Say It With Flowers

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.

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