Chinese ‘12 Flowers of Months’ Teacups – November/Narcissus

The November flower is the Narcissus. Where I live in the Northeast, Narcissus will not appear in gardens until mid-March at the earliest,  but gardening books suggest that Narcissus bulbs can flower from November to April depending on the species. Until then, Narcissus lovers like myself can bring a little spring indoors by planting some Narcissus bulbs in decorative containers now (‘forcing’ them into bloom) and then enjoying the lovely blossoms ( and fragrance ) about mid-December.

Narcissuss belong to the Amaryllis family. The species is robust and contains many varieties, most of which are small, slender and provocatively perfumed. I have read that it is considered a good omen if Narcissus flowers are blooming at the time of Chinese New Year.

Narcissus are primarily native to the Mediterranean region, but a few species are found through central Asia to China. Great numbers of Narcissus are cultivated in Great Britain and Holland, and America’s love affair with Narcissus began when settlers from Europe brought the tiny bulbs to their new homeland and planted them here to replicate a bit of the ‘old country’.

I am happy to see this sweet-scented beauty represented in the yearly lineup of revered blossoms on my set of tea cups. For me the brisk days of early spring are a delightful time. I look forward to discovering colorful patches of hearty narcissus, bobbling their heads in the unsettled wind and cheerfully standing tall in spite of the inclement weather. On a warm day filled with spring promise, the pervasive, sweet, slightly-spicy scent of Narcissus is sweeter to me and more welcome than that of the loveliest rose later in summer.

The verse on the back of my cup has been translated for me as such:
treading elegantly on the water in the moon’s glow

For detailed information on the history of Chinese 12 Flowers of the Months tea cups, please read my post from January 1st, 2010.

Chinese ‘12 Flowers of the Months Teacups’ – October/Orchid

At least 35,000 orchid species now populate the planet—and orchidists believe that unknown species still await discovery. Orchids have adapted to live in all types of environments—mountains, bogs, grasslands and rainforests.

 

Botanists believe that orchids were first cultivated for their fragrance. Centuries ago elegantly potted cymbidium orchids were kept and treasured in China and Japan for their delightful, intoxicating sweet scent rather than for their delicate flowers or for their elegant, stately posture.

According to the website www.beautifulorchids.com: ’ the orchid has been a symbol of love, luxury and beauty for centuries. To the early Greeks, the orchid represented virility, and in China, Confucius (551 BC – 479 ) called it “the plant of the king’s fragrance.” During the Middle Ages, the orchid was considered an aphrodisiac and was used in love potions.

Serious orchid collecting began in the 18th century, but because of their rarity at the time, only a few botanists and wealthy amateurs could enjoy them. In 1818, William Cattley became the first person to bloom an orchid, an event that changed the flower world forever. Orchid hunters stripped forests of millions of orchids, putting many on endangered species lists. A single orchid sold for thousands of dollars. This practice has since been banned, and species are now bred and cultivated specifically for sales.’

In classical Chinese ink and wash paintings monumental stylized landscapes of mountains and rivers were rendered in vivid brush strokes and with varying degrees of intensity. These paintings express the artist’s own emotions and individual concepts of the natural world.

During China’s Song  dynasty ( 960-1279 ) flower and bird paintings became a separate genre of painting.  Many artists perfected their subject matter which included a rich variety of flowers, fruits, insects and fish. Favorite images included bamboo, chrysanthemums, orchids, pine, and plum blossoms .

orchid painting by Chinese artist Zheng Sixiao（1239～1316）

Together with bamboo, chrysanthemums and plum blossoms, the orchid is known as one of the ‘four gentlemen’ because these plants represent admirable virtues of loftiness, righteousness, modesty and purity.

The verse on the back of my cup has been translated for me as such:
orchids blowing yield their ancient fragrance daily

For detailed information on the history of Chinese 12 Flowers of the Months tea cups, please read my post from January 1st, 2010.

Chinese ‘12 Flowers of the Months Teacups’ – September/Chrysanthemum

 

 

Chrysanthemums belong to the Asteraceae (Compositae) family, which is one of the largest families of flowering plants. These flowers were first cultivated in China more than 2,000 years ago. These showy blossoms are associated with autumn and the ninth lunar month – September – which is called the chrysanthemum month.

Its Chinese name “ju” means “gathering together” because the flower looks like a petal ball. To the Chinese the chrysanthemum flower, blessed with both many petals and the fortitude to blossom in the cold days of late autumn and early winter, signifies abundance and longevity. For people about to entire retirement, the calm presence of chrysanthemums is said to welcome in a quiet life. Chrysanthemum was deemed to be one of the four honourable plants by Chinese scholars in the pastalong with plum, orchid and bamboo.

Today chrysanthemums come in a variety of shapes and petal arrangements but originally the chrysanthemum was just a small yellow flower.

After generations of cultivation, the number of varieties grew rapidly. In the Chrysanthemum Book of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), 35 varieties were noted but by the time of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the number had risen to 136. In Li Shizhen’s famous book, “Ben Cao Gang Mu”, finished in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), more than 900 varieties of chrysanthemum were listed. Today more than 3,000 varieties are blooming in China.

Just as knowledge and a taste for tea traveled from China to Japan and Korea, chrysanthemums found their way to Japan and Korea as well.

From that time onward, chrysanthemums, known as kikus in Japan, were depicted on artworks and luxury objects such as lacquer boxes, porcelain incense cases and inro ( elaborately decorated little cases that were used to carry seals for personal documents and later used for carrying medicines ) and depicted on gilded screens as lavish sprays of blossoms  or solitary blossoms, often accompanied by small birds or animals. In fact, chrysanthemums are featured on the Imperial Crest of Japan ( a 16-petal flower ) and references to the Japanese emperor are often referred to as coming from the ‘chrysanthemum throne.’

Chrysanthemums stated a craze in Japan for botany and gardening that extended from the upper echelons of the military elite to all levels of society. In the late 19th century at the royal family garden – Shinjuku Gyoen – in Tokyo,  a painstaking technique for training chrysanthemum plants to grow exhibition sized blossoms was developed.

This technique is called ozukuri (“thousand blooms”) utilized single chrysanthemum plants that are ”trained,” for a year or more, to produce hundreds of blossoms in a massive, dome-shaped configurations or cascades of blossoms that spill down to the floor like a drapery. The technique requires every branch and stem to be painstakingly pinched, staked, tied, and generally forced to grow according to the strict rules of the tradition.    

Chrysanthemums even have a moshi and bean paste confection in their honor in Japan that is called a ‘namagashi. Yum, I love these !

       http://kyotofoodie.com/chrysanthemum-namagashi   

In Chinese medicine, chrysanthemum is used to maintain healthy cholesterol levels, normalize blood pressure and improve blood flow. It is also used to sharpen hearing and vision, to calm the nerves and clear the brain. It has been proven to be of value in preventing sore throat and reducing fever. For all of its attributes, the Chinese consider chrysanthemum to be a longevity elixir,  and a perfect companion and flavor-compliment to the delicious flavor of tea.

Chrysanthemum tea can be made by adding a small quantity whole dried chrysanthemum blossoms to green or to black tea, or it is found in herbal mixtures such as Ba Bao Cha ( the Eight Treasures ) which consists of dried fruits, dried citrus peels, dried berries, dried flower petals, rock sugar and dried chrysanthemum flowers. Plain chrysanthemum flowers can also be brewed as an herbal tea by those looking for a delicate, light-flavored, caffeine-free beverage.

The verse on the back of my cup has been translated for me as such:

 one branch of yellow flowers sees the frost

 

 

 

For detailed information on the history of Chinese 12 Flowers of the Months tea cups, please read my post from January 1st, 2010.

Chinese ’12 Flowers of the Months’ Teacups – August/Osmanthus

Sweet Osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans) flowers  are also known as gui hua. These tiny dried yellow blossoms are among China’s most heady and intoxicating flower blossom fragrances.

China’s great flower-scented teas were developed during the Ming dynasty ( 1368-1644).  Osmanthus, jasmine, rose,  orchid, lotus, gardenia and wintersweet were all used to delicately scent batches of tea.  Today, these lovely teas are still popular and the best ones are made without the addition of artificial perfumes.

These tiny flowers are bright golden/yellow in color and have a pure, fresh, exotic fragrance which is unforgettable. Dried osmanthus flowers can be purchase separately and added to green, black or oolong tea as desired. A little goes a long way, so use judiciously. I am especially fond of semiball-rolled oolong teas such as Tieguanyin and Ben Shan to which a scattering of osmanthus blossoms have been added.

Song Zhi Wen a Chinese poet from the Tang Dynasty spoke highly of osmanthus when he wrote:  ’sweet- scented osmanthus seeds fell on the Moon as its fragrance in the sky wafted through the clouds.”

 

The verse on the back of my cup has been translated for me as such:
wooden brushes write of the glory year after year, from age to age

  

For detailed information on the history of Chinese 12 Flowers of the Months tea cups, please read my post from January 1st, 2010.

Chinese ’12 Flowers of the Month’ Teacups – July/Rose

Is there any flower as beloved as the rose ?  Or one that has been featured more often in song, poem, and verse than the luscious rose ?  Demure in soft shades of apricot, peach, pink, yellow and white, and bold and blazing in deepest red, roses, from miniature to voluptuous, are a joy to behold, and a summer favorite.

According to the website www.herbs2000.com the rose most likely originated in Central Asia about 60 to 70 million years ago, during the Eocene epoch, and spread over the entire Northern Hemisphere. Early civilizations, including the Chinese, the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Romans, appreciated roses and grew them widely as long as five thousand years ago.

About 500 B.C. Confucius wrote of roses growing in the Imperial Gardens and noted that the library of the Chinese emperor contained hundreds of books about roses. It is said that the rose gardeners of the Han dynasty (207 B.C.-A.D. 220) were so obsessed with these flowers that their parks threatened to engulf land needed for producing food, and that the emperor ordered some rose gardens plowed under.

The early Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans all grew and traded in roses ( and olive tree cuttings )  which they brought with them as they traveled and conquered. As a result, roses spread throughout the Middle East and elsewhere in the Mediterranean.

Charlemagne (A.D. 742-814) grew roses on the palace grounds at Aix-Ia-Chapelle, but it was primarily the monks who kept roses alive, growing them and other plants for a variety of medicinal uses. Monasteries of the Benedictine order in particular became centers of botanical research.

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, soldiers returning from the Crusades in the Middle East brought back tales of extravagant rose gardens, as well as sample flowers. Travel increased everywhere, and traders, diplomats, and scholars began to exchange roses and other plants. Interest in the rose was rekindled. Across the Atlantic many separate strains of roses had arisen in the wilds of North America. Of some 200 rose species now known worldwide, 35 are indigenous to the United States, making the rose as much a native of North America as the bald eagle. These roses include Rosa virginiana, the first American species mentioned in European literature.

 

Here in the Northeast gardens are filled with lovely roses in all colors and habit right now, so it is fitting that the July teacup in my set depicts the rose.  In the Flagstaff Museum in Hong Kong, the translation of the verse on the rose cup in their collection reads:

unlike a thousand other flowers that blossom and perish, it alone blazes red throughout the year

 

The verse on the back of my cup has been translated for me as such:

the fragrance beyond that of peaches and plums

 

For detailed information on the history of Chinese 12 Flowers of the Months tea cups, please read my post from January 1st, 2010.