Human Flower Project
Stamp out Narcissus
For the lunar new year, the U.S. postal service has issued a special stamp to commemorate an old floral custom of the holiday and celebrate Year of the Tiger.
A holiday tea set carved from narcissus bulbs at a
garden in Zhangzhou City. “Daffodil sculpture for indoor
decoration has become increasingly popular… at the
current high season of narcissus efflorescence.”
Photo: Lin Jianwu for Xinhua
With apologies to PETA:
We would like to see a giant heart-shaped doily set on fire and a white tiger, narcissus flowers in its mouth, leaping through the flames. However, we’ll be content with the U.S. Postal Service’s new commemorative stamp: Year of the Tiger.
February 14th is a double-whammy occasion this year. Remember your sweetheart tomorrow but note that Sunday’s also the Chinese New Year (also known as “Spring Festival.”) Year of the Ox, which has admittedly been a plodder, gives way something, we can only hope, more vigorous and bright.
The U.S. Postal Service’s commemorative stamp: Year of the Tiger, with narcissus blooms, by artist Kam Mak
Photo: Courtesy USPS
USPS issued the new commemorative stamp last month, with ceremonies at El Pueblo National Monument, “site of Los Angeles’s original Chinatown.” Artist Kam Mak was present (see more of his illustrations here), and brief mention was made of the narcissus flowers and their place in Chinese tradition. Narcussis is “considered auspicious at any time of the year and thus, especially appropriate at this time of renewed hope for the future.” Actually, this flower is one of many that are carefully cultivated to bloom exactly on the lunar new year and assure good luck in the months of ahead. Another important Chinese New Year plants is plum blossom, typically the first flower of the year; and in Vietnam for Tet, yellow chrysanthemum, plum blossoms and bong mai are the heralds of fortune.
Austin gardener M Sinclair Stevens wrote up (and illustrated) her success with Narcissus tazetta v. orientalis on the winter solstice of 2007. With characteristic tenacity – and experimentation – she found that in our Zone 8, it takes digging up the bulbs, chilling them for eight weeks and replanting to cozen them into bloom. Lazy types may be able to find some potted and primed for show tomorrow if they get out to a florist or garden center this afternoon.
1973 Narcissus Queen Sandra Chun and festival chairman Henry Young (left) receive a gift to the city of Honolulu, Hawaii, of a thousand narcissus bulbs.
Photo: Narcissus Festival
Chinese immigrants to the Hawaiian Island created a Narcissus Festival in Honolulu 61 years ago that, while perhaps not as robust as it was in the 1970s, is still going strong. The 2010 Narcissus queen Angie Yiyin Zhang, inexplicably pictured with red roses, is
We did find a few older photos featuring Narcissus tazetta v. orientalis, including this doozie of 1973 Queen Sandra Chun fondling a “generous donation of one thousand narcissus bulbs.”
We’ve not been too observant of “Spring Festival” blossoms and their correspondences, if any, with luck in the year to come, so we will welcome all accounts – corroborations, refutations, or citrus-scented skepticism. 
Special good wishes to PPA, born 1914, and all you other Tigers.
I love the tea set carved from narcissus bulbs! Thanks for the heads up about the new stamps; I need a new book.