Fleeting Beauty

It’s lilac time.

Many lovely flowers make their annual appearance in spring, but few are as ephemeral as sweet-scented lilacs. With panicles covered in tiny, delicate flowers, displaying tones from palest mauve to deep purple, lilac is a cool-climate beauty that blooms for only a few weeks in Australia, usually in October.

Its fleeting lifespan makes it all the more special, says Sydney florist Sean Cook, who creates bespoke floral works under the moniker of Mr Cook. Sean is an avid admirer of the mauve beauty and keenly awaits its brief season. “I adore lilac, firstly because of its beautiful perfume,” he says. “I also love all the different shades it comes in, especially the variegated ones and the rarer white-flowering variety.”

For this display, created specially for H&G, Sean has combined lilac with flowering gum, allium flowers and the intriguing addition of stringy Catalpa (Indian bean tree) pods, arranged in a vase by Sydney-based ceramicist Gretel Corrie. “I like to use unexpected elements together,” he explains. “And keeping the flowers clustered creates strong shapes and textures.”

As the local season for lilac is such a short one, it can be quite an expensive flower, Sean admits. But, he adds, the splurge is always well worth it. “For something truly decadent and luxurious, you can’t go past a mass of lilac stems on their own in a vase.”

Mr Cook; mrcook.com.au or @mrcooktheflorist