CEBU, Philippines - If you talk about price, they would never win against the world’s most expensive flowers. Saffron Crocus costs $1,000 or roughly P37,000 because the stamens of this flower are cultivated to produce the spice Saffron, which is the world’s most expensive spice. The Gold of Kinabalu, a rare breed of orchid found in a fenced area in the Kinabalu National Park in Malaysia, costs $5,000 or P189,000 per stem. I can already buy a shinier second-hand car to replace my old beat-up car with that money! A Frankenstein flower, the Shenzhen Nongke orchid is the result of eight years of research in agricultural science by the Shenzhen Nongke Group in China. Because this flower was bought by an anonymous bidder for 1.68 million Yuan or £160,000 (P10,080,000) at an auction in 2005, this so far, is the world’s most expensive flower to date.
When I surfed the net last night, I discovered that my flowers were not included in the top 10 Most Beautiful Flowers. What I discovered was, the Colorado columbine is at number 10, Begonia - 9th, Bluebells found in the west of Spain and in the British Isles is at 8, Bleeding Heart from Japan at number 7, Blackeyed Susan (a member of the sunflower tribe) – 6th, white Lotus at 5, Lily of the Valley holds the 4th position, on 3rd is the Cherry Blossom, 2nd place is the Canna or Bird of Paradise (although technically it is not a flower but a plant), and Calla Lily is the winner! The design of this flower is so hard to understand which puts itself a notch higher than all the other flowers. The flower is just so stunning.
The flowers Calachuchi (Plumeria), Gumamela (Hibiscus), Bombil (Bougainvillea), and Santan (Ixora coccinea) which I proudly call as “The Flowers of May†may not cost you any centavo at all or may not be considered as beautiful, but I tell you, for over a week now, I have been sneaking into small kapilyas (chapels) around Cebu City and found out that children are still offering Mama Mary these same flowers we used to bring her every afternoon during Flores de Mayo so many years ago.
Now that the Flores de Mayo is already upon us, if you have not offered any flower yet to the Lady, please find time to do it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a kid or a grown-up, Mama Mary would love to see you offering those flowers. Doesn’t have to be a very expensive flower. But the “Flowers of May†that I mentioned here are equally enough to make the Lady smile . What really matters is the heart. (FREEMAN)