The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx had just about everything it needed for an exhibition of real and sculptural sunflowers.

It had the inspiration: Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch artist who spent time in Arles, a region in the south of France whose sunflower fields are legendary in part because of his depiction of them.

It had the artist: Cyril Lancelin, a French artist based in Lyon who visited the Arles sunflower fields as a child.

And it had the location: its Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, which could host the indoor floral displays, and an adjacent lawn that could showcase the remainder of the 18,000 plants that organizers had in mind.

The garden just needed the sunflowers.

Sunflowers naturally bloom later in June and throughout the summer, as days get longer and temperatures increase, said Brian Sullivan, the garden’s vice president of glasshouses and landscape. But the garden wanted to start its show in May.