Human Flower Project

Florists

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Tuberose Tiaras for Brides and Gods

Sandy Ao finds Calcutta’s floral artisans at work on wedding crowns.

Making tuberose crowns at Mullickghat flower market
May 2007, Calcutta, India
All Photos: Sandy Ao

In May, Calcutta’s Mullickghat—one of the oldest and busiest outdoor flower markets in the world—sparkles. There’s romance in the air and, in nearly every stall, bushels of sweet white blossoms. Photographer Sandy Ao writes, “This season it’s more Tuberose and less of Marigold. The tuberose thrives well in the Indian summer heat, and it’s marriage season all over India.”

Weaving rajniganda
“fragrance of the night”
May 2007

Sandy spent a morning down by the Hoogly bridge two weeks ago. She found scores of men and boys stringing the flowers of tuberose (Rajniganda) into spectacular wedding accessories. These blooms, while not so large or shapely as other flowers, are gleaming white and renowned for holding their fragrance.  “The marrying couple exchange Tuberose garlands while giving vows during the marriage ceremony. Like the way others exchange rings,” Sandy explains. We’d seen pictures of the great tuberose garlands, thick as pythons, that wedding couples wear, but never these gorgeous tiaras!

“The crowns are for the Brides from the Eastern Region of India,” Sandy tells us. Typically, men teach crown-making to their young sons; working side by side, they thread the blossoms into pearly ornaments—exquisite pieces that sell, Sandy says, for Rs. 150 - 250 ($3.70 - $6.17 USD) apiece.

“I was informed most of the artisans are from the neighbouring state of Orissa,” just south of West Bengal, she writes. “They are traditional artists and able gardeners. Most of the florists who daily bring the flowers to the offices/shops/home,” in Calcutta, “are from Orissa.”

Tuberoses arrive from Orissa
Mullickghat market, Calcutta

Sandy wandered among the artisans as they wove and traded ... “with all these flower sellers and buyers busily bargaining the price, one tends to forget that we are living in modern times. Time just stands still… we don’t see any crooked person and face no danger of being robbed or mugged. I guess no one has the time for anything other than buying flowers or selling flowers. In between there are vendors selling country made ice cream or homemade soft drinks… and some fresh fruit sellers, and tea makers, and lunch makers… and the Barbers busily shaving or cutting hair!” Sandy writes, “After a few months when the monsoon sets in, the Marigold will take over the market scene.” But for now, tuberose presides—in its glory.
Crown fit for a bride
tuberoses, sunflowers and roses

Polianthes tuberosa is a welcome and omnipresent wedding guest, especially in Bengal. Bright and sweet, it appears in crowns and garlands, also in decorations for the couple’s getaway car and even the marriage bed (Phul Shajya). Rajniganda translates as “fragrance of the night.”

We hope someday to see a 1974 movie called Rajniganda (Tuberose) —you guessed it , a love story. In the film, a young woman is torn between her hometown sweetheart and go-getter she meets in Bombay. As she mind-wrestles to know which man is her soul mate, the gift of tuberoses—that fragrance!—brings an answer.

By the way, “Tuberose is known to improve one’s capacity for emotional depth. By opening the crown chakra it improves psychic powers.”  How fitting that a bride would wear rajniganda on her head. “And these are for the God Lord Shiva,” Sandy writes. “Some of the flower sellers told me they can use these crowns for the God /Goddess and the brides. I guess all are pure and holy in the same manner!”

Monday, May 14, 2007

Prom Flowers Minus Pins

Florists scramble and switch to keep up with teenage taste.

Ellie Webb described the May rush for flowers
Whitesburg Florist, in Eastern Kentucky
Photo: Human Flower Project

On a recent visit to Whitesburg, Kentucky, we found sisters in floristry Ellie Webb and Lynn Day bustling to get a dozen newly delivered buckets of fresh blooms into the cooler. May is the busiest month all year for the Whitesburg Florist, and in many other parts of the South, too. Ellie explained,  “You have graduation, prom, Mothers Day AND Memorial Day.”

Also known as Decoration Day here, Memorial Day is huge. Families take this occasion to stage reunions, before summer gets oppressive. While everybody’s in town, they traditionally tidy up the family cemetery and set out lavish arrangements (mostly artificial flowers) on the graves.

Several years ago we met sisters Wanda Frazier and Charlotte Warrick working side by side at E.B. Castro’s elegant Rose Shop in San Antonio, and we’ve read of other sister florists. But before stopping in the Whitesburg shop we had never met sisters who owned their own place. Ellie and Lynn had both worked 15 years for another florist, but decided to go off on their own five years ago: “So far so good,” Ellie reported.

Letcher County’s two high schools both hold their proms before graduation—very backassward, if you ask us (would someone please ask us?). The pre-graduation prom seems to have become the norm in most of the country. Perhaps you school superintendents can explain how this strange custom began. Ellie and Lynn didn’t know, but they did have some ideas about changes in prom flowers.

Helena Wilk and Anthony Venella at their grammar school prom, 1958
Yorkship Village, Camden, NJ
Photo: Courtesy of Anthony Venella

Back in the days of yore, this was what one wore to the school dance. Many thanks to Anthony Venella for posting not only this photo but a moving account of his prom in Camden, New Jersey.

“It was a clear warm night as I was getting myself ready for our special Grammar School Prom. Many of us spent 9 years within this school, kindergarten through 8th grade. So with Helena Wilk’s corsage in my hand I walked down North Collings Road, past our school, then cut across the commons to Helena’s home on New Merrimac Road. Of course her entire family was around for the typical photographs and survey of her date. I felt a little self-conscious while walking to her home. But once I got there and then proceeded to walk to our auditorium for our prom, I felt relaxed. Everyone thought I would be a worse wall flower than the usual since I was a very quiet person. But Helena and I surprised everyone by doing 36 dance numbers in a row. I believe we had a garden theme for our prom, but do not remember the name.” 

Sarah O’Dowd with wrist-corsage
before the North Oldham County High School prom
April 22, 2005
Photo: Human Flower Project

Anthony, your memory is excellent, as was your selection of this lovely corsage for Helena. Readers who take a look at the Yorkship Village website will see that Helena liked her prom flower so much, she wore it the following day also, on an outing with you know who.

What became of prom corsages? “For fifteen years,” reported Ellie Webb of Whitesburg, “they’ve been going downhill.” According to Ellie, the girls themselves put an end to corsages, “They don’t want to pin anything on their dress,” and with the new skimpier styles, “Most times there’s nothing to pin it on!”

Teenage girls apparently prefer either small bouquets they’ll carry and flop on the table or “wrist bouquets” (quite flashy for slow dances).

We caught this photo of lovely Sarah O’Dowd back in the spring of 2005. Sarah was having dinner at Azalea Restaurant in Louisville, KY, before heading off to the North Oldham County High School prom. As you may be able to tell, Sarah was especially pleased with her date’s choice of an orchid for her prom flowers. “Most people get roses or gerbera daisies,” she smiled.

Congratulations to all the grads. And more power to you florists down the backstretch of busy May.

 

 

 

Saturday, April 21, 2007

30 Pounds of Paradise

Los Angeles blows its cool for a night—and a Bonne Vivante wins the Headdress Ball.

“Birds of Paradise,” designed by Gerry Gregg
2nd Runner Up, Las Floristas Headdress Ball
Beverly Hills, CA (April 20, 2007)
Photo: Scott Acevedo

Back! back! all you purveyors of minimalism! Simple-lifers, get a life!...

And witness 2007’s Las Floristas Headdress Ball. Thanks to Richard Seekins and Scott Acevedo of The Flower Place in Fountain Valley, CA, here’s a runway-side seat from last night’s exuberant charity fund-raiser in Beverly Hills. Scott was the evening’s emcee, and with 20+ years’ involvement in the event brightened the night with anecdotal glitter.

The theme for this year’s ball—“Ticket to Paradise”—inspired elephant heads, angels, and crested blackbirds. But wouldn’t you know it, the Sweepstakes Winner, entitled “Bonne Vivante Living the Good Life” featured a pretty girl shaking up cocktails.

Linda Nies as ‘Cinderella’
design by Richard Seekins and Scott Acevedo
winner of Las Floristas Headdress Ball, 1996
Photo: Scott Acevedo

Each year, members of Las Floristas, an all-volunteer organization that raises money for children’s charities,  contact the hottest florists in Southern California and plot their costumes. Richard explains, “From the design of the headdress, the colors are picked and the dress is decided on and the music selected. We do a complete package of the colors of the headdress, the ball gown and the music so it all coordinates.” He and Scott have learned what does best under the glare of stage lighting: “Dark colors like lavenders turn gray, dark reds are flat, greens turn black, and pale yellows and peach wash out.” But look what becomes of silvery blue, their design-choice for a “Cinderella” that won the Sweepstakes and People’s Choice prizes several years ago.

Richard kindly sent along some photographs of Linda Nies wearing the winning headdress he and Scott created in 1996 (“The Magic of Walt Disney”) as well as shots of this tour de force in the making. Using a fiberglass helmet, aluminum tubing and window screen, they made the armature. Richard explains, “It took the petals of 400 white carnations and 12 bunches of glads to do the flower petaling to cover the frame.” In the 24 hours before the ball itself, they added “100 white cattleyea orchids, 400 stephanotis blossoms, the flowers from 100 stems of white dendrobium orchids and 100 white phalenopsis orchids.” Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!

Linda Nies gets in practice
with the frame for her 1996 headdress
Photo: Scott Acevedo

Las Floristas Headdress Ball was clearly born in an earlier L.A., one with studio moguls, hunger for glamour and “high society.” This is the party where you could have seen Marilyn Hilton or settled in for a black-tie tribute to Bob Hope. It used to be, says Richard, that designers who hoped to take part would have to earn their way in through a “centerpiece competition,” but no more.  The florists who pour weeks into these feats of costuming are gradually backing away, and the area’s float-decorators (think Tournament of Roses) comprise more and more of the designers. As recently as the 1990s, Seekins says, there would be some 700 guests at the ball, but that’s dwindled to about half.

The group supports Rancho Los Amigos Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Downey, CA. Las Floristas’ fundraising, through the ball and other efforts, has created clinics there for children with birth defects, for burn victims and for paraplegic children. For more on Las Floristas, plus some photos of past headdress balls, please check out our post from April 15.

“Today, people don’t have the same desire to participate,” Seekins says. Wealthy L.A. ladies of decades past had both time and “money to burn.” They volunteered in greater numbers for charities like Las Floristas. As women put in 40 hour workweeks now, there’s less time to be fitted for a 30 pound headdress and beaded evening gown or to practice being “a mannequin.”

The Parade, “Ticket to Paradise”
Las Floristas Headdress Ball
Beverly Hills, CA (April 20, 2007)
Photo: Scott Acevedo

And practice is a good idea. It takes two people just to hoist these headpieces into place and then rig them into a corset so the weight won’t fall on the model’s lovely neck. “When you get 30 pounds on your hips, things do not move like they used to,” Richard says. It’s “like giving birth to quadruplets!”

We suppose that stylish L.A. is resuming its cool, putting back on its dark glasses, its slimming black attire. But for a few hours, Hollywood’s old glitz Genie was out of the bottle last night. Congratulations to all who entered, all who petaled, and all who attended this outrageous event.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Las Floristas: High Profile

California philanthropists host a gaga gala with crash helmets and flowers.

Lillian Molieri wears “The Princess of Scheherazade,”
Las Floristas Headdress Ball,  May 2, 1952
Photo: Los Angeles Public Library

In Los Angeles, where the God of Visibility presides, you won’t find charities baking cookies and tearing raffle tickets. At least not Las Floristas. This volunteer group raises money for disabled children with an annual black tie dinner in Beverly Hills and a top-heavy fashion show that’s one part Busby Berkeley, one part Max Ernst, one part J. Robert Oppenheimer, two parts Minnie Pearl. 

They call it The Headdress Ball. This year’s event, the 69th, will take place Friday, April 20. Over four decades, the Las Floristas organization has supported Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center with more than $7 million, much derived from the splendid and eminently understandable desire to see beautiful women carrying thirty pounds of flower-encrusted furniture on their heads. Jeri Goldstein, president of the 2007 ball, sees the headgear as “mini-Rose Parade floats.” 

Last fall we thought we’d smashed through the looking glass, coming upon these shots of Headdress Balls past in the Los Angeles Public Library archive. Correspondent Richard Seekins of The Flower Place in Fountain Valley, CA, kindly explained a bit of the engineering involved.

“Freeway—U.S.A.” worn by
Mrs. Theodore Bentley
Las Floristas Headdress Ball
May 5, 1962
Photo: Los Angeles Public Library

“The main headdresses are constructed on a fiber glass helmet which has a back brace molded to the gal’s back; at the end of this is a pallet which fits into a pocket in the back of the merry widow corset so all of the weight is carried on the hips.” Having not worn a merry widow in a month or two, we’re having a hard time fitting that pallet into the back pocket but will keep working at it, Rich.

We also learned from Richard, “There is a weight limit of 30 pounds. And the height cannot exceed 6 ft above the mannequin’s head” or be wider than “4 ft. across at the bottom. (This used to be 6 ft. but the hotel has remodeled and the headdresses must fit thru the railings on the ballroom.)”

And isn’t it just like remodelers not to take into account a woman wearing a highway interchange on her head?
Friday’s Las Floristas Ball is Ticket to Paradise, a theme dreamed up by florist Chris Matsumoto. We hope that some enterprising floral designer might attempt a 6 ft. raffle ticket splitting in two, with a fountain of heliconia,  pineapple, and surfboards erupting from the gash (but not exceeding 4 ft. at bottom).

Grand march of Las Floristas Headdress Ball,  May 1, 1965
“A Salute to the Seven Lively Arts,” Beverly Hilton Hotel
Photo: Los Angeles Public Library

Las Floristas Headdress Ball will take place again at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. For reservations and information, call (310) 607-8495. We hope nobody slips a disk. Thank you, Richard. Please let us hear from you after the merry widows unhook and go home.