By Kathryn Weber
One of the most powerful ways to improve your home and life is by adding landscaping, plants and flowers to your home. Beautiful plants and flowers lift the energy of your home, bringing beautiful healthy growing chi. Surrounding your home with vibrant plantings is also a good idea for real estate reasons.
Realtors say that nice landscaping is one of the all-important components of curb appeal – and that can be good for your home if you’re trying to sell it. Even if you’re not in the market to sell your home, beautiful landscaping brings greater value to your home and makes living there more enjoyable.
And the most auspicious part of plants? Flowers. They are are the yang expression of a plant.
From a purely feng shui perspective, nice landscaping adds wonderful chi to your home. In your life that translates to good health, happier relationships, and added prosperity. Flowering blooms aren’t just lovely to look at, they can promote love and are regarded as symbols of good fortune and bring auspicious energy.
In addition to planting flowers, you can use them to brighten up your home by displaying them in vases in your home. This is especially helpful if you’re trying to sell your home as a mixed bouquet brings bright, happy yang energy to the house. Think of flowers as the way a plant smiles – and those smiles create happy feelings for visitors to your home or prospective buyers.
Bear in mind, though, that dried flowers are generally regarded as dead energy, making them unsuitable for lifting chi. Here are some more important guidelines on flower feng shui.
Display flowers as an offering.
If you’d like to imbue fresh, spring-time or renewal energy for yourself or your home, place flowers in a vase according to the energy you wish to inspire. For healing energy, select white flowers, for love choose pink, and for wealth, display purple or gold flowers.
Offer flowers to those in need.
When friends or family members are ill, offer them a bouquet of white flowers, such as magnolia or lilies. If friends or family are in need of more prosperity, offer a bulb flower, such as narcissus to inspire greater wealth. Golden-colored chrysanthemum and narcissus are always a good choice, too, for promoting wealth chi, particularly when moving into a new home, beginning a new undertaking, or at the beginning of the New Year. Pink hued flowers represent fond affection and happiness and are perfect for friends and creating loving ties.
Singles should display peonies.
The Chinese have long held that peony flowers are the flower of romance and many a young Chinese woman displayed red peonies, the ultimate symbol of youthful love and romance. Singles who wish to marry should display a vase of peonies or a painting of the blossoms in the living room, where they represent seeking love versus in the bedroom where the flowers are a symbol of carnal love.
The lotus is the flower of enlightenment.
As a symbol of purity, the lotus rises from the muddy waters to bloom, symbolizing rising above the worldly problems. Buddhas are often shown seated in a lotus and the Buddhist chant Om Mani Padme Hum literally means “Hail to the Jewel in the Lotus.” As such, it’s highly regarded as a symbol of great good fortune and enlightenment. The flower represents unending success and ceaseless abundance. Display these in a vase or as a painting or figure to inspire your life and home.
Orchids are the career flower.
Despite their reputation as fickle flowers, orchids are quite simple to raise and bring beautiful career chi to those who display them. Purple orchids bring opportunity and success and are regarded as the most beneficial color to display. In a living room, the orchid bestows family luck and harmony.
Flowers to symbolize prosperity, success, and wealth.
Chrysanthemum seen so abundantly in floral shops and in fall gardens represents bumper harvests, abundant joy and a long, fruitful life. Other flowers that represent acquired wealth include bulb flowers such as narcissus, tulips, paperwhites, gladiolas, iris or lily.
Flowering branches represent longevity, overcoming adversity.
Whether it’s a plum, cherry, or peach branch, flowering branches because they typically bloom in winter represent overcoming obstacles. These are wonderful reminders of succeeding after difficulties and of longevity.
Flower cleansing baths purify and uplift.
To create essential yang chi and clear your mind and rejuvenate your body, simply bathe in a bathtub that has been sprinkled with the petals of at least five different flowers in the five colors of the five elements. There should be pink, yellow, white, blue, and green petals from flowers or herbs, like rosemary, in your bath. You may also wish to include Bach flower essential oils in your bathe to help create a beautiful aroma as well, or use fragrant flowers such as lavender, jasmine or gardenia to perfume your water. This uplifting ritual will help to infuse your body with beautiful yang energy and soothe your mind.
Choose color combinations carefully.
Although beautiful, red flowers are not regarded as auspicious for giving to someone who is ill and should be avoided when visiting someone sick or giving at the beginning of a relationship as the color can be overpowering and “flame out” the romance. Red peonies symbolize passionate, amorous love and can reawaken a dormant sex life for a couple when displayed in the living room.
When giving flowers in a new relationship, opt for sentimental colors such as pink or yellow or a combination of these colors. Red and white flowers should never be put together, but a rainbow of colors is always a good color option as long as all colors are represented. Purple is regarded as auspicious and harbinger of prosperous times and success, as is gold. Purple, gold and white are especially harmonious and auspicious.
