Expert: Kevin Smith - 11/10/2009

Question
Hello Dr. Smith,
we are planning my son's wedding for Feb., and we are contemplating of using fresh flowers for the centerpieces, but he is asthmatic and has been all his 27yrs. Can you please tell me some of the flowers we should avoid when we are shopping for flowers to avoid any problem.
Thank you
Femi

Answer
Hi there FEMI,

Flowers are a tricky thing with asthmatics and allergy sufferers; people can be very personalized in what they suffer from.

I would strongly suggest you and your son visit a florists well before you have to order the flowers and do a test - choose some flowers you might be using and have him inhale their fragrance and see how he reacts - that would really be the only way to know for sure. Of course, if he suffers seriously from flowers, then this might not be plausible, as it could set off a serious reaction, in which case, flowers at the wedding wouldn't be a good idea anyways.

What is his history with flowers? He will, likely, have had exposure to various flowers in his life, and should already have some experience with what causes him to react and what doesn't.

Personally, I find that the highly-fragranced, high-pollen flowers, such as lillies, mums, apple and cherry blossom and daisies are a quite bad for me, and set off almost an instant reaction. Flowers such as roses and orchids barely affect me at all due to the fact they are not very 'airborne' - they do not have the pollen and such the aforementioned ones do.

As a down and dirty rule, I would say avoid anything with high-pollen content mostly, such as those mentioned above.

Good luck with your flower hunting, and your son's wedding!

PS - just to clarify, I'm not a doctor, just a fellow asthmatic :>