My birthday is May 8 & I remember there are usually tulips, many daffodils, some hyacinths (especially grape), peonies, some of the early irises, trilliums, lily of the valley, & some windflowers in bloom.

Hope this helps you out a bit. :-)

Welcome to Tennessee & I hope your wedding is beautiful. I got married in the smoky mountains in April & the spring blooms were beautiful. We were supposed to use one of the chapels, but the flowers were so pretty I covinced the minister to do an outside wedding for us. All the guests blew those little wedding bubbles. Our pictures turned out great & will always be a special memory for us.

How long spring bulb blooms last in middle TN depends a whole lot on the weather that spring. If it doesn't get too hot too fast, I've seen the latest blooming narcissus (the poeticus types like Actaea and the heirloom N. medioluteus, the Twin Sisters Narcissus) blooming in early to mid May.

I'd try Dutch Iris. These are the ones florists use as cut flowers, and they may be in bloom at that time (again, depends on the weather). Other iris that aren't bulbs, such as Siberian Iris and Louisiana Iris, would be in bloom then, too. And if you can find it, plant some Phlox maculata 'Miss Lingard'. One of the common names of this plant is Wedding Phlox because up north it blooms in June. Here it blooms in May. It's snow white and sweetly fragrant.

Me, I'd not count on tulips except ones from the florist. One hot day and garden tulips are blown.

If you haven't set the wedding date yet and using spring flowers you cut is important to you, I suggest thinking about setting the date for as early in May as you can. Late May is kind of a down time for bloom, in between the spring stuff and the early summer stuff. You'll have quite a bit more to choose from early in the month.

Welcome to TN and the Nashville area. It's a beautiful place to live and garden!

Marty

Marty, I'm glad you mentioned Miss Lingard. It's about my favorite phlox, since it blooms so early and for so long. Mine had a big setback and didn't even bloom this year, which made me very sad -- but it looks like the plant is coming back now, so I'm hoping for a good show next spring!