Pretty Pink Protea Designs

Pink is elegant and romantic. Brighter pinks are youthful, feminine, and playful; vivid pinks are more passionate, affectionate and sensual. Pink makes a room feel inviting and warm. Love and beauty are associated with pink.

Pink is versatile, so versatile, that it is sometimes considered a neutral color! In turn, the possibilities are virtually endless when it comes to creating pink bouquets and arrangements. The scope of the color palette is surprisingly diverse, containing everything from soft peachy pink to bright fuchsia. Whether you're considering something light or dark, you can almost always find a hue that satisfies you. Equally, there’s a bounty of pink flowers to choose from. You can design with something exotic like protea (which obviously tops our list), or experiment with an array of fabulous blooms. Some of my go to favorites are dahlias, amaranths, everlastings and alstroemerias – which are available in pink, as are many other beautiful flowers. Simply choose a season and a style and watch as all the possibilities start to unfold right in front of you. As you learn what blooms in shades of pink + what plant and color combos work best with it, you'll definitely be tickled pink.

Ready to find your muse? We've gathered up some beautiful designs to inspire you.

Start with this bright, cheery arrangement, which features a beautiful Protea King, Grevillea Misty Pink, everlastings, Brunia Albiflora, Leucadendron and lush greenery.

This sweet pink to fuschia mix features protea Brenda, ranunculus, calycina, Grevillea with Leucadendron Maui Sunset and eucalyptus rounding out the design.

Here's a fabulous bouquet that proves peachy pink and rose-pink work in harmony especially when you mix in some dainty waxflower, textural coned Leucadendron and green myrtle.

Coral and light pink are the primary colors in this design that blends exotic Bronze Haze, Leucospermum, kangaroo paw, Grevillea blooms, Christmas Bush, oregano and eucalyptus. The stunning Protea King adds a spring inspired touch.

Stems of eucalyptus Baby Blue give this pink bouquet a whimsical look. The assorted array of Protea and spiky Grevillea Misty Pink blooms deliver a full, textural appeal.

The brightly-colored spikes of the Grevillea and sweet mini King featured in this design provide the perfect pop of color. Combined with the coral Leucospermum and peach & green ranunculus, plus, the sprigs of greenery this arrangement provides a mini-illustration of spring’s eternal elegance.

Here we chose a winter- spring bloom (Waratah!) to add drama to this arrangement. The peach hued Leucospermum, and wild berry everlastings blend well with the petite flowering Leucadendron and buffy-white Berzelia bobbles.

In the Field: Leucospermum Spider

As protea season winds down at the end of winter, Leucospermum ‘Pincushions’ take center stage in the fields offering up vibrant blooms that put on a quite a show from now into May.

While we all love the more traditional Leucospermum cordifoliums like Sunrise, Succession and Flame Giant, the Spiders have a few of their own advantages. They start blooming in winter which means more of us can enjoy them with a mix of other proteas. And since they produce flowers in masses on long, straight stems, you’re pretty much assured a blooming great show. Finally, it’s one 'Spider' that won't give anyone the creeps!

This lovely hybrid Leucopermum with its delicate hues is a mix of L. tottum and formosum, with the tottum parentage especially obvious. The salmon-pink to mauve flowers and with red tipped stamens are 5 to 6” wide. Spiders are a wonderful alternative if you’re color palette calls for blooms in shades of pink long after protea season has finished.

Spiders are being harvested right now and as you can see... they’re simply stunning in seasonal bouquets and arrangements.

For the Love of Peach

If there is ever a shade that soothes our souls it is the color peach. With its origin in nature, the peach is something of a comfort. It also gives a feeling of joy, although not quite as high-spirited as orange.

The color story is a wonderful combination of a lively yellow paired with soft pink. When mingling the two colors, equal parts of each shade should be used to obtain a true peach color. Adding a splash more of pink produces a peach hue that has deeper red tones, while adding more yellow to the mixture produces a peach hue with more orange tones.

Peach is known to be a superb color for communication, it also has influence on good etiquette and tranquility. It is a shade that gives you refuge, as it does not let you delve into agony or disappointment. Peach brings a wealth of positivity, always invigorating us in the most difficult moments.

The peach palette works well in interior designers, especially when combined with flowers. It is a combination of orange, yellow and coral shades, which allows you to grasp an unlimited number of design possibilities. Peach can be used as an accent or background and combines well with the blues. You can also blend it with mint-green and gold for a chic and feminine palette.

Where the Leucospermum Grow

Fields of leucospermum or more commonly called “pincushions” sway in the breeze blowing through the hills, creating a vibrant welcome mat for those who venture up into Rainbow Crest. These vibrant red, orange, peach, yellow and bi-colored flowering heads are formed mainly with long, sprout-like structures that end in a globular knob called a pollen presenter. Together, the mass of styles look a lot like pins bristling from a “pincushion”, a similarity that has given rise to the popular name for this genus.

Leucospermum comprises some forty-eight species, of which all but three are endemic to South Africa’s Cape Province. Flowering time is generally winter through late spring. Unlike flowers of the genus Protea, which rely on their showy bracts for visual appeal, leucospermum put all their art into the colors of the flowers themselves as well as the flowing shape of each curving component. These fanciful blooms atop sturdy stems create colorful focal points not only in the field but when displayed in floral designs.

New in the Field: Grandicolor

Our fields are looking a little more colorful these days thanks to ‘Grandicolor’, a new hybrid protea from Australia. This beautiful cultivar is a combination of P. grandiceps and P. aurea, a very unusual and unique cross to say the least. Its greenish-cream bracts, which deepen to peach at the base, have a delicate pinkish rim and conspicuous hairs like the grandiceps and surround rusty-red centers. Grandicolor produces dainty, petite blooms off and on from autumn through spring. The egg-shape foliage is small and leathery with a silvery-green hue and the stems straight and upright like the aurea.

From our field to the vase Grandicolor lives up to its name!