The problem with Valentine’s Day isn’t just that it’s a miserable day for singles. It’s also pretty much a writeoff when it comes to style. Restaurants, which tend to have cheesy themed menus and those forlorn, dying cello-wrapped single roses on the tables (which would be almost funny if they weren’t the very picture of desire nipped in the bud, after being embalmed), should be avoided. And, sorry, but gifts of heart-shaped chocolates and teddy bears in red T-shirts holding heart-shaped balloons don’t exactly scream ‘passion’ to me, other than a passionate yearning to have ticked off one’s responsibility to acknowledge that it’s Valentine’s Day without having had to think too hard about it.
The glorious cymbidium orchid, on the other hand, is the Valentine’s gift that, like all true gestures of the human heart, just keeps on giving. I’m not sure that all the credit for this should properly go to the cymbidium, but I can report that I have been the fortunate recipient of such a Valentine from my one true love on several occasions over the years, and almost three decades in, we are still married. And happily, at least the last time I checked.
First off, an orchid — any orchid I would argue — is a major step up from the unfortunately clichéd bunch of red roses, which typically don’t open and then droop their sorry heads on the stem the very next day like a bunch of withered nuns. At least an orchid dresses up for the occasion and demonstrates a bit of staying power. And if you are patient, and let it stick around afterwards, who knows? It may just bloom again.
Unlike your run-of-the-mill phalaenopsis now readily available at the corner supermarket, however, cymbidiums are a harder-to-score seasonal variety that only just come into bloom at precisely this time of year — right when we need them most in the cold heart of our long, colourless winter. Hence the perfect expression of both the singularity of your heart’s desire, and the lengths you are prepared to go to in order to delight him, or her.
What’s more, an orchid is so wonderfully over the top—so hot-bloodedly tropical in its colouration, so flagrante in its delicto, that it’s the naughty knickers of the plant world. A physical embodiment of yearning that says it all, really, without having to even include much in the way of an accompanying card.
The relative rarity and jaw-dropping beauty of its heavy-lipped blooms aside, it is perhaps this unabashed quality that makes it such a winning choice for a heartfelt Valentine. Unembarrassed by its obviousness, the cymbidium, like any great operatic diva, lays it all on the line for love.
From $199, at Kay Young flowers or 416-FLORIST.com
Karen von Hahn is a Toronto-based writer, trend observer and style commentator. Contact her at kvh@karenvonhahn.com .
Karen von Hahn is a Toronto-based writer, trend observer and style commentator. Contact her at kvh@karenvonhahn.com .
The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
