Summer Flower Lisianthus

Summer Flower Lisianthus

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. 

Clockwise from top left: dark purple lisianthus, pink lisianthus, lisianthus in mixed bouquet, 

lisianthus in centerpiece, white lisianthus, pink lisianthus next to roses

Lisianthus are also perfect for a rustic garden themed wedding. Wispy small buds of unopened blossoms crawl up the length of each stem giving an arrangement a more wild and unstructured look and feel.  But you can also just use the full blossoms of each stem for a more structured and compact arrangement, like the ones above. Lisianthus are also quite economical.  Though each stem is about the same price as a rose, the fact that there can be 2-4 nice sized blossoms on each stem can actually bring the per bloom cost to carnation levels or lower!  (and there’s nothing wrong with carnations!)