Wednesday 19 November 2014

Thailand: flowers

So back to Thailand adventures.....I find the art, culture, architecture and gardens of this part of the world really inspiring ,and this trip was no different. The use of flowers for both decoration and spiritual use is important, and in particular there is a type of purple orchid that seems to be everywhere.
I love a good flower market, and during a cycling tour of Bangkok we got up close with one of the largest ,which was a good chance to see more, and learn about different offerings.
 
The ever present  pink orchids...each bunch was about 40p
 
 
The orange bags are all marigold flowers which they use to make garlands
 
 
These were 'ready to go' offering packs for Ganesha...each one had some flowers, a banana and sugar cane
 
 
 
Everywhere there were also these big ice packed Styrofoam boxes which had bags of unopened Jasmine flowers in them for garlands, also giving an amazing scent when they opened
 
 
I also managed to spot what I have been calling my 'hairy balls plant' which I grew for the first time after getting one at the Great Dixter Plant Fair. Here sold as a cut flower 
 
 
Finished garlands to be hung in shrines or given as offerings
 
 
The white are the jasmine buds
 
 
 
Un-opened lotus buds to be used as temple offerings
 
 
Finally me attempting to turn the lotus buds into an offering. You do a very clever thing of peeling back the sepals and folding them into triangles to expose the petals. I was rubbish!
 
 
 

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