May: Flowers in small doses ...

               

American like their flowers -- especially lilies, tulips, and roses -- but only in small doses.  For the most part, we buy flowers for special occasions, so cut-flower sales cluster around four major holidays: Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, and Christmas. We buy flowers to congratulate, to console, or to apologize. A bouquet of flowers competes with a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates as the most appropriate hostess gift.  We buy flowers for both weddings and funerals.  Rarely, however, do American buy flowers for themselves; say to cheer up our home or offices or as a special floral pat on the back. 

Theodosia Shepard, a southern California housewife, started the American commercial cut-flower industry in the 1870s,  Just like me, she began by cutting and selling flowers from her own garden.  Soon other women in the neighborhood joined her, and an industry was born.  Women’s magazines in the 19th century encouraged the joys of domesticity, as they do today.  Scribner’s Monthly, published in 1871, contained an article of flower arranging with these timeless tips: alway use “clear glass, white or green vases since the vase must be subordinate to what it holds.  Blend colors with neutral tints.  And above all, avoid stiffness.  Let a bright tendril or spay of vine spring fourth here and there.”