How orchids and tangerine trees are an enduring tradition of Lunar New Year
Hong Kong’s Flower Market full of blooms and shoppers despite extreme weather and slower economy
The “polar vortex” may worry Hongkongers who prefer to burrow in a heated duvet at home, but it’s no match for the need to buy orchids and tangerine trees in preparation for Lunar New Year.
Already the sidewalk traffic at Mong Kok’s Flower Market has slowed to a shuffle despite a sense of urgency. Pedestrians are surrounded by flurries of pale pink petals and orange fruits as drive-by customers in vans pick up the plants, mixing the tangerine scent with diesel exhaust.
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With comparable importance to poinsettias and decorated trees for Christmas, orchids and tangerine trees are the most popular plants for decorating and gifting during the New Year holidays.
Orchids signify perfection, integrity nobility and friendship. Tangerine trees are meant to bring luck and wealth because its pronunciation resembles “gold” and “luck” in Cantonese.
Crowds build up until Lunar New Year’s Eve, ebbing after February 7 this year, says Michael Wong from Barry Florist who helps his mother run the flower shop on Flower Market Road.
He adds that over the years, sales never waver because it is tradition for Hong Kong to gift and decorate homes with orchids and tangerine trees. Other popular flowers include Chinese narcissus, hydrangeas and rhododendrons.
Prices of flowers have remained the same at the shop over the last three years because the import of flowers has also been steady.
“None of our flowers are from Hong Kong,” says Wong. “Hong Kong’s property prices are too high to allow good flower farms.”
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Wong’s mother, who opened Barry Florist 45 years ago, travels several times a year to Netherlands, United States and South Africa to choose the best flowers. They also import flowers from Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.
“Warmer weather makes them bloom sooner,” says Wong, now in his early 40s. “But that doesn’t affect us because we get all our flowers from overseas.”
He says the cold weather makes the popular orchids more beautiful.
Ms. Ko, from Brighten Floriculture, says she think Hong Kong’s flower industry will be waiting to see how sales perform this year.
“Demand during CNY is steady, but I think the whole industry is a bit anxious this year to break even,” she says.
She explains that their fresh flowers such as butterfly orchids have gone down in price this year because of a boom in supply.
Beyond that, she’s unsure how the flip-flop weather will affect sales leading to Chinese New Year.
“This year has been particularly extreme in terms of weather,” Ko says.
“We’re having a warm winter, so we would usually manage that by delaying putting Chinese narcissus bulb in water, but then we have this chilly week, which makes it hard to adjust to have them bloom on time for the New Year.”
Like Barry Florist, Brighten’s fresh cut flowers haven’t been affected much by climate change because they import from Holland, New Zealand and South Africa.
One of the largest flower vendors in the Flower Market, Brighten has at least five shops catering to different styles of floral arrangements on Flower Market Road, all of them bustling on a weekday morning.
Further up the block from Prince Edward Road, Ms. Chan “Flower Sister” is preparing orchid arrangements and tying charms to them.
Unlike Barry Florist and Brighten, her shop Ming Yat Garden on Playing Field Road is noticeably less crowded.
She says this week’s cold weather has been harder for business, but not because it’s hurting the blooms.
“People don’t want to come outside to buy flowers,” says Chan in front of the shop.
“The number of the customers overall is the same, but they buy less and bargain harder.”
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Chan says her flower, mostly orchids imported from Taiwan, do bloom slightly earlier but people still buy them for Chinese New Year.
“The warmer winter weather doesn’t affect sales, it is tradition [to buy flower].”
When asked why people are buying less if not because of earlier blooms, Chan blames Hong Kong’s economy.
She goes as far as to offer advice to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to build more housing to ease high rent costs so people can afford to buy flowers.
