November 2009

Have you noticed that when you buy fresh cut flowers either from your local grocery store or flower shop, the blooms just don’t really smell all that floral? They smell more like “fresh” – like leafy vegetables – but not quite like perfume and soaps that are actually floral scented.

What’s going on? Well, as growers continue to cross and breed and create hardier cut flowers that survive the long, arduous journey from farm to plane to auction to wholesaler and finally to shop and customer, we begin to substitute fragrance with longevity. We are left with gorgeous and long-lasting blooms that come in new and interesting colors but without much fragrance. Which might be a good thing for some people, but sometimes scents and fragrances can really set the mood and complete the memories of your wedding day. And isn’t it natural to just stick your nose into your bouquet to smell the flowers?

Well, lucky for us there are still many flowers with lovely scents that our human noses can enjoy! Some pretty strong that they may actually bother some people (lilies, baby’s breath), and some might not be all that pretty in smell (narcissus, poppy), and some smell like you’ve walked into a kitchen (dill, allium). Some really beautifully smelling flowers include perfect for bouquets include freesia, lilacs, sweet peas, gardenias, tuberoses, stock, and some roses have a lovely faint scent. Most cut orchids do not have a scent, but cymbidium orchids can smell quite pretty. Chocolate cosmos, already stunning in a dark velvety brown, also smells just like their namesake – chocolate! So request some of these flowers for your wedding décor for a memorable and deliciously fragrant day!

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Lisianthus, like the rose, is actually available all year round, but unlike the rose, has a very strong summer season. Here in southern California, the local lisianthus begin to appear around late June to early July.

Lisianthus is a beautiful flower with multiple cupped blooms per stem. They come in a good variety of wedding colors such as deep purple, lavender, white, ivory, buttery yellow, light green, and pink. You can also find unique purple and white bicolor lisianthus. What I love most about lisianthus are the delicate feathery and fluttery petals. Most lisianthus I see at the flower market have many many petals (doubles) which make the blooms larger and resembling more like a rose crossed with a ranunculus. For those brides who love soft, feathery bouquets but find peonies and ranunculus out of season in the height of summer may find a suitable substitute in lisianthus. Mixed with roses, sweetpeas, and dahlia, you can end up with a gorgeous romantic bouquet.

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