We are still caught up in the Olympics around here and each medal ceremony for Canada is a thrill - particularly when Canada wins gold.
I love watching the athletes have their moment to shine, the cool design of the medals, the lovely "victory girls," and excuse me - but what the heck is in those flower bouquets?
Some guesses include: unopened hydrangea, cabbage and cauliflower. They really have a distinct, soft, green, unusual look to them.
After a little sleuthing on the net the answer is B.C.-grown spider mums (the cabbage looking piece in the center), surrounded by layers of monkey grass, aspidistra leaves and hypericum berries.
June Strandberg, partnering with Margitta Shulz of North Vancouver won the design contract to create the 1,800 victory bouquets for the Games and beat out 58 other applicants.
Strandberg's Just Beginnings Flowers is an amazing flower shop that combines volunteerism with retail. June trains recovering addicts and ex-prisoners in floral design and to assist them with life skills to re-enter the workforce.
Choosing the design for the Olympic bouquets was a herculean task. June created over 28 prototypes for the Olympic flower committee - one of which was an indigenous B.C. design that included all native species.
"We wanted to make the arrangement look natural," she said, "like something you would see if you drove up the mountain."
How cool.
Unfortunately the powers that be were firm on the bouquet including the Olympic colours of white, green and blue and were not impressed by the salal or boxwood. They apparently said no to pussy willow as it might become a dangerous weapon and take out an eye if joyously tossed into the crowd.
The panellists decided on the all green design tied with a blue bow. Quik's Farm's greenhouses in Chillwack provide the revert spider chrysanthemum, but all the other flowers are flown in from Ecuador. Carbon footprints people!
June's team will be making between 80 to 150 victory bouquets a day and each bouquet has to be identical. You certainly can't find symmetry like that in nature.
The Beijing Olympics had roses. In Turin, they use rhododendrons, azaleas, and camellias - elegant and beautiful choices. I am giving a thumbs up to Vancouver's creation.
When you consider the story behind them it makes these bouquets as valuable and long lasting as any medal.
