and paniculata, and the gorgeous natives like strong banksias, and softer grevillia coming into season, you can come up with some really gorgeous mashups.

And one thing I really love, which florists will relate to - it's the perfect weather to arrange flowers. There's next to no danger of it being too hot for the flowers, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief there.

Here are a few of my favourite autumn combos over the last few years, and you'll see what I'm getting at.

Bouquets

We get to put together some pretty beautiful bouquets at this time of the year. From bright autumn blooms to softer colours. If you're lucky we will put in one of the first cymbids of the season!

Favourite April weddings

This wedding we did in April 2023 was an all time favourite. There was a subtle touch of red, which really brought out the autumn vibes, but overall, Isabel and Eugene let us use the best flowers of the season, and that's certainly what they got!

Then we did this wedding last weekend (mid-April) - could be another favourite! The colours included soft yellow, mauvy-pink, burgundy and soft greens. Honestly a winning autumn combination.

Weekly flowers

This is a favourite time for weekly flowers in our venues, it's not too hot that the flowers die, but the heating isn't fully cranked up yet, so they also die.

Birds of paradise become almost a weekly resident, and we are overexcited about our cymbid and eucalyptus combinations.

One of my personal favourites

I had a birthday dinner 2 years ago (my birthday is at the end of April :)) and I got to use my favourite combo ever - early cymbids, african violets, cyclamen, grevillia, mmmmm