For some reason, I woke up this morning thinking about the two holidays, Christmas and New Year, only a week apart. Christmas has its own flower, the poinsettia, and even its own tree, a lovely evergreen we bring indoors and decorate for the holiday.

But what about the New Year? 

For the life of me, I couldn’t come up with a single flower or tree that is traditional for the holiday. Certainly, we have never said, “Let’s go out and get a (blank) for New Year’s Eve.” So, what fits in the blank? Time for research and what did I come up with? Daffodils, symbols of new beginnings and rebirth.

Daffodils? If there is a flower that is difficult to come by in the tropics it is daffodils. Daffies take a cold spell to flower and we just don’t get a cold spell. Rainy, yes, cold sufficient to make a daffy flower? No. Okay, you can sometimes find a daffodil or narcissus in a store somewhere here in Costa Rica, but on demand for the New Year celebration? Unlikely. Likewise, the narcissus, a symbol of good fortune and prosperity, is in short supply.

Back to research.

Scotland traditionally uses the white heather for the new year. I have some purple heather, Mexican heather, but I don’t think that serves. Seems like white is required for the celebration.

White daisies are mentioned quite a bit for the New Year and you can sometimes find them in shops. Does anyone grow them? I don’t know. There are none in my garden. 

Then I struck pay dirt. If you can’t find daffodils and daisies, which might be traditional for Norte Americanos, steal a flower or two from someone else’s tradition.

The tradition for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, includes white roses.

Finally, a hit!

We can cultivate white roses in Costa Rica and they can be found in a florist shop. White roses for the New Year are sure to look lovely anywhere.

White roses, yes, but then I really found it. White orchids (Phalaenopsis) also known as moth orchids.

Orchids in the genus Phalaenopsis are monopodial epiphytic, sometimes lithophytic herbs with long, coarse roots with pneumatodes and short leafy stems hidden by overlapping leaf bases. The leaves are usually arranged in two rows, relatively large and leathery, oblong to elliptic and sometimes succulent.

A few to many, small to large, long-lasting, flat, often fragrant flowers are arranged on erect to hanging racemes or panicles. The sepals and petals are free from and spread widely apart from each other. The lateral sepals are usually larger than the dorsal sepal and the petals much wider than the sepals. The labellum is joined stiffly to the column and has three lobes. The side lobes are erect and more or less parallel to each other and the middle lobe sometimes has a pair of appendages or antennae.

We grow orchids everywhere. They hang from trees, they are sold in the supermarkets and at roadside viveros. Orchids are the Chinese flower of choice for the New Year, a symbol of fertility and abundance for the coming year.

Even though Rosh Hashanah and the Chinese New Year are months apart from January first, it doesn’t matter.

White roses and an orchid or two are perfect for our Costa Rican New Year’s celebration.