Human Flower Project

Widely Winged

Julie — 2012-02-03T20:32:21+00:00

After years of assiduous transnational work, botanists at Kew coax an iris into bloom for the first time.

HFQ #11: A Freight Forwarder?

Julie — 2012-02-02T16:42:15+00:00

Transporting plants internationally takes special expertise. Can anyone help this farmer in Austria find a “travel agent” for sweet potato slips?

A Bold Stroke

Julie — 2012-01-31T23:59:26+00:00

Arthur Williams, AIFD
in full regalia
Photo: Courtesy of Arthur Williams

Any change of heart / mind / behavior before Ground Hog Day (Candlemas) counts as a New Year’s Resolution, so we’re happy to pass along our favorite florist’s rite.

Arthur Williams of Babylon Floral in Denver, Colorado, begins the New Year thus:

“On New Years 1998 while on my mission to make my house spotless and beautiful to symbolically ring in the new year I stopped at a flower shop on my way home. They were hiring…...

“I had no formal floral design experience, just a background in art and gardening…...

“I applied, and my floral career began. I’ve come a long way!! So as I do every year I organize and clean and fill my house with flowers so at the stroke of midnight my world is how I wish it to be for the following year.

“Happy New Year Year! Thank you everyone for making this our best year yet!!! Bring on Valentine’s!!”

Congratulations, Arthur. And may 2012 be brighter and bolder than them all.

Sed Qualis Illa Latine?

Julie — 2012-01-31T02:20:59+00:00

“But what is it in Latin?” With new international rules, plants will no longer have to be described in Latin.

Lovely Rita

Julie — 2012-01-28T18:08:19+00:00

Rita Hayworth out-glamming a huge orchid corsage (c. 1950)

It takes full on radiance to compete with a corsage of this scale (we’re guessing this shot dates from about 1950). Even a cluster of orchids the size of crock pot can’t outdo Rita Hayworth.

We watched Gilda for the first time last night. Hayworth had already made over 40 movies by 1946 and been the fount of a thousand fantasies as the pin-up girl of World War II. Her rumba, strapless gowns, long curls and slap-around scenes with Glenn Ford in Gilda still have the power to shock more than six decades later. She truly was a bombshell and, unlike Marilyn Monroe, conveys an electric mean streak that we find more exciting than Monroe’s faux-innocent dopey-dom.

This picture has inspired us to hunt for maximized corsages. If you like, send us examples of your own. Our guess is that accessory flowers of this size began shrinking about 1960 (Texas football mums, the exception).

AMDG—With Flowers in Macon

Julie — 2012-01-26T17:04:55+00:00

“To the greater glory of God”—fourteen churches lay their flowers in a Macon, Georgia, Catholic sanctuary.

Year of the Dragon: Booming with Babies

Julie — 2012-01-25T04:26:17+00:00

For Tet, the Lunar New Year in Vietnam, to begin auspiciously, there must be healthy plants. Several varieties are believed to bring good luck: in the North, flowering peach and fruiting kumquat are favored, and in the South, narcissus and bong mai (Ochna itegerrima).

The Year of the Dragon began January 23, the most powerful and positive of all twelve signs in Chinese astrology. One interesting article says expectant mothers and maternity wards in Hong Kong are bracing for an influx of patients from the mainland, as many couples try to time conception so children will be born this year.

Kumquat trees have been pruned into dragons for the lunar new year, Tet, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The “luckiest” plants are covered, like these, with both green and ripe orange fruit.

Who’ll Deliver Flowers to an Atheist?

Julie — 2012-01-22T21:17:41+00:00

Does it really take a police escort to deliver flowers?

Possibly so, in Cranston, Rhode Island. Four shop owners there declined to deliver flowers to Jessica Ahlquist, a teenager whose challenge to a religious banner in her high school was upheld by a District Court.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation called several florists in Cranston hoping to send congratulatory flowers to the student of Cranston High School West. According to Raymond Santilli, owner of Flowers by Santilli, the organization’s representative said that a police escort might be necessary in that Ahlquist has received threats for her lawsuit.

“If I send flowers there, somebody may get upset with us and retaliate to us,” Santilli told a local news station.

We understand that though four florists turned away the order, a fifth – unnamed – accepted.

Raymond Santilli said he declined a flower order so as not to involve his shop in a controversy over school prayer.
Photo: KSDK

Floral Demonstrations Grow Thorns

Julie — 2012-01-22T17:55:33+00:00

There’s a new spirit abroad in floral protests, not just “in your face” but “on your case.”

Elbowed by Arugula

Julie — 2012-01-19T17:02:38+00:00

The National Gardening Association finds that flower growing in the U.S. has declined for the third year in a row. We’re not surprised. Some of the finest former rose gardeners in our neighborhood have tossed out their shrubs and been concentrating on arugula,okra and peppers. The New York Times, reporting on NGA’s research, notes that “food-garden spending climbed 20 percent” in this same period.

The Times article features three flower experts who recommend varieties well suited to their home regions: Bronx, NY, Los Angeles, CA, and Birmingham, AL. We’ve got our eye on Charlie Thigpen’s suggestions already, as they include orange sulfur cosmos, which, thanks to the original passalong from Becky Bingman, has been a big success in our yard (though cleome, which Thigpen also recommends, has been a flop).

How about in your neighborhood? Are vegetable gardens replacing flowers, iPhones supplanting sunflowers?

Genevieve Arnold of the Theodore Payne Foundation
nursery in Los Angeles is one of three flower experts
tapped to recommend new—and old—varieties.
Photo: New York Times