Human Flower Project

Friday, February 10, 2006

Flower Numerology

A dozen roses, stock delivery for Valentine’s Day in the U.S., may get you a cold shoulder in China or the Ukraine. Count those stems with care.

Lo Shu Magic Square
Image: Book of Lo

Who’s the lucky (we presume) recipient of 999 black roses this Valentine’s Day? As of Tuesday, this was the priciest order that Yongjia Flower Market in Shanghai had ever taken, costing some big spender 35,000 yuan ($4345 USD). As holiday requests pile up, a florist at Caojiadu Flower Market told Shanghai Daily that 99 red roses (“a heap,” we’d call that) is this year’s most popular order. “Such a bunch currently costs 300 yuan, but prices are expected to rise quickly as Valentine’s Day approaches.”

Here in the U.S., flower numbers don’t carry much, if any, significance. Do they look fresh, smell sweet? Do they arrive at all? Who’s counting, we ask?

Lots of people, it turns out.

In China, nine flowers send a strong, positive message, partly because “nine”  “sounds like the word for longevity.” This site notes: “Observe the number of personalized automobile license plates ordered by Chinese with the numbers eight or nine which of course signal the dear symbols of longevity and prosperity for the owners.”

Florists in a shop on Shanghai’s Yongjia Road
prepared a bouquet of 999 red roses (price: $4345 USD)
Photo: Shen Kai, Shanghai Daily

In China, odd numbers, generally, are understood as carriers of “yang” or masculine energy, nine being the “oddest” of all, “therefore, symbolic of the supreme sovereignty of the emperor. For this reason, the number “nine” (or its multiples) is often employed in palace structures and designs.”

To send nine flowers, or 99, or 999 in China is a blast of big-shot-ism, as well as a wish for the beloved’s long life and expression of “eternal” love.

Numbers of flowers are powerfully marked also throughout the former Soviet Union. “It is customary in Russia to give an odd number of flowers to the living and an even number to the dead.” This florist makes special note, “*Please be advised that in Slavic tradition any even number of flowers is a bad omen,” going on to say that at funerals friends pay their respects with an even number of flowers, “usually two or four.” And this site too, in the Ukraine: “Even numbers are superstitiously frowned upon and traditionally accepted as a sign of a bad fortune.”

In Spain, we learn, odd numbers of flowers are also preferred, just don’t send 13 of anything.

There are exceptions to every rule: In Japan, we understand, flowers given in bunches of nine or four send bad luck, not good. (Could this incongruity possibly be because throughout history, Japan’s advantage came at the expense of China?)

One Malaysian florist’s site advises, “Give an even number of flowers to a Chinese person. An odd number of flowers will only be perceived as an omen of bad luck.” We also have detected that even numbers are preferred in Taiwan. (More standoffishness toward the mainland?)

Obviously, if you’re not sure about flower customs, you should discuss numbers—as well as condition, design, variety and price—with a local florist. Whereas the “language of flowers” is trumped up these days to make flowers mean more, in many countries, numerological significances don’t have to be read from a codebook; they’re parts of living cultures.

Of course, you may choose to buy 999 of anything, and take it on faith no one will count that high.