Find Your Ask The Expert: Help! I’m hoping because of your name you’ll know the anwser. I’m a fairly new florist, and I have a bride that wants a few passionflowers in her bouquet. But I can’t find them as cut flowers anywhere. I could try to grow a few vines, but I don’t want to promise her if I can’t find them anywhere already grown. Any idea how I could get a few for a Sept 5 wedding? Susan
Reply:
The idea of using a passion flower in a wedding bouquet sound simply romantic. However, in the real world it wouldn’t be as romantic as it sounds. I can not think of any cut flower grower that carries passion flowers. In fact, I doubt that the flower would last long once it is cut from the vine. If the bride wants to incorporate the passion flower in her wedding, you might try using potted passion flower vines. I would, however, caution her that the plant may not have blooms when she wants them. You might try Logee’s Greenhouse in Connecticut if you need the plants.
Just a little side note: Love was not the inspiration behind the Passion Flower name. This flower actually was inspired by the Passion of Christ on the cross. Spanish Christian missionaries from the 15th and 16th century felt that the physical structure of the plant symbolized the Crucifixtion and the filaments in the flower represented the crown of thorns. So, they named the the flowering vine passion flower.
If the bride wants to incorporate the passion flower in her wedding, you might try using potted passion flower vines. Good ideas, thanks for sharing!
I grew up in East Tennessee where these grow as wild flowers. I used to cut one every Sunday at church to give to my grandmother. For years I tried to keep these blooms from wilting by mid-day but I never did. The make of these blooms are so fragile and the petals are so thin they just do not hold up after being cut from the vine. I would suggest you try to talk the bride into using silk passion flowers (if you can find them) mixed with her real flowers.
Let us know what happens…