Petal compositions

Petal compositions

What began as a royal initiative to make use of leftover leaves has bloomed into a full-on floral arrangement business, specialising in products like garlands and bouquets

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE
Petal compositions
floral frame: A photo of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej surrounded by a sea of dried flowers at the 'Dok Mai Haeng Rachan' exhibition at Siam Paragon recently. They were produced by the Royal Project Foundation, an initiative to improve the lives of northern hill tribes.

The recent "Dok Mai Haeng Rachan" exhibition at Siam Paragon was a most fitting tribute to the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej. And no floral arrangement could have lived up to the theme of the exhibition, literally meaning "the King's flowers", better than a photo of the late King in full regalia surrounded by a sea of dried flowers.

The dried flowers were indeed the King's flowers. They belonged to one of the myriad projects under the umbrella of the Royal Project Foundation, which was created and nurtured by his desire to improve the livelihoods of hill tribes in northern Thailand. The King was once quoted as saying that the Royal Project had been misunderstood. "People have always thought that I initiated it in my capacity as king," he said. "In fact, I launched it for humanitarian reasons and out of compassion for less privileged people -- some too poor to buy blankets to ward off the cold in the mountains where they live."

Set up in 1969, the Royal Project taught hill tribes to plant fruit trees, vegetables and flowers as cash crops. To this day, it still helps process and market their products -- the more successful of which are fruits like persimmon, pear, peach, avocado, strawberry and mulberry, alongside various kinds of vegetables and fresh and dried flowers.

in the picture: The late King with HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, HSH Prince Bhisatej Rajani, director of the Royal Project Foundation, and ML Charuphant Thongtham, head of the dried flower project.

The dried flower project started with research on ferns indigenous to the highlands. "Bracken ferns grew like weeds -- even burning could not get rid of them," Assoc Prof ML Charuphant Thongtham of Kasetsart University, head of the project, recalled. He dried the leaves, which sold like hot cakes when they first made their appearance at a Royal Project fair at Suan Amphorn in 1985.

Encouraged by the positive response, the research team expanded the scope of their work from drying fern leaves to drying, bleaching and dyeing the flowers, fruit, leaves, pods and seeds of various plants. With unwavering support from the King and HSH Prince Bhisatej Rajani, director of the Royal Project Foundation, what started as research grew into a project that now helps not only the hill tribes in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son earn supplementary income but also impoverished families in other parts of the country.

While the hill tribes plant imported crops such as oat, barley, strawflowers, gypsophylla and statice, villagers in the lowlands collect flowers, leaves and pods from the wild. The materials are sold to the Royal Project either fresh or dried for further processing. The flowers are either processed whole, or the petals of one flower are combined with parts of another to create a completely new flower. Some flowers, like statice and lavender, may not need bleaching and dyeing as they look attractive after they have been dried, but many kinds need bleaching and dyeing to meet market demand.

The finished products are sold as floral arrangements in vases or baskets, as corsages, bouquets and wreaths, and pressed into frames like paintings. Small pieces are made into perfumed potpourri for the closet or for hanging in the car. Most consumers, however, prefer to buy the leaves and flowers in bunches and do the arranging themselves.

Dried flowers and leaves can be used in many different ways. Staff of the Royal Project Foundation at Kasetsart University, and lecturers and students of the Rajamangala University of Technology who gave a helping hand in arranging the exhibits, used dried leaves and flowers to make a giant garland, decorate a folding divider, and highlight photos showing King Rama IX as he visited the hill tribes and the research stations of the Royal Project, among others.

Siam Paragon, in cooperation with PTT Group, the Government Savings Bank and SuperRich, among others, should be commended for showing yet another facet of the late King's efforts to improve the lives of his people.

Every day, people bring funeral wreaths to pay tribute to the late King, who will be lying in state for a whole year. Wreaths made of fresh flowers can last only a few days; those made of dried flowers will last a whole year or more, and the price is almost the same if not cheaper than the fresh flowers. What's more, buying dried flowers means supporting the cause of the Royal Project and King Rama IX, who cared so much for his people. To order a wreath or any dried flower product, call the dried flower project's marketing section at Kasetsart University at 089-141-8658, 02-579-1227 or 02-942-8639 ext 11.

The Royal Project is not only concerned about improving the livelihoods of underprivileged members of society. It is also concerned with the conservation of native plants. Thailand is home to several species of rhododendron, but forest fires and the clearing of forests for cultivation could decimate them before they can be properly studied.

The research team who initiated the dried flower project is racing against time to collect and preserve the genetic pool of rhododendrons native to Thailand. "We have about 10 species collected from various mountains in northern Thailand," ML Charuphant, head of the project, said. "By propagating them from seeds or cuttings, we have increased their number, thus ensuring their preservation."

In collaboration with Chulabhorn Research Institute, the team is also studying the medicinal properties of native ferns and fern allies, especially to treat Alzheimer's disease.

Initial tests by Nopporn Thasana, PhD, a senior researcher in medicinal chemistry at the Chulabhorn Research Institute, found some species that show promise not just in improving memory but in killing cancerous cells. Further studies, however, are needed before the research can bear fruit. n


Email: nthongtham@gmail.com

fresh arrangements: Dried flowers and leaves in a floral arrangement, made into a giant garland, and serving as a folding divider cover. Photos: Normita Thongtham

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