When love blossoms...



Orchids brings an exotic rarity to a space that can be associated with luxury and refinement. With more understanding, the context of the flower can invoke deeper meaning than meets the eye.

Perhaps it’s the unusual way in which the orchid plants flowers, which lead to ancient sexuality, virility, fertility and even romantic connotations having been attached to them. With over 20, 000+ accepted species in their genre, that varies in sizes with the smallest orchid being just 2mm wide, orchids are notably scent-filled and sensual in presentation.

More than this, they are well documented for medicinal, spiritual and even botanic condiment production . Vanilla is the product of Orchids and historically, men would eat the larger bulbs entrusting for a male child while women the smaller bulbs for a female child.  The Aztecs combined chocolate with vanilla for perceived power and strength capabilities. The Asian’s considered the live orchid plants for lung and cough cures while dually for refined, floral- decorative purposes.  Stomach and eye remedies were said to be found in orchid plants. Beautifully blinding…not so!

Orchid plants are considered symbols of integrity by the Chinese, while the colour of them are definitive to the context in which they are presented. The white flowering orchids are like most, symbolic of purity, elegance and innocence. This is more so symbolic when considering the emphasis around sexuality linked to the plant and uses of them in an aphrodisiac sense. While yellow symbolises friendship and birthing of new beginnings, red live orchid plants, as is the case with most red flowers, remains indicative of love.  Orange is seen to invite boldness, pride and enthusiasm. Purple colour orchids symbolise royalty and respect. Missing is black flowering orchid plants that would  make for a truly lasting impression!

Found almost in every Continent, these exotics are native to the tropics and true to their visually sensual form, they hunger moisture and light. Fairly low maintenance they simply find their way along a bark and have been seen to, once enveloped, birth beautiful flowers abundantly. It’s said that if you can’t keep an orchid plant alive, you wouldn’t survive the attention demanded from a pet, child or partner!

Orchid plants have found their space beyond forests, weddings and homes and into notable orchid shows as is found in Thailand and New York (to name just two). There you can expect to experience Orchid’s like none other and be educated on them in totality. Curators and cultivators of these rare plants are known to live of the generous income generated in orchid sales however mostly, their prided expertise is vast and impressive. An orchid exhibition is a must see for anyone curious or fascinated by this flower. You can expect to see colours, shapes and sizes of the bulbs… and even indoor orchid forests like you perhaps cannot even begin to imagine.

While Orchids have captivated many artists, interior designers, event planners, hotel lobby designers and other “commercial eyes”, philosophically they have inspired thoughts and analogies by Confucius. 

Not bad for a “sensual” flower that was also thought to be a moth.

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