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Green Living |
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Human Flower Project
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Just What the Doctor Should Order
Appendectomy? Two horticulture researchers document how flowers and foliage can hasten your recovery.
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East/West, the Anthurium Dragon Test
Vietnamese designers struck upon the ideal human anthurium project. Turn these iridescent red flowers into dragon scales. At Hanoi’s first Flower Street Festival (Lễ hội phố hoa Hà Nội), which winds up today, a pair of supernatural reptiles broke the world record for floral dragons and thrilled spectators.
“The two dragons are made of 10,000 fresh flowers transported from Da Lat city. It took internationally accredited artisan Nguyen Manh Hung and five others 30 days to complete the work.” Closer inspection shows the dragons have what appear to be bird-of-paradise eyelashes and hold medicine balls of yellow chrysanthemums. (Some lavish floral poultry was on view as well.)
It seems to us that municipal flower festivals are on the rise in Asia and parts of the Middle East even as interest in these kinds of celebrations dwindles in North America and Europe. Having seen laser projections on skyscrapers and Christo’s draping of the Reichstag, do Westerners yawn at a mere 45-foot dragon sheathed in anthurium?
The flower street festival has been underway at Hoan Kiem Lake, in the city center, since New Year’s Eve. Pictured here, the two dragons cavort by the statue of Lý Thái Tổ, Vietnam’s first emperor. It was he who moved the capital to Hanoi 1000 years ago. Let the Millennial festivities begin!
45-foot dragons were the hit of Hanoi’s first Flower Street Festival
Photo: VOV News
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Joseph Stella’s Resolution
Restart—whether with flowers or dumb bells. It’s the season of discipline.
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Should Cadillacs Be Forgot?
General Motors, after another near death experience, might be revived by making the vehicles of its glory days—like the flower car.
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To a Long-Tailed Year
Nearing the tip of 2008’s tail, here’s a photo we’ve stashed away all year: Burton Holmes’s 1932 picture of Onagadori, “honorable fowl,” and a patient judge untangling the dread-feathers.
We especially like that the exotic roosters perch near wisteria (Wisteria floribunda), a plant likewise admired for its length—of flower racemes (up to 20 inches), breadth (sometimes 90 feet), and life (50 years or more).
New Year’s, usually a fake-merry occasion, cries out for something peculiar—a kiss from a stranger or a chicken with tail feathers that reach around the block. How will you shake things up, or be shakeable? Many folks seem to be pulling back this December and we suppose there’s nothing wrong with that. Except there’s this world, so long on surprises.
Best wishes to all for *2009*
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