If you follow celebrity news, you’ve read about big stars who renew their wedding vows. Heidi Klum and Seal do so every year, and on the new reality show Ice Loves Coco, they had a vow renewal bash that let Coco wear her dream wedding dress. You don’t have to be a celebrity to renew your vows, and the biggest trend right now in love and romance is taking a private moment in your prettiest garden or yard spot to speak words of love to one another.

There’s no $50,000 wedding re-do price tag on the private moment vow renewal, although some of our Morris County couples do plan lavish backyard celebrations with tents, gorgeous exotic flowers, aisle runners and catering, not to mention a wedding cake.

Here are some tips for your backyard wedding vow renewal:

• Carry your own flowers. If you’ve planted roses or other beautiful blooms, take some cuttings and hand-wrap your own bouquet for free. Carry that down your garden path to where your sweetheart awaits.
• Wear a pretty little dress. A simple sundress will do it. Dressing up even a little makes the moment extra-special and allows for lovely photos.
• Take photos! Ask the kids to snap some pictures of the two of you, or set your digital camera’s auto-take feature to capture lovely poses in your yard. My husband and I went to REI and bought a flexible camera stand that actually grips onto trees or porch rails, securing our camera to get great shots from an angle. I love panoramic shots, so check your camera’s settings for that feature to capture your garden in full summertime bloom all around you.
• Repeat your original vows, or write new ones of your own…and don’t be afraid to be funny! This is your moment, with no rules, and you might find it more fun and more ‘you’ to take a light-hearted approach.
• Think about renewing your vows every year. Some people do so every time they’re on vacation, some do so on their actual wedding anniversary – and it doesn’t have to be a milestone anniversary like your 5^th, 10^th and so on. Married 4 ½ years? Renew now! 17 years? The time is right!
• I love this: each time you renew your vows in your garden, make it a ritual to add a flowering plant to your garden. As time goes by, your ‘love corner’ of your garden will bloom and grow.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Since it’s wedding season, a great many of our New Jersey brides and grooms are hosting wedding morning brunches before they depart for their Big Day. And a fabulous new trend is for wedding guests to invite out-of-town friends and family over to their places, too, for a wedding morning breakfast or afternoon cocktail party before an evening wedding.

These events get gorgeous when you add some potted flowers to your at-home party décor. I’m in love with the begonias, ranunculus, roses and kalanchoe plants at The Farm and recommend them not just in bridal white, but in full-blooming color. Place one potted flower on each of your tables and end tables, on the coffee table, on your bar…setting the scene for a lovely gathering. And after the party, you have potted blooms to enjoy indoors or plant in your garden as a sweet and sunny remembrance of the day.

Since so many guests come in from out of town, this gathering is happening often during the wedding weekend. Not just on the morning of the wedding, but the day before and the day after. So pick your party day and time (remembering that post-wedding parties are all the rage now!), and enjoy decorating with flowers just like the bride does!

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Originating in Victorian times, flower symbolism presented the chance to express sentiment through floral gifts, and the practice is still with us today.

You may have heard of the Language of Flowers, the lasting record of which flowers carry which symbolism, and you might have thought about floral meanings in relation to weddings. Certain flowers mean true love, some flowers mean innocence and purity, and so on.

Right now, though, we’re in the midst of graduation season, and what better way to wish the graduate good luck or honor their dedication and hard work than to give flowers that tell the tale?

Here are some of my choices for meaningful, symbolic graduation flower gifts:

Alstroemeria: aspiring
Azalea: abundance
Crocus: foresight
Gardenia: joy
Ginger: proud
Gladiolus: strength of character
Hydrangea: perseverance
Iris: inspiration
Lily, Casablanca: celebration
Lily, Day: enthusiasm
Lily,Stargazer: ambition
Marigold: desire for riches
Star of Bethlehem: hope
Stephanotis: good luck
Statice: success
Wisteria: steadfast

Giving plants allows the graduate to plant your good wishes and watch them grow, and – a little secret from event-planning world – when you give a pretty potted plant upon your arrival to the graduation party, the hosts and guest of honor don’t have to scramble to find a vase for cut-flower bouquets. Your thoughtful gift goes on display easily and beautifully.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

When you think of wildflowers, you might think about scraggly, grassy, almost weedlike handfuls of flowering stalks hand-gathered from the side of the road. The common perception of wildflowers is that they are rustic, suitable for a country style of décor or a casual, country party, perhaps even a bridal bouquet at an outdoor wedding. But plants that qualify as wildflowers, in their natural form or as cultivars, come in a range of surprising varieties…and now’s the perfect time to get to know them.

Wildflower grow quite easily in gardens, and are often used as accents along fences, as unique height and color in landscape plantings, and many are cut to display indoors, or given as potted plants for a fragrant, flowering, easy-to-grow gift.

Here are some of the loveliest wildflowers to consider for your organic garden, including some surprising blooms in this category:

African daisy (white, yellow and orange flowers)
Agave (yellow-green flowers)
Baby Blue Eyes (Blue cup-shaped flowers)
Celandine (butter-yellow petals)
Clasping Cone (Looks like a sunflower, but the yellow petals droop delicately downward)
Cornflower/Bachelor’s Button (Originally blue flowers, now available in white, pink and red)
Dog Violet (Purple flowers)
Drummond Phlox (Yes, pretty, bright phlox counts as a wildflower!)
Speedwell (Large, blue flowers offer a unique bloom for blue-themed party décor and garden ‘pop!’)
Fivespot (My new favorite! White flowers with vivid purple centers)
Gold yarrow (Yellow, tufty blooms)
Iceland poppy (White and yellow flowers)
Primrose (Pretty, delicate, spring and summer colors)
Rose Angel (1” pink and red flowers)
Snowdrop (White flowers with a delicate arch)
Sweet Violet (Pretty purples)
Wall Flower (Vivid orange flowers)
Wine Cup (Dark purplish-red flowers)

There’s not a weedy flower in the bunch! So come look at the wildflower selections at The Farm and you may discover a new favorite planting or potted gift option!

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Purple is in this year as a top color choice for everything from home décor to fashion, and a great many summer parties and weddings will have a purple color scheme. So bring that passion for all things purple to your garden, as well as to your collection of indoor flowering plants.

Here are some of the top purple-colored flowers to consider:

Bellflowers
Campanula
Candytuft
Clematis
Cyclamen
Fan flower
Geranium
Heliotrope (pretty purple heads with a surprising, gentle vanilla scent)
Hydrangea
Impatiens
Iris
Lady’s Mantle
Lavender
Lilac
Meadow Rue (looks like baby’s breath, but the flowers are lavender to deep purple)
Morning Glory
Orchid
Pansy
Passionflower
Petunia
Purple Hibiscus
Purple Phlox
Purple Salvia
Purple Statice (pretty ruffled flowers)
Snapdragon
Tulips
Verbena
Wisteria

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Bright, cheery zinnia bloom from mid-summer all the way to winter, and come in a wide variety of colors including yellow, orange, red, rose, pink, purple, lilac and multi-colored blooms. Zinnia elegans is considered the most popular of the 20 species, and likes a hot climate due to its Mexican origins.

The pretty variations of Zinnia varieties provide both miniature plants and those that may grow to 1-3 feet tall, and you’ll find those that bloom in single rows or domes.

Interesting facts about Zinnia:

• Butterflies love them, so outdoor-planted zinnia will fill your gardens with winged beauty.
• In its native Mexico, the plant was known by the name mal de ojos, because the flowers were small and considered ugly.
• Zinnias originally grew as wildflowers native to the southwest United States, Mexico and Central America.
• They will reseed themselves each year.
• In The Language of Flowers, Zinnia symbolize ‘thoughts of absent friends.’

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Colorful, delicate peonies are among the most feminine of flowers and as such are a favorite of springtime brides, as well as popular flowers for Mother’s Day. These flowers have been around for centuries, cultivated in China for more than 2,000 years and cultivated in American gardens for more than 600 years. They were named in honor of Paeon, the physician of the gods, since ancient societies used the roots for medicine as well as food.

There are more than 30 species of Peonies, including some woody shrubs, and they produce large, fragrant red, white or yellow flowers that bloom in late spring and early summer. Peonies are known as hardy plants that require little care, and when planted will return year after year, often surviving harsh winters.

As an ancient-origin flower, Peonies have been known as a symbol of wealth, luck and happiness, as well as a symbol of elegance and poise, again calling to mind their perfection as a wedding or ladies’ gift flowering plant.

Interesting facts about Peonies:

• Peonies are also known as ‘Flower Fairy’ or ‘King of Flower’ in their native China.
• The Roman legions first brought Peonies to England in about year 1200.
• Peonies are known as the national flower of China.
• In Chinese art, peonies are symbolic as the ‘flower of riches and honor.’
• If grown in the sun, leaves of Peonies turn from green to burgundy in just one week.
• Peonies’ large, fragrant blossoms make excellent cut flowers, and the foliage is often used as attractive filler in floral arrangements and centerpieces.
• The word ‘paean’ means ‘a hymn of praise,’ originally meant to the god Apollo.
• If left undisturbed, peonies can live for hundreds of years.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Sweet peas are a favorite of home gardeners, and as a pretty potted plant, because of their lovely and unique fragrance. They were discovered by a Franciscan monk in Sicily, who in 1699 sent seeds to a botanist who grew them first in a hothouse and then outdoors, and eventually Thomas Jefferson added sweet peas to his own garden plantings. So this pretty flower has a unique history.

Sweet Peas are an annual climbing plant, which grow to a height of several feet, needing support to thrive, and they bloom in lavender, pink, purple, red, white, and yellow, among other hues. The bright colors of the sweet peas make them a springtime favorite.

Botanists and garden enthusiasts talk often about the captivating scent of sweet peas, finding a tremendous amount of variations according to the age of the flower, sunlight, rain and temperatures. Older varieties of Sweet Peas are said to be the most fragrant, but it’s always the best measure for you to test the scent of potential Sweet Pea plants for yourself.

Interesting facts about Sweet Peas:

• There are 110 species and countless cultivars.
• In recent years, New Zealand has also been a source of new Sweet Pea varieties, especially in the development of new color patterns, many striped varieties, short day flowering, with a focus on fragrance.
• The yellow sweet pea remains elusive to botanists; a true yellow is unlikely ever to be achieved without genetic engineering.
• English gardeners call Sweet Peas the “Queen of Annuals.”
• Sweet peas have been cultivated since the 17th century.
• The flowers and seeds of the sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) are poisonous, and should not be eaten.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Freesia are known for being one of the most fragrant of the springtime flowers, and as such the freesia scent is used in many perfumes and aromatherapy products. Most often found in the colors of white, golden yellow, orange, pink, red, mauve, lavender, purple and bi-colors, Freesia is a genus of about 14 species, all African in origin.

Grown from bulbs, Freesia grow in a branched stem with long narrow, sword-shaped leaves, with narrow, funnel-shaped flowers growing alongside some of the plants’ leaves, Some of the top varieties of Freesia include: Athene, Allure, Demeter, Excelsior, Golden Wave, Mirabel, Pink Westlind, Snowdon, and Welkin. This plant grows to about 1 foot high and produces up to 8 blooms as a cluster at the top of the stalk. The modest height makes this a popular potted plant for décor or gifting.

Interesting fact about Freesia:

• In the Language of Flowers, Freesia are symbolic of innocence and friendship.
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• Freesia are the traditional flower of the 7th wedding anniversary.
• The pink and red varieties are the most highly-scented.
• One of the most popular varieties is called Ballerina.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Pronounced (a-neh-mon-ee), this flower derives its name from the Greek word meaning wind, which has earned the Anemone the nickname of ‘wind flower.’ The genus consists of over 120 species of annual flowering plants, many of which grow wild in North America, Europe and Japan.

The elongated flower of the Anemone usually bears one or several flowers in white, red, blue and sometimes yellow flowers. Some varieties produce cup-shaped yellow, purple, or red Anemone flowers.

Japanese Anemone are among the most popular variety of this bloom, producing flowers in autumn.

Yellow wood Anemone, also known as the Buttercup Anemone, produces moderately smaller flowers in a rich yellow color.

With so many varieties of Anemone to choose from, it’s important to learn the three main types of this flower:

• Spring-flowering Anemone, growing from rhizomes or tubers
• Tuberous Mediterranean, which flowers in spring and summer.
• Larger fall-flowering Anemone, blooming in late summer to fall.

Since the Anemone produces flowers for such a long growing time throughout the year, and with over 120 varieties to choose from, this is one flower that can beautify your home in potted variety now, or be included in your bulb-planting routines later this year.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.