Flowers UK London

The first day of the month of May is known as May Day. It is the time of year when warmer weather begins and flowers and trees start to blossom. It is said to be a time of love and romance. It is when people celebrate the coming of summer with lots of different customs that are expressions of joy and hope after a long winter.

Many of these customs are celebrated during the weekend before the May Day Bank Holiday: the first Monday in May. Garlands are made, a May Queen will be chosen, Morris Dancers appear and children dance around a Maypole. In some towns local customs are celebrated on other dates in May and might be called oakapple day or Garland Day.
Roman festival of Flora
Although summer does not officially begin until June, May Day really marks its beginning. May Day celebrations have their origins in the Roman festival of Flora, goddess of fruit and flowers, which marked the beginning of summer. It was held annually from April 28th to May 3rd. This is still celebrated in Helston in Cornwall where they have an annual Floral Dance which involves the whole town.

In Victorian times the sending of coded love messages became a popular craze. The advantage was that you could flirt without there being any incriminating evidence.

In 1884 a whole book on the subject entitled, The Language of Flowers, by Jean Marsh and illustrated by Kate Greenaway, was published in London. It became popular and respected and has been the standard source for Victorian flower meanings ever since.

Selected Flower Meanings

Here are some selected flowers and their meanings, a short dictionary.

Almond flowers — Hope
Anemone — Forsaken
Aster — Symbol of love
Balm — Sympathy
Basil — Best wishes
Bay leaf — “I change but in death”
Bell flower, white — Gratitude
Bergamot — Irresistible
Bluebell — Constancy
Borage — Courage
Broom — Humility
Campanula — Gratitude
Carnation, pink — I’ll never forget you
Carnation, red — My poor heart aches for you
Carnation, striped — Refusal
China rose — Beauty always new
Chrysanthemum — Love
Clover, four leaved — “Be mine”
Daffodil — Regard
Daisy — Innocence, new-born, “I share your sentiment”
Fern — Sincerity
Forget-Me-Not — True love
Furze or Gorse — Enduring affection
French Marigold — Jealousy
Gardenia — Ecstasy
Gentian — Loveliness
Geranium — “You are childish”
Hare bell — Grief
Honeysuckle — Bonds of love
Heather — Admiration
Hyacinth — I am sorry, Please forgive me
Ivy — Fidelity, friendship, marriage
Jasmine — Grace
Jonquil — “I hope for return of affection”
Lavender — Luck, devotion
Lilac — First love
Lily — Purity, modesty
Lily of the Valley — Purity, the return of happiness
Lily, Calla — Beauty
Marigold — Health, grief or despair
Myrtle — Fidelity
Orchid — Love, beauty, refinement
Pansy — Loving thoughts
Periwinkle — Happy memory
Poppy, red — Consolation
Primrose — I can’t live without you
Rose, cabbage — Ambassador of love
Rose, red — Love
Rose, pink — Grace, beauty
Rose, yellow — Friendship
Snowdrop — Hope
Sweet Pea — Departure, tender memory
Sweet William — Gallantry
Tuberose — Voluptuousness
Tulip, red — My perfect lover, Reclamation of love
Violet — Loyalty, modesty, humility
Wheat — Riches of the continuation of life
Willow, weeping — Mourning
Wallflower — Fidelity
Yew — Sorrow

Flowers have always been used for decoration at weddings.

Some people choose the flowers at the wedding on the basis of their symbolic meaning. For example orange blossom has always been associated with weddings because it signifies purity and chastity.

Peonies are avoided by some as they represent shame; azaleas represent temperance: roses symbolise love and snowdrops represent hope.

A combination of red and white flowers is avoided by the superstitious because they stand for blood and bandages.

However, people from different regions may attach other meanings to the same flower. For example lilies symbolise majesty to some but are thought unlucky by others because of their association with death.

The groom often chooses a flower for his buttonhole which also occurs in the bride’s bouquet. This is a vestige of the time when a Knight would wear his Lady’s colours to display his love.

Whenever there is a celebration or a family gathering the table needs a centrepiece.

For the stranger at the table, or for the shyest of the group, it provides a topic of conversation. But there are obvious pitfalls to avoid.

Choosing strongly scented flowers is not a good idea as the aroma of garlicky pot-roast might clash with the smell of your lilies. Also some of your guests might be allergic to the more scented varieties.

However beautiful tall orchids, ferns etc may look on your table remember that, once seated, your friends and family will want to see each other, not have to lean sideways to see across the the room. Avoid anything that could block the line of sight.

Choose your colours with care. It is best to stick to white or one strong colour. White goes with everything.

1) Remember that you shouldn’t choose tall or scented flowers for the dinner table.
2) Remember that white goes with everything.
3) And if you want colour in your flowers, choose one or two colours before you start shopping, then stick with your choices, no matter how tempting the other colours are.

Now you have maximized your chances of choosing the right flowers, and minimized your stress while you do it.

Wearing flowers for daytime or evening occasions is both fashionable and fun. Body Flowers (corsages) can be worn on the wrist or in the hair. Wear them on a collar, on the waist or on the shoulder. Wear them on a handbag. But remember, always wear them the way the flowers grow: blossoms up, stems down.
Guard your flowers carefully against sudden exposures to cold air. In very cold weather, carry your Body Flowers in the box. Put them on after you arrive for the festivities. And remember, too much handling bruises delicate petals and stems.
To keep your Body Flowers fresh and bright for a second day, cover with wet cotton or a thin wet cloth; refrigerate in the florist’s box. (Orchids are the exception. Unwind the stem wrapping and place the orchid stem under water. Keep in a cool place, out of draughts, but not in the refrigerator.)

Hand tied bouquet
These are arranged for you and tied together, and the first rule is not to cut the binding string. It doesn’t harm the flowers and it keeps the look of the bouquet.
If it’s been delivered aqua packed i.e. there’s a bubble of water around the stems hold the bouquet over a sink and cut the bottom off the film. This method of delivery is ideal for flowers which do not travel well or cannot withstand a lack of nourishment.
Many hand-tied bouquets feature stems which are open and flat. Gently lay the bouquet on the side and cut the stems at a 45 degree angle.
Select a vase with a neck wide enough to accommodate the bouquet and fill it with cold, clean water. Add a sachet of cut flower food and stir until dissolved. Place the hand tied bouquet in the vase taking care not to knock the flower heads.
Check the water level in the vase daily and top up if necessary. Change the water every five days, re-cutting the stems at the same time.
Spray the arrangement with a gentle mist of water daily.

Inappropriate gifts

Don’t send your grandmother an off colour comedy tape (unless she’s a huge fan). Don’t give gifts that people can be offended by such as a weight-loss book to a stoutish sister. And don’t give gifts that are obviously second-rate: sweaters with hanging threads or kitchen gadgets in banged-up boxes.

Remember that young people grow and change their interests very rapidly from an older person’s slow moving point of view. Little Sam is no longer a nine year-old keen on books about dinosaurs – he is fourteen and wants the latest Arctic Monkeys music for his MP3 player.

Re-gifting

Is it okay for me to re-gift? This should be done only rarely, and under specific criteria:

• You are certain the gift is something the recipient would enjoy.
• The gift is brand new (no cast-offs allowed) and comes with its original box and instructions.
• The gift isn’t handmade, or one that the original giver took great care to select.

Simply put, you have to make sure you don’t hurt feelings—neither those of the original giver nor the recipient. Would your cousin mind if you passed those wine glasses along?
Does the original sender know the recipient? Might they have given them the same thing?
Will they see that their present has been re-located? Would it be awkward if the giver and recipient realized what was happening?

Only you can decide whether to re-gift - and how to do so appropriately. Think through each situation carefully: if you’re in doubt, don’t do it. You can always pass along the holiday spirit by donating the gift to charity .

The Same Old Same Old

Your brother-in-law is a golfer so you give him golf balls every year. Your aunt Susan collects early nineteenth century French glass and you know exactly which antiques market to go to in order to pick up a piece. This year, think outside the box and mix it up. It’s likely your brother-in-law is happy to get more golf balls, but he’d probably be even more thrilled with something a little different this year. Take the time to find out what the people you care about are truly interested in.

In certain parts of England there is a centuries old floral tradition of well dressing.

Well dressing almost certainly dates back to pagan times, when sacrifices were made to water gods for maintaining the supply of water and as an inducement to continue to do so. The sacrifices took both human and animal form, but gradually the cruelty and wastefulness of this method of giving thanks gave way to primitive man hanging garlands of flowers over the wells.

Water was such a vital commodity for ancient man that settlements were always located close to a good supply of fresh water and the consequences of the source running dry were dire. This led to many other countries offering thanks to water gods at pagan festivals and flowers were often used. In Italy, at Genzano, flowers were arranged to form a gigantic pattern along the village street, but in no other country were boards used to mount the display, as in Derbyshire.

Here at Flowers24hours.co.uk we all love chocolate. Some of our favourites come from the Swiss company of Lindt and Sprungli, in the tradition of Switzerland’s confectionery manufacture. We stock many different sizes of selection from small to large.

Rodolphe Lindt was probably the most famous chocolate-maker of his day. In 1879 he developed a technique by which he could manufacture chocolate which was superior to all others of that period in aroma and melting characteristics. Using the “conche” he had invented, he produced chocolate with the wonderfully delicate flavour and melting quality which we know and love to this day. His “melting chocolate” soon achieved fame, and contributed significantly to the worldwide reputation of Swiss chocolate.

Today Lindt are still in the forefront of chocolate manufacture and we are privileged to make some of their chocolates available to our customers.

Creamy Swiss dairy products help to make these some of the most delicious chocolates ever made.

Flowers and scents go together.

Our gift business includes many soaps, perfumes and bath products, for men and women. We have recently added some new products: boxed bath sets from Winter in Venice and artisanal floral soaps from Marseilles. Some products are sold as a combination gift of fresh flowers and scents or soaps.

The scents that we have available in various forms read like a dessert menu:

• Marshmallow
• Chocolate
• Honey
• Lemon Sherbet
• Peppermint
• Almond
• Vanilla
• Coconut

Apart from these we have all the usual, and unusual, floral scents. I am so sorry that scratch and sniff is not available on websites yet!