You might have heard of how much Russians love flowers. They send bouquets for almost every occasion from birth to funeral – something that can only be matched by blini. People in Russia consider flowers as a way to indirectly say things they can’t express verbally. That is why rules and etiquette of flower-giving in the country are very carefully observed. You don’t want to send wrong colors or type of flowers as they can lead to a sour relationship.
Chamomile is Russia’s national flower. This member of the daisy family is popular among the tea lovers for its aromatic, fruity, and floral fragrance besides its amazing benefit to calm down the nerves and tune down nervousness and insomnia. Other popular flowers in Russia are Azalea, Orchid, Roses, Lilies, Chrysanthemums, Carnations, and Gerbera Daisies. But which flowers are right for a bouquet arrangement? Read on for some recommendations.
Meaning of Flowers
Clearly, before we get to put together some flowers, we have to know what kind of them are allowed for an occasion but not in the other. You don’t want to put funeral flowers in a birthday celebration, do you? Here are some of the meanings of common flowers used in bouquets, though in different cultures they may have different meanings too.
- Bird of Paradise symbolizes joyfulness, magnificence, and wonderful anticipation.
- Calla Lily is a symbol of purity, innocence, magnificence, and beauty.
- Aster represents patience and elegance.
- Chrysanthemum; the yellow one symbolizes fidelity, optimism, joy, and long life. The red one conveys love, while the white one says a lot about truth and loyalty.
- Daffodil represents regard, chivalry, rebirth, new beginnings, and eternity. But it can also say that a love is left unrequited. A single stem of daffodil means misfortune, while a bunch of them mean happiness and joy.
- Gladiolus symbolizes faithfulness, honor, remembrance, and strength of character.
- Lily speaks of purity and refined beauty. The white lily means modesty and virginity, orange represents passion, yellow for gaiety, and white lily of the valley symbolizes sweetness and purity of heart.
- Iris is a symbol of eloquence. The purple one for wisdom and compliments, blue for faith and hope, yellow for passion, while the white one is for purity.
- Lavender represents admiration, solitude, and beauty.
- Carnation symbolizes pride and beauty generally. The red one is for love and admiration, pink for the love of a woman or a mother, purple for capriciousness, yellow for disdain, rejection, or disappointment, and striped carnation for refusal.
There are a whole lot more flowers people can put in a bouquet with each representing a certain feeling. Now, to send an arrangement for a specific occasion means you need to know which goes where. These are some of the combinations of Russian flowers for several events that would accept bouquets.
1. Expressing Love and Romance
A bunch of roses are always welcome, but make sure to keep them in odd number. They don’t have to be red, either. White, off-white, green, or tea-colored roses would be nice and proper, just don’t send in the yellow ones since they are for funeral. You can also arrange together red roses, white orchids, alstroemeria orange, and red hypericum to express the more-than-words-can-say kind of love.
2. Friendship
In a box or wrapped in paper, these flowers would help to nurture a long lasting friendship or to say thank you for the companion you have received; white alstroemeria, pink and white gerbera, white orchid, pink rose, pink alstroemeria, and chrysalium.
3. Get Well Wish
Before you send a bouquet to a hospital room, make sure you are allowed to. Also make sure the flowers are safe for the hospital environment and will not caus allergy reactions. Try with these flowers for a speedy recovery wish; yellow gerbera, white orchid, white chrysanthemum, blue limonium, chrysalium, chamomile, blue iris, also red and pink roses.
4. Official Events
Whether it’s to congratulate a colleague after a promotion or to celebrate an achieved sales target, these flowers would do you right; red, pink, and white alstroemeria. Iris, gladiolus, and chrysanthemum are excellent too for these events.
5. Sympathy or Funeral
As you have probably heard before, even number of flowers in a bouquet arrangement in Russia is only allowed for funeral. If you make the bouquet yourself, you should keep this in mind. But if you use a florist service, then you shouldn’t be worried. Here are the flowers suitable to express condolences; blue iris, blue statice, aspidistra, white chrysanthemum, red and white rose, red carnation, and chrysalium.
6. Birthday
It is an important day for almost everyone. The right day to send bouquet of flowers to wish good health, happiness, long life, prosperity, and all the best for the upcoming year and age. These flowers would say them right; carnations, baby blue eucalyptus, daisy, pink and red roses, iris, peony, white rose, lily, and chamomile.
7. Anniversary
It is an intimate way in Russia to give flowers to the significant other on the anniversary day since a lot can be said in a bouquet of symbolic flowers – wishes to be together eternally, loyalty, gratitude, love, and all the most beautiful feelings. Give the one you love these flowers on the special occasion; red and pink rose, orchid, baby blue eucalyptus, gerbera, and carnations.
Russia is the land of flowers. It has many native and rare flowers grow on some of its regions, but not all could be used in a bouquet because of the meanings they carry or simply because they are preserved. The ones mentioned above come in abundance in Russia and ready to be arranged for your purpose. The recommended types of flowers you can use the next time you plan to present bouquets to someone in Russia are plenty to choose.