A video promoting the purchase of flowers! ‘Say It With Love’ …and how do you do that? Now you know why this video is titled ‘Unforgettable Men’, or at least you should! What is it with flowers? I challenge you, if you’re a woman, try to not be impressed, excited, delighted when a man brings or sends flowers; go on, try!
Unlike main stream American culture, there are many cultures where the gifting of flowers to men shares the same common place that gifting them to women does. Many more cultures greet guests with flowers than do not. When the guests leave they give them departing bouquets. Speaking of ‘departures’ sometimes, though rare, bouquets have been hurled at the man who brought them as a token of love while offering an apology! Take heart, this is rare; most apologies, sent or delivered with flowers are almost magical in creating a very hospitable and forgiving reception.
Asking her to marry you, take flowers… saying your sorry, take lotsah flowers… someone dies, send flowers… put them on the grave at Memorial Day, put them on the dinner table…. wear them in your hair or the button hole in your jacket’s collar. Prom night, is the night you musn’t forget the corsage, more often than not this is the place where you will find the Orchid. Easter bonnets were once full of flowers.
Those that keep bees grow as many flowers as they have room for. The value of pollen was once sold in weight like we do gold today.
Let’s say you make perfume…my goodness you’ll need a lot of flowers! Scented oils, soaps and cosmetics are universally used. Pot Pwonderfulourri to perfume the air, scented candles to light the darkness, wonderful place for a rose to be seen! WHere would we be without perfume? Its everywhere.
Flowers are also edible…they have been seen in salads and soft drinks and frozen within ice cubes looking magical floating in glasses of sparkling brews.
There are world wide flower festivals held annually. A group of botanists spend their passion on breeding the ever developing beauty of the famed Black Orchid which blooms at midnight. Tulip bulbs were once traded as the highest form of currency.
Throwing flowers onto the stage of beloved performers, particularly the Opera Singer is common place. The musician feels blest if a bouquet of flowers is presented at the end of the concert, whereas the superstitious actor of the Middle Ages believed that to allow flowers on the stage, before the play began was to court very bad luck.
Flowers brought to the ‘sick bed’ are wonderful reminders of life’s loveliness… and some of us believe they hasten the healing process.
Not to forget the florists, world renowned for mending many a broken heart. The Japanese florist specializes in a discipline of floral arrangement called Ikebana. It is one of the skills that a well trained Japanese Geisha Girl. The competitions held for this style of arrangement are very peculiar to the ‘western’ thought. The highest score given for the best Ikebana is granted to the arrangement that uses the least number of stems. The highest possible score is for a one stem arrangement. But, it must ‘work’. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. The style of these florists and their arrangements, reflects the minimalism that Japan is most noted for. It’s utterly beautiful in its simplicity just as the succinct, and sparse use of words in the well crafted poem. Like Marcel Marceau, the world famous mime artist, iconoclast himself, creating the iconic mini portrayal of the sweet, but saddened clown, who offers a single flower to his spellbound beloved.
Flowers can increase what the Realtors call ‘curb appeal’ and raise the bottom line considerably. It’s been proven that you can add as much as $10,000 to your sales price and spend as little as $300 to purchase the flowers.
Don’t forget Mamma… take flowers… you don’t have to have much money… every spring you’ll find wild flowers growing in most fields or along the road. Summer and autumn all have flowers. Most gardens used to have them and this was partly due to the understanding that if you encouraged the honey bees you’d enlarge your harvest.
The church alter often displays Sunday flowers an offering from someone’s garden. Churches overflow with them during a wedding ceremony. A fancy hotel is naked and considered of ‘no account’ without huge floral displays. The higher the price of your room, the more likely you’ll have fresh flowers in it.
Many restaurants and cafe’s, however humble, may only have a single bloom on each of the tables even if the vase is an empty catsup or pop bottle or a gardner’s posey stuck in an old fruit jar.excavated
They have excavated ancient graves… the so called cave man, buried their loved ones with flowers often flowers woven into small wreaths or daisy like chains. Is it the promise of new life, an after life? I don’t know. Flowers have been found in medicinal remedies that are as old as prehistoric times. Many of you will know of the Bach Flower Remedies, still a prevalent in alternative health care practices.
Flowers, we love them. I’m not exactly sure why… maybe it’s something deep in systemic memory. The Victorians, in particular, wrote volumes on the language of flowers…what to give to whom and when…the bloom as well as the colour,…even how to hold the bloom or bouquet when displaying it for offer! These bouquets of conversation were very specific and many messages were clandestinely delivereddelivered by the colour coding and arranging of flowers.
Ancient cultures such as the Egyptians record in their hieroglyphics, the gifting of flowers to one another. So why not say it with flowers and you too could be written into history on a modest level and be one of those unforgettable men…or women, or children!