Month: August 2015

What are Chrysanthemums?

Chrysanthemums – What are they?

Chrysanthemums or popularly known as ‘mums’ come from the Greek word ‘Chrys’ meaning golden (the color of the original flowers), and ‘anthemon’, meaning flower.

Chrysanthemums bloom in various forms and colors with different classifications on size and shapes. They can be daisy like spread or like small buttons or round miniature balls. They bloom in various colors and most popular ones are white, yellow and pink!
Chrysanthemums are very cheerful and bright happy flowers and they are very popular amongst florists worldwide. They symbolise freedom, joy and happiness.
Chrysanthemums are a bunch of many flowers around a central flat disk of flowers surrounded by longer petals of flowers. There are many different types of chrysanthemums ranging from sprays, to spiders, to button shaped or umbrella shaped flowers.
Chrysanthemums are tropical in nature and they originated from Eurasian regions. Chrysanthemums belong to the Asteraceae branch of flower family, which is one of the largest families of flowering plants with about 20,000 species.
Chrysanthemums are well suited for gardens and patio’s and can brighten up a dull driveway as well. It can be used to decorate a house terrace as well.
Chrysanthemum flavoured tea is very popular and it is mainly used as a relaxant.
They are not specific to any season as such and can be grown in almost any kind of soil but they bloom the best in sunny weather. High rainfall can be detrimental to the growth of these flowers and hence benefit from area’s that experience low rainfall during the monsoon seasons.Chrysanthemum plants flower in about three months after sowing. Chrysanthemums have a long flowering period.
Florists such as us use chrysanthemums extensively in bouquets to bright out the form and highlight the main flowers that are used in the bouquet. Bright coloured chrysanthemums can elevate any dull looking bouquet and they go well in almost any style of bouquet. Using a bunch of bright yellow or mixing bright yellow with white or pink and putting it in a vase can make for one really stunning combination bouquet and would look dainty and classy at the same time.
At May Flower you will find all different ranges of chrysanthemums, both grown nationally and imported from regions that produce different varieties and colors. If you go thru any of our sections you will see use of chrysanthemums in almost all of the bouquets that are delivered to India.

Why are Roses so Popular?

Why are Roses so Popular?

All flowers in nature are beautiful in their own special way. However not all of them are popular. There are various flowers that are popular due to their beauty, fragrance etc. Rose is the most popular flower in the world and are the most popular flower sold at Florists in the world flower market.

Rose has become synonymous with love, affection or just plain friendship. If you want to impress someone you love or want to say sorry to your spouse, what do you do? Send them a bouquet of a dozen roses! Roses have become so vastly popular that each color symbolises a different emotion.

Roses were not so popular in the previous century as they are today. Most reasons were that they did not bloom very well and there were no scientific methods of cultivation such as greenhouses etc. Roses would only bloom in spring and summer months and rest of the year one would not see them at all.

Light Pink roses were the first rose to make a huge impact in the floral market. It was the only rose that could bloom in winder and most of the times they were largely sold in a bud form for use in small bouquets, corsages etc. The stems also were not of great length ( upto 6 inches were the norm in those days) However there were times where one could get upto a foot long stem as well but in those days long stems were not so much in demand and not many cared for them as their use was only for small bouquets and corsages.

Post this a few different varieties of Roses were popular such as Safrano, Boston Tea Rose (reddish in color), Magna Carta etc.

American Beauty was one of the major rage of roses that would hit the floral market industry however it wasn’t available to all as it was imported from France. It was a deep red color with long stems. History states that the stems of the largest were a staggering 9 feet long! However the demand for these did not last very long.

It was during the 1900’s that roses rose to fame and became one of the most popular best selling flower for all florists replacing flowers such as carnations etc and became the Queen of the flowers and continues to do so even today.

Until recently, the Netherlands was one of the largest source for roses and was a great supplier to the American Market. Ecuador in South American as taken over and started supplying cheaper roses and they had all the varieties and qualities due to the greenhouses that were made available and the climatic conditions. Columbia has today become the most popular source for importing roses for the American Market and nearby countries.

India has too grown on a massive scale for growing roses and has become one of the largest exporting countries for roses all around the world. Roses are synonymous with the term flower in India. Most of the people do not know flowers beyond the roses and they identify a bouquet only if it has roses. Roses continues to be the most popular flower in India and a bunch of 12 – 20 roses is the most popular item sold at florists across India.

 

In the recent years however, people are learning about different flower sand the fact that so many florists are displaying their products online, is educating the general public and thus shifting the mindset of the common man from rose to other flowers that can go along with roses which would

give more value and depth to their bouquet.

 

Until the mindset changes to a larger audience, roses is and will continue to be the most dominant flower in the floral industry across India for decades to come!