Well what a wonderful weekend for team GB at the Olympics, I've watched sports that I didn't even know existed and it certainly becomes addictive. We've seen our fair share of medals in the last few days but as you would expect the bouquets have intrigued me. I always thought that the national flower of China was the chrysanthemum so why are the athletes presented with roses? Well a quick look at the official Beijing Olympic site revealed the answer - the native china red rose is the flower of Beijing city and elected such by the residents of the city in 1986.
As you would expect there has been a lot of thought given to the bouquets and their meaning. The flowers reach the athletes within six hours of being picked and all the bouquets are transported in special boxes and escorted to the venues by ''flower protection'' experts to make sure that they are kept in perfect condition. Among the other flowers added to the bouquet are hosta leaves, mondo grass and hypericum. The Beijing Review states that red is the colour for hospitalityand the five flowers added to the bouquet represent friendship,fairness,unity and bless the games with success. There are nine roses because nine is the most honorable number in China and all the other flowers come in groups of six because six represents smoothness. They need to be tightly bound given the amont of waving the winners are prone to!
If preparing 6,000 perfect bouquets sounds challenging then spare a thought for the flower growers who have apparently been preparing for these Games since 2005 and over 40 million plants are scheduled to bloom during sixteen days. It hasn't been an easy task in the heat and humidity of a Chinese summer but hopefully the visitors have appreciated the efforts made.
Let's hope that the Olympic Committee for 2012 have already started to think about the flowers for London as British growers will need to start planning. I've registered my interest and I'm just waiting for the tender to come up. What would be more fitting than British grown roses and herbs?
