Petal Pushers

It appears the floral industry, or at least part of it, has fallen victim to the same flawed perception that sends beautiful women to plastic surgeons: nature just isn’t pretty enough. 

A dear friend gave us a poinsettia the other day. It’s big, healthy and lush with large red leaves. She would have had no way of knowing what lurked beneath the cellophane shield: glitter, and lots of it.

The container has a band of glitter that has come off on everything I’ve set the flower on. That’s bad enough. But they have actually applied glitter to the leaves! Our dining table has grooves between the slats of wood and now they’re shiny with bits of glitter. I’ve moved the plant a couple of times and my hands got coated in the stuff.  The cat hasn’t been anywhere near the poinsettia and he has glitter on his head. It’s ridiculous and unnecessary and I wonder how many other homes have fallen victim to the glitter monster. The poinsettia is a beautiful plant and it’s Christmasy all on its own without the addition of anything artificial.

A few months ago I bought myself a bouquet of flowers when I was picking up groceries. When I got them home I unwrapped them and proceeded to cut the stems before putting them in a vase. My hands became covered in the flowers’ bright colours even though I barely touched any of the petals. They had been dipped in dye.  When I mentioned this to the flower woman the next time I visited the store she looked at me as if I had two heads. “Yeah, they’re dyed.” The implication was…so what?

Are we at the point where we have to take some of the most beautiful things in nature – flowers – and add fakery because they’re just not pretty enough?  What’s next? Marking happy faces on melon rinds to make the produce aisle seem friendlier? I don’t want dye on my flowers or glitter on my plants.  I’ll be vacuuming glitter until Easter when you can bet I’m going to closely inspect any lillies that come into this house just in case someone made a craft project out of them, too.

4 thoughts on “Petal Pushers”

  1. Poinsettias on their own are highly toxic and poisonous to animals without the additives, so keep kitty far away.

    1. That’s what was so surprising – he hasn’t been anywhere near the plant because we know it’s dangerous for him but he still got glitter on him! Thanks.

  2. The cat’s name is Spice. He was pretty much destined to end up covered in glitter with a possible career in exotic dancing! Do you find him hanging around the scratching pole just a little too much….?

    1. That’s a good point. If he was a more specific spice like Ginger or … Hot Flakes… there would be more to worry about!
      So I took the plant to work where I thought I might seem extra Christmasy and there’s a professional cleaner every night. However, I keep moving it to the sunny spot of the lunch room and someone moves it into the dark. Now it’s dropping leaves AND glitter!

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