Chinese New Year flowers - Waterloo Street

On a weekend, there were so many people in the Waterloo Street area around the Kwan Yin temple and the air was filled with music of all sorts from the typical new year melodies to the mystical sounds of the Andes. Chinese New Year always gives this kind of atmosphere generated by the crowds of shoppers and the colourful flowers on sale. These are artificial flowers, almost like real ones. Nice to look at, not essential items for Chinese New year, for me at least.

Chrysanthemums and lotus flowers for the Goddess Kwan Yin.

Celosia Plumosa - More Chinese New Year Flowers

Their colours are brilliant in the sun and when they are at the peak of their lives, they are like feather dusters. I do not know their names and so I shall just refer to them as Chinese New Year flowers because that is the time of the year when they are seen in abundance in our nurseries waiting to be bought to bring good luck to the buyers.

Chrysanthemum flowers

Chrysanthemum tea, that's all I think of at the mention of this flower. Other than the usual varieties at the market place that are especially popular on the 1st and 15th day of the Lunar month, I do not get to see exciting ones such as these that were seen at the Garden Festival (Dec 2006) and the Sentosa Flower Show during Chinese New Year in Feb 2006.

Big and fanciful Chrysanthemum flowers at the Garden Festival 2006 (above) and the Sentosa Flower Show 2006 (below).




Wall flowers painstakingly plastered by foreign workers make a wonderful backdrop for family photos.

Celosia cristata - Cockscomb flower

You will see them in the nurseries and market places, these velvety-looking flowers of a colour that brings good luck and prosperity and makes the house look positively radiant during Chinese New Year.

For sale at a market. There is also a yellow variety in the background.

The first time I saw yellow celosia cristata flowers was at the Sentosa Flower Show in 2006 during Chinese New Year.

The owners of this house nurtured this plant over the past few weeks so that the flowers will be on time for Chinese New Year. My uncle grew these plants in his front yard in Malacca. He had a way to ensure that his plants grow healthily and supply him with bountiful blooms all year round, these not being the exception but the norm.
If this flower could be eaten, it would be left alone because it is better left as a feast for the eyes.

Family: Amaranthaceae

Common name: Cockscomb

Origin: East Indies