Fri, Feb 12, 2016 page2

• Flowers brighten up Lunar New Year holiday

  FADED AWAY: The flower market in Taipei’s Neihu District has been failing to attract customers in its new location, which is far from the nearest MRT station

  • By Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter
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  Lunar New Year holiday celebrations come in many forms, but in a nation where people staunchly believe a good start to the year brings in wealth and good fortune, celebrations almost always involve the practice of surrounding oneself with foods and floral decorations that have auspicious meanings.

  In most cases, the practice manifests itself as dishes with propitious names on the Lunar New Year Eve’s dinner table, such as fish, which is homophonous with the Mandarin word yu (餘, surplus) and symbolizes a wish for a bountiful harvest in the coming year.

  Fruits such as apples and pineapples, which denote safety and prosperity respectively, are also popular choices of food offerings to the gods during the holiday.

  

  Pots of kalanchoe are displayed at Taipei Flowers Auction Co’s flower market in Taipei’s Neihu District on Saturday.

  Photo: Stacy Hsu, Taipei Times

  While some favor auspicious foods, others opt for flowers or potted plants to add festivity to their homes, as the Mandarin word for “flower” is a near homophone for fa (發, becoming wealthy), while numerous plants are associated with good fortune.

  That is why the Lunar New Year is traditionally a peak season for Taipei Flowers Auction Co, which operates the nation’s largest wholesale cut flowers market in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖).

  Each year, the company’s Neihu flower market stays open 24 hours for five consecutive days leading up to the Lunar New Year to cash in on the traditional practice of decorating homes with flowers and to accommodate the sharp spikes in demand.

  Wei Wen-sheng (魏文勝), a flower vendor in the market who mostly sells potted plants, said products with a lucky-sounding name are popular with customers during the holiday.

  “It ranges from Malabar chestnut, dubbed the ‘money tree,’ and baby rubber plant, which is also known as ‘money plant’ because of its coin-shaped leaves; to cherry-red radish, which is a homophone for ‘good fortune’; and round kumquat tree, which signifies ‘auspiciousness’ due to the name of its fruits,” Wei said.

  Wei said kalanchoe, a plant that forms clusters of small brightly-colored flowers, is also preferred as a Lunar New Year gift, particularly for elderly relatives, because it is also known as the “longevity flower.”

  While a plant or flower comes with a propitious appellation is a decisive factor for many, some attach greater importance to price and the length of flowering stage.

  Michelle Liu (劉嘉誼), an employee at an orchid stall in the market, said many Taiwanese like to embellish their homes with a pot of orchids during the Lunar New Year holiday, mainly because they are cheaper than fresh-cut flowers, have relatively long-lasting bloom periods of up to two months and are easy to take care of.

  Another selling point for the orchid is that they come in a variety of sizes and colors, Liu said.

  “Those with reddish-purple and yellow colors are most sought-after during traditional holidays, as red is considered a lucky color in Taiwanese culture and yellow is associated with money,” she said.

  However, some flower vendors were pessimistic about sales prospects for this Lunar New Year holiday, citing the cold front that brought snow to many parts of Taiwan late last month.

  Orchid retailer Amy Lin (林月女), who has been in the orchid business for decades, said the cold front caused the nation’s orchid production to drop by about 20 to 30 percent, driving up prices that had already edged higher because of the increased demand during the holiday.

  “The ideal temperature for growing orchids is about 25?C. They cannot endure a temperature that is either too high or too low,” Lin said.

  The human factor has played a larger role in dragging down her sales in recent years, she said.

  “I have noticed a drop in orders last year due to the nation’s weaker-than-expected economic growth. My sales figures have been on the decline ever since we moved here in 2014,” Lin said.

  She was referring to the flower market’s relocation to Xinhu 3rd Road from its previous site on Neihu’s Ruiguang Road, where it had stayed for about 17 years.

  The absence of a nearby MRT station and the constant traffic congestion in the area — caused mainly by cars queuing on the road waiting to enter hypermarket chains Costco and RT-Mart — have deterred people from going to the flower market, Lin said.

  Flower vendor Michael Jao (饒煥美) said that the number of walk-in customers has dropped by 80 percent since the market’s relocation, which he said was carried out despite opposition from many vendors.

  In the past, even on ordinary days, the market was visited by a large number of customers looking to purchase flowers or potted plants to decorate their homes or office cubicles, Jao said.

  “However, now, we do not see many shoppers, not even just before the Lunar New Year holidays,” Jao said.

  Jao said aside from the market’s inconvenient location, the Taipei Flowers Auction Co’s reluctance to hire trained auctioneers and the new site’s poor traffic flow have all taken a toll on the market’s overall business.

  “The flower market was once the largest in Asia, but it has gradually faded into oblivion due to poor management and a series of really bad decisions,” Jao said.
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