Flowers - the Most Popular Gift in China for Teacher’s Day.

You may think of apples as the traditional gift for teachers in the US. But, in China, gift giving is more formalized in a holiday called Teacher’s Day. It turns out that flowers are the most popular gift for teachers according to this article from China News:
Sept. 9 is China’s 22nd annual Teacher’s Day. “What gift should my first-grade son give to his teachers?” This question, posed by one boy’s father on an education online forum, has aroused a heated discussion. The issue affects not only students and parents but also teachers.
China has a long tradition of expressing thankfulness to teachers by giving gifts. Even Confucius, China’s most honored teacher and philosopher, was said to have gladly accepted gifts of dried meat from his students. First celebrated in 1985, China’s Teacher’s day is considered a good opportunity to say thank you for teacher’s contribution. On this day, most students offer gifts to their teachers.
Flowers are the most common gift. But as the popularity of flowers keeps growing, their price also surges around Teacher’s Day. According to a report in Thursday’s West China Metropolis Daily, the most expensive bouquet for sale on the Internet costs 999 yuan.
The report also said that bouquets are still a popular gift despite their high price. Mr. Zhang, the manager of Xin Yuan Flower shop in Chengdu, said he has received more than 100 orders for Teacher’s Day bouquets.
Parents agreed that gifts should be refined as well as small in size. It has become a fashionable trend nowadays to give teachers gifts like Mp3 players or cosmetics, or even VIP gym memberships.
Some parents complain that Teacher’s Day gifts are too expensive. But they still spend the money out of fear that teachers would neglect their children if they do not give a gift.
While parents rack their brains to come up a brilliant idea of what to buy, teachers who are worried about gift-giving’s association with bribery are trying to figure out how to politely refuse expensive gifts without disappointing the students.
One primary school teacher expressed her dilemma during an interview with China News Service, saying that if she refuses gifts, parents might mistake this for a show of contempt.
Another supervisory teacher said that she felt awkward scolding a misbehaving boy after she had earlier accepted his Teacher’s Day gift.
In response to the father’s question on the forum, some people suggested that students simply send a mobile phone text message or a greeting card, which is convenient and doesn’t cost much. One mother also explained how she told her son to draw a nice picture and write a kind message to his teacher on it.
Some teachers responded favorably to these suggestions, saying that those simple and sincere gifts are most welcome.

Written by Michel on September 22th, 2006 with no comments.

Related Articles

Step by step bouquet making

Tools of the trade:
Cutters or florist knife
Bindwire
Rose De-thorner to cut the thorns
Clean the flower stems by stripping all foliage below 7? off the tip of the flowers. Use a rose de-thorner for the roses. Above the 7” mark, take off all leaves and flower petals that are broken, turning brown or are otherwise damaged.
1. Place each flower stem about 45 degrees in front of the previous one, so that you create a spiral form. Simply cross the previous stem, the flower head always facing to the left.
2. After every new stem you add, turn the bouquet about turn in your hand.
3. The final bouquet should have a round shape, looking at it from the side. You achieve this by positioning each additional flower a bit lower than the previous one.
4. Cut off the ends of the stems. The total bouquet length depends on the container you will use. It is crucial that all the flower stems have the same length, so that they can be hydrated and the bouquet stands upright in the vase.
5. There should not be any leaves below the point where you hold the bouquet in your hand - where the stems criss-cross at about 7” to 8” below the tips of the tallest flower heads in the center of the bouquet. Here the stems are tied with a wire tie. Cut a piece of wire about 8” to 10” and wrap it twice around the stems, fasten it by twisting the ends a few times. Cut off the loose ends and bend the twisted wire so that it is less visible.
6. The true test of every hand-tied bouquet is to see whether it will stand on its own, without the support of a container. If it does, you know that you have done a good jobJ.
We hope you enjoyed this tutorial on European style hand-tied bouquet making. We would be very interested in your creative works, so please send us your feedback and photos of your floral art.

Written by Donncha on September 18th, 2006 with no comments.

Scented Flowers & Foliages.

Scent is such a popular element of cut flowers that the first thing most of us do when buying a flower bouquet is smell the flowers. According to a survey, conducted by the F&PA (Flowers & Plants Association UK), over one third responded positively on the question, whether the fragrance of flowers influences their choice of flower purchase. In the following are some more interesting facts about scented flowers as researched by the F&PA.
Floral scents are one of the most popular smells, and the perfume industry expends a great deal of effort trying to reproduce the authentic fragrance of fresh flowers.
It has also been discovered that certain fragrances can have an effect on our emotions and wellbeing. The scent of orange blossom or lavender can act as a sedative, while citrus smells are great pick-me-ups.
To cultivate cut flowers that have consistent quality, long vase life, good colour, disease resistance, and the strength to grow profusely, some of the scent genes are bred out in the process. It is a side-effect of the molecular structure of flowers.
Because of this, growers and geneticists have recently started breeding more perfume back into cut flowers again. Flowers and foliage are also beginning to be graded with a scent scale, like a bottle of wine, based on strength of perfume and the type of scent - sweet, spicy, woody, exotic and so forth.
In general, white and pale flowers are particularly strongly scented, eg oriental lilies, tuberose, tazetta narcissi. Freesia are an exception to this - darker red and pink varieties have the strongest scent.
Bear in mind that a cool room is better for prolonging the life of cut flowers; but too cool a room may prevent scented flowers giving off their full perfume.

Written by Jil on September 12th, 2006 with no comments.

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