Thailand: flowers

So back to Thailand adventures.....I find the art, culture, architecture and gardens of this part of the world really inspiring ,and this trip was no different. The use of flowers for both decoration and spiritual use is important, and in particular there is a type of purple orchid that seems to be everywhere.

I love a good flower market, and during a cycling tour of Bangkok we got up close with one of the largest ,which was a good chance to see more, and learn about different offerings.

 

The ever present  pink orchids...each bunch was about 40p

 

 

The orange bags are all marigold flowers which they use to make garlands

 

 

These were 'ready to go' offering packs for Ganesha...each one had some flowers, a banana and sugar cane

 

 

 

Everywhere there were also these big ice packed Styrofoam boxes which had bags of unopened Jasmine flowers in them for garlands, also giving an amazing scent when they opened

 

 

I also managed to spot what I have been calling my 'hairy balls plant' which I grew for the first time after getting one at the Great Dixter Plant Fair. Here sold as a cut flower 

 

 

Finished garlands to be hung in shrines or given as offerings

 

 

The white are the jasmine buds

 

 

 

Un-opened lotus buds to be used as temple offerings

 

 

Finally me attempting to turn the lotus buds into an offering. You do a very clever thing of peeling back the sepals and folding them into triangles to expose the petals. I was rubbish!