One Flower, Thousand Words
How gentle is the rain
That falls softly on the meadow,
Birds high up in the trees
Serenade the flowers with their
melodies
By Linzer and Randell
Dear
friends,
Monday, November 7 morning, I happened to see (not
watched) Family Feud game on TV. The question to the contestants was (if I remember
the line correctly) “what do you do to make up with your wife if you messed-up things
with her.” The no. 1 answer was: “Give her flowers.”
This post is all about flowers. I like to share some of my video and photos with you,
and talk briefly about the meaning and influence of flowers in our life as I see it, where a
universal love of flowers exists.
I wonder when did people start presenting flowers to
others to express their feelings toward the other person; to express love,
sympathy, joy, sadness and all other kind of feelings. But for certain, the important role
of flowers in human exists since centuries ago.
Flowers are also used for decorations, to add color, to create
and enhance certain moods to its surroundings. And look around us; is our life not
surrounded by flowers, real or just images, paintings, drawings on walls,
murals, porcelain, fabrics, clothing, carved or painted on furniture and so
many other things. Flowers for personal beauty, head-wear, brooch, or tradition
like Hawaiian lei to welcome visitors.
And more important than just decoration, flowers is a
very important part of all kinds of rituals, religious or human traditions, and
parties and celebrations.
So many special milestones in peoples life can’t just go
by without the presence of flower, starting with welcoming the new baby, celebrating birthday,
graduation, wedding, death, and after death when people put flowers at
their beloved ones grave. Florists also get business when people want to send flowers to cheer their sick family or friends. And don’t forget
the creation and commercialization of special days in the year to create demand
for flowers: Fathers’ Day, Mothers’ Day, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving,
Christmas, etc.
My
dear friends,
I
always see flowers as the most beautiful art and creation of nature; colorful,
subtle, intricate, and that’s why I think flowers deserve to be handled
artfully in our flower arrangement. We bring the beauty of nature from our
gardens into our rooms and what a shame if we just dump it into just any
ordinary vase.
And as far as I know, Japan is one of the nations that
since many ages ago, has the tradition where people are in great harmony with
nature. The Ikebana art of flower arrangement demonstrates the strong bond and intimacy of the Japanese with their natural surroundings. It is not just putting flowers in a container. It is a
disciplined art form in which nature and humanity are brought together.
My dear friends,
Following are my video collections to share with you great samples of floral art.
My dear friends,
Following are my video collections to share with you great samples of floral art.
Every year one week long during
spring, the de Young museum in San Francisco opens the door for a big flower
event, “Bouquets to Art.” This is a fantastic display of the super creativity
of floral designers that transforms the museum into an awesome garden full of
color and beauty, where visitors will get a deeper understanding and
appreciation of fine art and floral art.
Here is Bouquets to
Art 2006:
Another
impressive display of flower garden and floral art that is well known worldwide
is Keukenhof in Holland, claimed as the
world's largest flower garden. According to Keukenhof Park,
approximately 7,000,000 (7 million) flower bulbs are planted annually in the park, which
covers an area of 32 hectares.
Keukenhof is open for public annually from the last
week of March to mid-May. They say that the best time to view the tulips is around mid-April.
Talking about tulips make me remember Alexander Dumas’ novel "La
Tulipe Noire" – "The Black Tulip," telling about growing a black tulip. The story
takes place in the year 1670’s. The city of Haarlem, Netherland, has set a prize of 100,000 guilders to the person who can grow a black tulip,
and this sparks competition between the country's best gardeners to win the
money, honor and fame.
The story of a competition hundreds years ago to grow a
special variety of tulip that is black becomes again interesting for me after I
read an article about flower business today. Today growers continuously need
to create new varieties of flowers, especially tulips and roses, because there
is a point of saturation on the consumer sides. That is why there is an unbelievable
number of tulip and rose varieties now; hundreds of them.
Keukenhof attracts millions of
people all over the world, and I think that Keukenhof is one of the backbones
of Netherland’s flower industry that makes the country the world’s largest
exporter of flowers.
Watch Keukenhof 2010.
The garden
The Glass house
The Orchid pavillion
My dear friends,
When we talk about flowers and Holland as the biggest flower exporter in the world, Aalsmeer is the place to see.
In the past, flowers was cultivated and sold close to
home. It was the time when flowers could not have survived a long journey like
today. Because of airfreight and high tech cooling systems today, flowers can
be shipped long distances. Even the most delicate flowers can be boxed and delivered
fresh in many places in the world. According to statistics, more than 70% of
cut flowers bought by Americans now are imported.
Who is the biggest cut flower exporter? Netherland. Those
flowers mostly pass through Aalsmeer auction house.
Aalsmeer is the largest flower auction in the world. The auction
building is considered the 4th largest building in
the world in terms of floor space, covering 990,000 m² (10.6 million sq ft).
Flowers from all over the world are traded on a daily basis at the Aalsmeer
facilities. Around 20 million flowers are sold daily with a 10% increase around
special days such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.
Every day Bloemenveiling (the Dutch
word for “auction”) Aalsmeer sets the world price for flowers and plants.
Here is a youtube video of Aalsmeer flower auction
