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Friday - May 07, 2010
From: Salt Lake City, UT
Region: Rocky Mountain
Topic: Seed and Plant Sources
Title: Non-native lilacs for wedding bouquet in July in Salt Lake City
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
My friend's daughter wants to have lilacs in her wedding bouquet, but she is not getting married until July 15th. I realize lilacs are spring flowers, but will there be anywhere in the U.S. that lilacs will still be blooming or is there a floral outlet where I can buy lilacs for her bouquet come July?ANSWER:
We were just recently asked about growing lilacs in Georgia, for someone who had fond memories of them growing in Connecticut. Here is an excerpt from our answer to that question:
"Lilacs bloom only for a quick couple of weeks in the Spring; so, if they have already done that, you're not going to get any more blooming until next Spring. The majority of natural lilacs come from Asia. In Europe, they come from the Balkans, France and Turkey. Of course, being non-native to North America, they do not appear in our Native Plant Database."
As for getting them from a florist, we have no listings for those in our database; we would suppose some floral supply company somewhere might grow, in severely controlled greenhouse conditions, lilacs blooming in July, and be prepared to deliver them to you on the appointed date, for a price. And there's the rub. We would suggest that the bride talk to a local, reputable florist and get suggestions from them for alternative flowers. Most flowers provided by florists are non-natives to North America and out of our area of expertise, anyway. Whatever she chooses will probably be flown in and not be cheap, but we honestly don't think lilacs would be available anywhere in July, even from the other side of the world.
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