Taiwan Today

October is the month of Republic of China holidays and special observances - Double Tenth National Day, Overseas Chinese Day, Taiwan Retrocession Day and President Chiang Kai-shek's birthday on the 31st. So October is also a month of flowers, both as gifts and displays. The chrysanthemum has been cultivated in China for more than 3,000 years and is a special October favorite because this lovely fall flower symbolizes Longevity. On President Chiang's birthday (he will be 81 this month) the Horticulture Experimental Station at Shihlin invites the public to see its blooms and tens of thousands of people respond. Bank and florists also sponsor exhibitions. Potted chrysanthemums are often presented as a birthday wish for long life.

Roses once were little known on subtropical Taiwan. Now more than 400 varieties are grown. The rose is a cherished gift and favored for wedding receptions.

A 10-acre rose garden at Yuanlin in central Taiwan produces blooms the year around and does a business volume of US$250 a day. Local varieties are beginning to make an appearance.

Taiwan long has been known for its orchids and wild ones are still to be found in the mountains. Orchid raising is both a hobby and a business. In the countryside farmers like to hang orchids growing in the fossilized trunk of the cycad on the eaves. Orchids in cycad or pots are found at every nursery and florist shop. Prices are low by Western comparison - from US$10 to US$20 for the famiiar purple Cattleya. Hundreds of varieties are displayed when fanciers get together at a flower show.

There are flowers that grow and plastic flowers - and now come the "Dream Flowers" of Miss Emi Chiu. These are made of wool and pliant wire. Exports have already begun. After her corsage was crushed at a party, Miss Chiu decided to find more durable flowers. With the help of her crochet hook and varicolored yarns, she developed something new in the way of floral decoration and has gone on to carve out a growing business. More than a dozen flowers have been duplicated in wool, which can be washed and restored to shape in the event of crushing. Wool flowers also are adapted to artistic arrangement.

Miss Chiu (right, top) teaches the making of woolen flowers. Flowers are crocheted (right, bottom) and then are trimmed with scissors (left). Stalks are made of wire. All of the work is done by hand.

Farmer grow jute as a sideline occupation. So new uses of this fiber art helpful. Jute flowers look less like the real thing than those of the wool variety. Nevertheless, jute sunflowers have a charm all their own and have beeb good sellers. Cottage industry contributes most of the handicrafts of Taiwan.

These flowers are light as a feather and rightly so. They are made of leathers. This is something new to Taiwan but welcome. Every township has at least one feather dealer buying from farmers and selling to quilt makers. A new use for feathers brings joy to the hearts of those who raise fowl as well as to the feather merchants of the island.