The Spring Entertaining Edit | Everything You Need to Know for Hosting Spring Parties Like a Pro

 The weather is warming up and it's time for spring entertaining. Whether you're planning an Easter or  Mother's Day brunch or just having friends over to enjoy the warmer weather, we have your spring entertaining guide ready.

Hostess Gifts for Easter and Spring Parties

Our custom gift baskets are the best Easter baskets or Mother's Day gifts. Just pick your size (small, medium, and large) and the curated gift basket that best fits the recipient. We'll fill it with beautiful finds and ship it right to you or your recipient. It makes the perfect hostess gift, Easter basket, or Mother's Day gift!  

Spring Table Inspiration for the Gardener 

For the gardener's spring table, it's all about bringing the outside in. Hand out seed packets as favors, and mint juleps make the best cocktails. 

Your early spring blooms like tulips and daffodils are perfect to brighten up the table. 

Want to elevate your cocktails, salad dressing, or dessert? Try our culinary lavender buds. 

Clockwise from top left: Vietri Fiori di Campo Assorted Dinner Plates | Vietri Fiori Di Campo Assorted Cereal Bowls | Lavender Lovers Seed Packet | Colette Olive Glasses | April Cornell Tablecloth | Culinary Lavender Buds | Bud Vase | Mint Julep Mix | Peonies Reversible Placemat | Garden Buds Wine Glass

Spring Table Inspiration for the Traditionalist

This look is all about the classics. White table linens, grandma's silver (or someone else's grandma's silver that you got at an estate sale for an amazing deal), piles of flowers in vintage vases and pewter ice buckets. 

We love our Arte Italica Bella Bianca line of dishes for their antique look with modern day durability - they're microwave, oven, and dishwasher safe. 

Clockwise from top right: Seashell sealed glass vase | Rowan serving platter set | vintage pewter ice bucket | Sofia coupes | Sferra tablecloth | Bella Bianca dishes 

Spring Table Inspiration for the Color Lover

We love a colorful spring table! Go durable with our melamine indoor/outdoor plates - they're great for kids while still looking stylish.

Indoor/outdoor pillows dress up your table. We also have these cozy new indoor/outdoor boucle throws for chilly spring nights!

Clockwise from top right: Laura Park acrylic napkin rings | Laura Park Summer Garden melamine plates | Vietri Baroque Glass Charger | Laura Park Gingham Indoor/Outdoor Pillow | Pine Cone Hill Indoor/Outdoor Boucle Blanket | Simpatico Candle | Tuscan Pitcher | Blue Pheasant Sofia Soft Pink Glassware

Spring Cocktail Recipes

Check our Mixologist Gift Guide for everything you need for the bar. 

Photo from Superman Cooks

Lavender Lemonade Mocktail: 

1 oz. Simply Lemonade (we like the all-natural taste with few sweeteners)

1 oz. sparkling water

.5 oz Lavender Syrup

Lemon

Lavender Culinary Buds

Ice

To make: Shake lemonade, simple syrup, and ice. Strain into a glass with more ice. Top with sparkling water. Cut a lemon into thin rounds. Dip half a round lightly into lavender syrup, then press into Lavender Culinary Buds to coat. 

To make it a cocktail: replace sparkling water with champagne or prosecco. 

The Lavender & Co. Spring Planting Monthly Calendar

We are positively fiending to get out into the garden and start planting! It's still a little cold here in New York, so we're planning our garden, hoarding plants, seeds, and bulbs, and waiting for the weather to warm up. 

Here's our handy monthly spring planting calendar - use it to plan your garden this year!

What to do in January and February in your garden: 

Here in the Northeast, there's not a lot you can do. This is a good time to plan: order your spring-planted bulbs and seeds. In late February, start your seeds in seed starter trays. 

What to do in your garden in March: 

Things start to thaw out a little bit in March. 

• Once the buds start appearing on roses, you can begin pruning them. Make sure to prune according to your rose bush's breed! Knockout roses and hybrids are easy to prune - prune criss-crossing or rubbing canes, anything thinner than a pencil, and you can hard-prune up to a foot above the ground.  Heirloom roses need more artistry and care.
• Once temperature lows at nighttime are above 25*, you can plant spring bulbs like ranunculus and anemones. We wait till the nighttime lows are 30*, just to be safe. 
• Some seeds require a process called "cold stratification." This can be sped up in the freezer - check your seed packets to see if they need this (some seeds like poppies benefit from it). March is a good time to start cold stratifying, you usually need 4-6 weeks.
• Plant grass seed, but be careful: some municipalities, like those on Long Island, outlaw fertilizer application until April 1 to avoid contaminating the groundwater. 

What to do in your garden in April and May: 

• You can start planting once the last frost has definitely passed. Here in zone 7, a good rule of thumb is Mother's Day weekend. 
• It's best to wait on clearing out fall leaves from your beds until nighttime lows are in the 50s. Pollinators and bunny rabbits usually sleep in leaves until late April/early May.
• Once the daffodils, tulips, and ranunculus blooms have died off, leave the green stalks - they'll need the photosynthesis to make the bulbs strong for next year. Some gardeners braid them together to look less unkempt. Once these get brown and die off, you can dig them up and store them in peat moss for the winter, or plant on top of them. Daffodils and tulips usually are fine to overwinter in zone 7, but ranunculus should be overwintered if you want it to be a perennial. 
• May is a good time to mulch, but wait until after Memorial Day if you have lots of oak trees. The oak tree "hair" and pollen sheds around this time and will get all over your fresh mulch! 

What to do in your garden in June: 

• Prevention is the name of the game when it comes to fungus and pests. Neem oil and copper fungicide are all-natural preventatives.  You could also use a more gentle, less expensive mixture of baking soda, water, and dish soap called the Cornell Formula for the fungicide. Both can be sprayed once a week, on different days: neem for pests, copper fungicide or Cornell Formula for fungus. Spraying early in the morning is best. 
• Roses are especially finicky and prone to fungus. Mulch, especially dyed mulch, can carry a lot of fungus in it and can infect your plants. Sweet plants like hibiscus will get eaten alive without neem oil. Make sure to keep an eye on your different plants to ensure they're getting the treatment they need.

What to do in your garden in July and August: 

• Make sure everything is being watered, dead-headed, and pruned as much as it needs. 
• Powdery mildew gets bad in the humid days of August, so spraying the mulch (where it often originates) and any powdery-mildew prone plants with copper fungicide or cornell formula is the best way to prevent it. 

What to do in your garden in September and October: 

• Order fall-planted bulbs and get them in the ground. 
• Prune anything that likes to be pruned before the winter. 

What to do in your garden in November: 

• Spread corn gluten as an all-natural weed preventer on the lawn.
• Once the first frost hits, dig up dahlia bulbs and store in peat moss for the winter. 

Our Favorite Outdoor Living Finds: 

 

Clockwise from top right: Jamie Young Blanca Chandelier | Dash & Albert Zhara Rug | Mingled Denim Indoor/Outdoor Pouf | Ella Napkins | Rowan Wood Charger | Lastra Melamine Dinnerware | Modern History Celine Round Coffee Table | Miss Ella Indoor Outdoor Pillow

Our Outdoor Entertaining Guide Is Everything You Need for Summer Hostessing

With summer parties just around the corner, we've created this outdoor entertaining guide with ideas for everything you need to host your summer get-togethers. From outdoor rugs to tips on the making your hostessing duties easier, keep reading for our best outdoor entertaining pointers for summer.

Invest in outdoor tableware like melamine dishes

Not only are outdoor dishes easier to carry inside and out, they're more durable, easier to clean, and can be used at outdoor parties, BBQs, and picnics, too. Ours are made from BPA-free melamine, and we stock them in a range of styles and colors. Try the Vietri line for a more neutral look, or the Laura Park line for a bold and colorful vibe. 

Shop the Laura Park Brooks Avenue Melamine Dishes 

Use a tray to carry things from the kitchen 

Make your life easier and invest in a few pretty trays to carry things in and out of your kitchen or butler's pantry - you'll have dishes, flatware, serving platters, and table linens to carry to set the table, plus all your food ingredients for the grill. It's a lot to fill up your arms with, and a tray makes it a lot easier - plus it makes cleanup a breeze when the party is over. 

Shop the Madcap Cottage Bamboozled Tray

Keep bugs at bay with all-natural mosquito and insect repellent

No one likes mosquitos, but who wants to sit on a beautiful patio and be doused by that toxic-smelling bug spray all night? We stock a line of all-natural, effective insect repellents, from sticks to incense to candles. Buy a few options and leave them out for your guests to rub on if they want, then light candles as another way to keep insects away. 

Shop the all-natural mosquito repellent balm

Shop the all-natural Beach at Night candle in a coconut shell 

 

Splurge on nice napkins for dinner

Our rule for entertaining is that dinner napkins should always be cloth napkins. Cocktail napkins can be pretty paper ones, like our new sailboat ones for summer (but can be embroidered, like our Sferra Beachcomber ones, if you want to go really fancy). 

This summer, we're loving this Blue Pheasant lobster napkins for dinner parties. 

Shop the Blue Pheasant lobster napkins

Shop the Sferra Beachcomber Napkins

Don't forget a vase for the table

Your table should always have fresh flowers, whether it's from the garden, the farmer's market, or the grocery store (tip: Trader Joe's and Costco both have great flower sections in a pinch). 

Another tip? A pretty water pitcher doubles as a vase if you can't find your favorite vase right before guests arrive. 

Shop the Etu Home Colorblock Vase

Use an outdoor rug and pillows for durability

Outdoor rugs and pillows are made from special fabrics and materials to prevent sun damage and water damage. They're also much more easily cleaned than regular rugs and pillows - some outdoor rugs can even be bleach-cleaned!

Shop our outdoor rug collection here to find one that fits your style. 

Shop the Dash and Albert Herringbone Linen Rug here 

Shop More Inspiration

Check out all our indoor/outdoor lookbooks and shop them on our website!