Human Flower Project

Friday, September 30, 2005

Turn Out the Lights, Toss Out the Flowers

A host of feng shui masters say flowers, especially dried ones, don’t belong in the bedroom.

Beware of this bed

If your sweetheart comes home with flowers, well, lucky you. Just don’t spoil things by putting your bouquet on the bedside table.

To our surprise, the Hindustan Times’ feng shui advisor told a reader yesterday: “It is true that flowers and plants are not considered good feng shui in bedroom....” Mohan Deep claims a “scientific basis” for this rule: “The plants and flowers emit carbon dioxide at night,” a compound the Chinese masters called “Sha” and equated with negative energy.

Feng shui, one of the oldest design traditions in the world, is said to promote harmony and prosperity by fitting our environments to their right purposes, easing the way. We would have guessed that beautiful, fragrant flowers would be conducive to loving and rest, but the masters say otherwise. “Add lots of indoor plants in the east, southeast and south areas of your home,” writes one. “But shy away from dried flowers. Especially in the bedroom, such floral arrangements wreak havoc on your love and sex life.”

Dried flowers causing havoc?

This site says that couples who “want children” must “avoid putting flowers in the bedroom. Instead, place a basket of fruits in your bedroom. Fruits, especially pomegranates, are a symbol of fertility.” Yet another site explains “fresh flowers clash with the element of romance, which is Earth.”

By now, you may be leery of even putting on your nightie, but there’s lots more, concerning the proper display of peony paintings, limitation on teddy bears, and location of clothes hamper.

We’ll be sleeping on the couch tonight.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Niue: “Behold the Coconut”

We’re honored to welcome visitors from the Polynesian island of Niue.

Niue (pop. 2150)

The first time might have been a fluke, but we’ve received yet a second visit from Niue, a beautiful coral island of the South Pacific.

Niue means “Behold the Coconut,” (Captain Cook had a tin ear for the Niuean language and called it “Savage Island") but we understand that locals (all 2150 of them) refer to their 250 sq. mile home more simply as “The Rock.”

“The agricultural sector consists mainly of subsistence gardening, although some cash crops are grown for export. Industry consists primarily of small factories to process passion fruit, lime oil, honey, and coconut cream. The sale of postage stamps to foreign collectors is an important source of revenue.” You can see why.

Niue, pronounced “new-ay,” is located northeast of Tonga and south of Samoa. It has been independent since 1974, or as one site put it, “self-governing in free association with New Zealand.” In January 2004, Cyclone Heta dashed the island, destroying the “nascent economic programs” there. Since then Niue has relied substantially on foreign aid.

The island’s remoteness, tough on its economy, of course won’t deter tourists, especially when there are whales to see and a friendly island culture. (This headgear for bridesmaids, popular also for the island’s beauty pageants, is especially glorious.)

Warm greetings to our new visitors from Polynesia. We hope to hear from you about the floral customs of Niue.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

El Machetero

Puerto Ricans mourn the loss of a nationalist leader, killed by the U.S. FBI.

The casket of Filiberto Ojeda Rios passes through Naguabo, Puerto Rico, Sept. 27, 2005.
Photo: Brennan Linsley, for AP

Covered with flowers and a red machete, the coffin of Puerto Rico’s nationalist leader was carried through a village on the eastern edge of the island and buried yesterday.

Filberto Ojeda Rios was shot and killed Friday in Hormigueros by U.S. FBI agents, who allegedly had come to arrest him for a 1983 bank robbery in Connecticut. “The FBI statement did not specify who fired first, saying only ‘there was an exchange of gunfire’ that led to the fugitive’s death and the serious wounding of an FBI agent. FBI agents in Puerto Rico said Saturday that 72-year-old Ojeda Rios fired first. But his wife, Elma Beatriz Rosado Barbosa, who emerged unharmed from the shootout, said the FBI fired first.”

Emblem of Los Macheteros

Los Macheteros ("The Cane Cutters"), formally known as Boricua Popular Army, advocate Puerto Rican nationalism. Some consider them freedom fighters against U.S. oppression while others call them terrorists.

Undisputed are the poverty of Puerto Rican farmworkers and the enduring movement for Puerto Rican independence.

In his book Harvest of Empire, Juan Gonzalez described conditions in the 1930s: “The greed of the U.S. sugar plantations had created a social tinderbox. Wages for cane cutters, which had been 63 cents for a twelve-hour day in 1917, were down to 50 cents by 1932. Forty percent of the workforce was unemployed, yet company profits remained high. During the last six months of 1933 alone, eighty-five strikes and protests erupted, several of them directed against the colonial government.”

The FBI began silencing nationalists some thirty years later. “Starting in 1960s, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, as was common in Latin America, infiltrated Puerto Rico’s free press and political circles in order to monitor and disrupt efforts related to the independence movement.” Rios formed the Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement (MIRA) in 1967, the first of several nationalist groups which evolved into Los Macheteros in 1976, “to defend Puerto Rico’s legal process and political evolution from US Government intervention.”

Filiberto Ojeda Rios (1933-2005)

Ojeda Rios, a native of Naguabo, had lived in Cuba and New York. He took part in a 1983 bank heist in the U.S. and had been on the run ever since. But the FBI’s decision to confront him on September 23 proves the US feds intended something more than the apprehension of a criminal. September 23 is Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares), the day in 1863 that Puerto Rican nationalists revolted against Spanish rule. Nationalist sentiments flower each year on this day, and Los Macheteros, who have been fairly quiet in recent years, typically issue a statement at this time.

“Amnesty International called Tuesday for an independent inquiry into Ojeda Rios’ death, saying it’s unclear whether the Justice Department probe would be ‘full, impartial and independent.’

“Independence activists see Ojeda Rios as a martyr whose death will re-energize their splintered movement. A group of men took down the U.S. flag in front of the legislative building Tuesday and replaced it with the green banner of the Macheteros.”

Thanks to the flower-givers for bringing this latest episode in U.S. “world-policing” to our attention.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Konyaku—Devil and Angel

From the tuber of a garish plant, native to Vietnam, comes a healthy wonder ingredient of Asian cuisine.

A patch of Voodoo lilies
Photo: University of Connecticut

Amorphophallus konjac goes by several unflattering names in English (Devil’s tongue, Voodoo lily). It puts on quite a bloom-spectacle, with a stalk 2-3 feet high and a flower so hideously stinky it can draw a crowd better than Metallica; Voodoo lily fans just happen to be insects.

Correspondent Tracy Tanji clued us in today that in Japan, the angelic properties of Devil’s tongue are well known and, in fact, savored. “We use this plant for ‘Konyaku,’ for dishes,” and to good effect, Tracy writes.

The University of Connecticut reports that “cone-yuk” (as it’s pronounced in Japan) is used as a thickener for soups and stews, and as the base ingredient for noodles. “The main substance in konjac is called Glucomannan which has a low caloric content but is rich in dietary fiber. Clinical study indicates Glucomannan may be responsible for weight reduction and reducing cholesterol in those who have high cholesterol. It is eaten in Japan to clean the digestive tract of toxins.”

Tofu-like, konyaku
from the tuber of Devil’s tongue

As you’d imagine there are quite a number of firms selling konyaku supplements and extolling its many benefits. We don’t vouch for these claims or products—or necessarily plan to use them ourselves—but find them of interest as human flower projects.

For those who’d rather grow than swallow, here’s a bold gardener with experience raising Devil’s tongue. S/he writes, “I had planned to allow it to continue blooming in the house.  After all, just how powerful could the legendary stench be.  Today, March 15, I was working near the tuber and still there was no odor.  At noon there was a mild odor and I figured I could tolerate this.  I laughed at all the fussy folks who grumble about the odor.

“By 3 o’clock in the afternoon, my eyes were tearing.  I wondered if it was really the plant or if a dead horse had been dug up in my yard.  After two hours of using an industrial exhaust fan, the odor lingers.  Tonight the inflorescence is spending the night in the garage.”

Some readers with cholesterol problems might like to give the angelic devil’s tongue a try: here is a site with several recipes. Tracy, and others who’ve cooked with this knockout plant, we especially welcome your suggestions for how to use konyaku in the kitchen.

To begin, we’ve never met a spring-roll we didn’t lilke. So here’s a how-to for harumaki-konyaku spring roll…

Continue Reading

Monday, September 26, 2005

The Hits Keep On Growing

The Floriade of Canberra, Australia, adds some back beat to its annual flower spectacle, with garden themes drawn from rock and roll lyrics.

Floriade 2005
Canberra, Australia
Photo: Tim Wimborne, for Reuters

As spring arrives in the Southern Hemisphere, so have flower festivities there. Floriade opened September 23 in Canberra, Australia, and will run for a month. Some tout it as a “the biggest flower festival in the southern hemisphere, regularly drawing over 300,000 visitors.” And indeed it appears to be a real floral pop festival. This year’s theme is “Rock ‘n’ Roll in Bloom,” featuring 16 top-40 inspired flowers beds: “Whiter Shade of Pale,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” and “Paint It Black” (the latter, chock full of Queen of the Night Tulips).

Somehow, listening to Brian Jones twang a sitar never called tulips to mind for us. Nor did we take John Lennon’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” literally (in fact, wasn’t escaping literalism—or at least rational consciousness - what the song was about?)

Okay, sorry to be picky. We hope the Canberra festival kicks off a lively and beautiful season of flower events for those localities where spring has lately sprung. It’s just that for those of us who’ve gone from mini-skirts to Fosamax, this year’s theme just seems to rub it in: we’ve gotten to the point where we really do like flowers—too rickety to rock.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

The End of the Five-Rupee Garland

Pakistan has replaced its five-rupee bank note with a coin, and put a dent in the fungible garland trade.

Pakistan’s 5-rupee notes
now discontinued

Celebrations in Pakistan usually—and gloriously—involve the giving of cash-flower garlands. At weddings, graduations, or retirement parties, the honorees receive splendid, spendable well-wishes, worn for the occasion and then, once the flowers wilt, spent or socked away.

In July, Pakistan did away with its low-note, five-rupees, worth about 8 U.S. pennies—too bad, because these provided garland material for most everyday Pakistanis. Hasan Mansoor, writing for the Daily Times, reports that, the coin for cash switch has already undermined this custom, and florists are complaining. “Now one has to pay at least 200 rupees to buy the cheapest garland containing ten-rupee notes. And many these days can’t afford to pay that much money,” said Karachi flower shop owner Baboo Gulfrosh. ““The number of people buying garlands stuffed with notes has greatly reduced since the government withdrew the five-rupee currency.”

On a brighter side, flower sales are up across Pakistan, as are flower prices. Over the past two weeks, the price of roses has doubled.

We learned that several years ago, Pakistani authorities tried to ban the public wearing of cash-garlands. Columnist Hazifur Rahman took an amusing swipe at the idea:

Graduate in Pakistan
wearing a rupee garland
Darul Uloom Haqquania seminary
Photo: BBC

“I agree with that regime that the public display of money garlands should have been stopped when it first came into power. Long ago one such garland was put around my neck by fawning subordinates. As soon as I got home, I counted the money. The total came to exactly 303 rupees. Although I deplored the meanness of my subordinates, I still wear the garland on the anniversary of my retirement and look at myself in the mirror. It is a purely private act and I hope is not considered a public display. I don’t want to be hauled up at my age for breaking the law.”

This ordinance flopped and rightly so, though one wonders whether the discontinuance of the five-rupee note isn’t someone’s attempt to squelch this custom in a way that’s subtler but more absolute.

We also came across this interesting and perhaps related 2002 story out of Ludhiana, India, (not far from the Pakistan border). There, the giving (and, of course, receiving) of cash-flower garlands to politicians had become so widespread that the region was running out of small-note currency. (In this Northern Indian region, there’s also the practice of “weighing the candidates in coins.")

Hm. Maybe the five-rupee note was discontinued so only the super-rich could bribe politicans (as in the U.S.).

Should you have any Pakistani five-rupee notes tucked away, they’ll do you no good at the market anymore.  But hang onto them.  Nestled among 100 rupee notes and marigolds, they’ll make lovely sentimental additions to a grandson’s wedding necklace.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Why Does ‘Progress’ Step on Flower Sellers?

Light-rail construction, eminent domain, “restoring order” all take a heavy toll on flower sellers.

George Harris
Pittsburgh florist
who joined the fight
against eminent domain
Photo: Institute for Justice

Are selling, buying, and giving flowers anti-progressive? One might think so from today’s news.

Arizona’s construction of a light-rail line through Phoenix, Mesa and Tempe will take three years. “Traffic impacts will be minimal during initial stages,” say spokespeople from Tempe’s transportation department. Florist Lois Daly, manager of Watson’s Flower Shop in Mesa, isn’t buying that.  “We’re not very encouraged,” she said. In fact, Watson’s is going so far as to open a second location, in Gilbert, “because we want to be accessible during construction.” (Of course, not all flower shops have the resources to start a sister store elsewhere.)

Pam and David Johnson, who own Watson’s Flower Shop, told the Arizona Republic today they had to take this drastic step since 30% of their sales are to walk-in customers and with the street torn up, they expect to lose half this business.

A third generation florist, David Johnson says, “I will do everything in my power to keep the legacy of my grandmother alive.” Dedication, a customer base in Gilbert, and painful experience drove the decision to move. “Watson’s Flowers lost 25 percent of its business after construction of Loop 101 in the 1980s.”

Meanwhile, in Stockbridge, Georgia, Mark and Reginia Meeks are battling the city to get what they consider a fair price for their flower shop. “The city sought the Meekses’ store, and 17 other properties, so it could move forward with its Urban Redevelopment Plan.” The “plan” will demolish their shop and other businesses to make way for new municipal buildings and, of course, a parking lot. “Other parcels in the so-called Urban Redevelopment Area would be turned over to private developers.”

The question of whether local governments have the right of eminent domain—and can condemn existing homes and businesses to clear the way for new private development—is hot and getting hotter. A bill to limit such powers has already passed the Georgia Senate and will “likely come up for a vote in the state House in January.” Will that be too late for the Meekses and their Stockbridge Florist and Gifts?

They and similarly embattled florists need to check out what happened in Pittsburgh five years ago. There, 160 small businesses joined forces to fight the mayor’s plan to take their property and turn it over to a Chicago mall developer. And they, including florist George Harris pictured above, prevailed.

U.S. florists, if you feel you’ve got it bad, give a thought to what’s happening in Zimbabwe. There, president Robert Mugabe’s Operation Murambatsvina has arrested tens of thousands of vendors, seizing their goods, and taking their money. This AP story follows a flower seller who for 35 years has grown roses and asters outside the capital, transporting them 20-miles to Harare on his bicycle to sell on the sidewalk. “Even though he had a vending license,” the police seized his flowers and arrested him.  “The $20 loss represented a huge chunk of his capital savings.”

Mugabe’s policy to “Drive Out Trash” has “destroyed the homes or livelihoods of 700,000 people and affected some 2.4 million others, according to U.N. estimates.” The crackdown has targeted, among many others, the flower sellers of Harare.

So, do flower sellers stand in the way of “development” or “progress”? No. But in many parts of the world, what goes by the name of “progress” is anti-floral and anti-human, too. 

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

The Paradox of Pecos Sunflower

A paradoxical sunflower gains more aggressive protection from New Mexico, and now the U.S. feds.

Pecos sunflower
Photo: R. Sivinski

Helianthus paradoxus likes to have its feet wet, but also likes the arid climate of West Texas and New Mexico. No wonder it’s called “paradox sunflower,” and no wonder it’s so rare.

The plant was put on the endangered species list in 1999 and appears to have survived in less than two dozen places: Pecos and Reeves counties in Texas and Chaves, Cibola, Guadalupe, Socorro and Valencia counties in New Mexico. The Environmental Protection Agency found that the plant had been squeezed out by “aquifer depletions, diversions of surface water, and filling wetlands for conversion to dry land; competition from non-native plant species, including Russian olive and saltcedar; excessive livestock grazing; and highway maintenance and mowing,” the usual culprits. Last year the EPA stepped up efforts to conserve this plant, considering “puzzle sunflower,” as it’s also known, a good candidate for reclamation and removal from the endangered special list.

Helianthus paradoxus

And what do you know? In July of this year the State of New Mexico took a bold step, actually buying a “desert oasis in Santa Rosa in an effort to protect the sunflower’s habitat. It marked the first time the state had purchased land to protect an endangered plant.”

Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has introduced a federal recovery plan.

There are several ways to be “rare.” And it appears that Pecos sunflower’s sort of rarity—being “numerically abundant only in a few small, widely scattered habitats”—may be its salvation. That and some governmental gutsiness and foresight.

Have we gotten to the point where only state bureaucracy can save the wild? —a paradox if ever there was one.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Can Flowers Police Ayodhya?

A garden is proposed to ease violent tensions in Northern India. Is peace the true purpose, or is it surveillance?

Hindu extremists take the Babri Masjid mosque
Ayodhya, India, December 1992

People think of flower gardens as quiet, but in Eden and ever since, a garden always expresses human intentionality. You don’t have to be loud to be brazen.

From Indian newspaper Midday we have Vinay Krishna Rastogi’s report that the land around a disputed Hindu temple in Ayodhya may be turned in a Valley of Flowers.

This was where the Babri Masjid mosque stood until December 1992, when a mob of Hindu extremists destroyed the Muslim holy site. Some Hindus have believed that this spot high in the mountains was the birthplace of Rama, the ancient Hindu hero, and thus rightfully had to be reclaimed.

What does all this have to do with a garden? In July of this year, Indian authorities foiled a Muslim plot to take the holy land back and blot out the Sri Ram Janmabhoomi temple a Hindu sect has built there. According to Rastogi’s story, “The area which surrounds the demolished Babri Masjid is overgrown with shrubs. This peculiar terrain helped Pakistan terrorists to launch the attack on July 5.”

Government spokespeople say that chopping out the underbrush and constructing a “valley of flowers” around this contentious place will “bring some peace to the area, soothe the spirits of pilgrims and strengthen security.” But obviously that all depends on which sort of pilgrim you are, where your “security” lies.

Knowing so little about this matter, we appreciated the insights of Anand, a Bombay blogger, who wrote last December: “For a ‘secularist,’ today it is politically correct to say that the issue should be settled in court.... But I think a truly secular government should be willing to undo the wrong, and the right thing to do is to rebuild the masjid there. If I advocate anything less than this, I can’t but feel that I’m indirectly siding with the demolishers.”

How’s that for an idea? Rebuild the masjid first, and let a true peace garden come afterward. 

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Runway Lights

Fluorescence provides a glowing flight path to pollen and nectar.

Cinquefoil, potentillia intermedia L.
with fluorescent “bull’s eye” direction
Photo: Bjorn Rorslett

A new study of fluorescence in flowers opens a bee-and-bat’s eye view of blossoms. Biochemists at the University of Murcia , Spain, studied the glow emitted by four o’clock flowers and concluded that their evening shine attracts night pollinators, like bats. Mirabilis jalapa , also known as Marvel of Peru, is called “four o’clock” because it blooms in late afternoon and into the early nighttime.

Nature magazine published the study but is not available free online. We thank Roger Highfield of the Telegraph for his report and explanation. “...The fluorescence emitted by one pigment, a yellow betaxanthin, is absorbed by another pigment, a violet betacyanin, to create a green fluorescent pattern on the petals.”

Lead researcher Francisco Garcia-Carmona contended, “To date fluorescence has not been considered a signal” for pollinators.

Cinquefoil
potentillia intermedia L.
to the human eye
Photo: Bjorn Rorslett

Actually, we found someone in Norway who has put together a staggering on-line gallery of flower photos showing their fluorescent properties. A flurry of bat applause and roar of bee cheers for Bjorn Rorslett! Rorslett’s human flower project gives eye-boggling evidence of fluorescence in flowers. He especially emphasizes a “bull’s eye” effect, whereby flowers gather glow around the pollen and nectar producing organs—a radiant “come hither” invisible to the unaided human eye.

His site collects a wealth of amazing photographs with friendly anotations for each species as well as guides for you photographers interested in capturing the many wavelengths of floral beauty. As for four o’clocks, they’re in the gallery too. Rorslett comments that, “The UV markings of the corolla are indistinct, but a high degree of UV fluorescence of the entire perianth and the pollen is a noteworthy feature.” (See below)

Four o’clock (Mirabilis jalapa)
under ultra-violet light
Photo: Bjorn Rorslett

Rorslett writes that while “UV fluorescence is not a common trait to most flowers,” it does occur more frequently in nectar glands and stigmas. And he adds, humbly, “As far as the photography is concerned, the main issue with flower fluorescence is its transient behaviour. It may be present, but the flowers collected for photography don’t appear to fluoresce simply because the floral development is in the ‘wrong’ stage.” In other words: Just because I haven’t captured it on film doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

Make sure to browse this intriguing collection of glowing flowers. “Sure it must be nice to be a bee and seeing all this beauty,” writes Rorslett. Golly, Batman, now we can.