By+Avi+Steinberg

W hen I profess my affection for fake flowers， I often feel as though Im confessing a character flaw. They have， to say the least， a bad reputation. As decoration， they are considered tacky； as gifts， tactless.1 They are widely regarded as creepy and depressing—the association is with the debauched fakeries youll find on the lapels of birthdayparty clowns and the sad sacks of nylon collecting dust in the waiting rooms of our laziest dentists.2

I understand why people prefer fresh flowers—we imagine theyre individuals like us， delicate， one of a kind and all the more precious for the fact that their time on earth is limited. But real flowers arent quite as rare as they seem， nor quite as personal as wed like them to be. Their authenticity3—the essence of their appeal—is often illusory.

Ive been having this debate for years with my mother， a hard-liner on the question of soil-grown flowers versus simulacra.4 Once， when I praised some handmades at a store， she told me that she found my worldview joyless and bleak. “Thats not how I raised you，” she said， and walked away as though she couldnt even bear to see me standing next to them. Later， she summarized her position： “Why dont you just put fake lettuce in your salad？ Im sure your dinner guests will appreciate it.”I have stopped trying to argue with her， and instead Ive turned to sleazy5 methods of persuasion： I recently sent her a photo of some silk peonies and lured her into praising them before revealing their dark secret.

Regardless of what my mother says， I dont believe that organic authenticity is really what we prize most in a flower. Take the Rafflesia arnoldii6： It may grow in the wild， just as God intended， but it looks like a scary open wound and smells like a decaying rat. The artificial flower， on the other hand， may not have originated in the field， but it has long found a stately perch.7 Imitations were once prized by nobles， from the palaces of imperial China to Versailles， where Louis XIVs courtiers are believed to have sought silken blossoms for the tops of their bed canopies.8 From these royal lineages9 to the more democratic-spirited creations of todays artisans， handmade blossoms remain a proud tradition.

Maybe theres a good reason so many people buy Eco Flowers10. Maybe people are seeing beyond the supposed authenticity of an orchid， kidnapped from its true home， so that you can impulse-buy it at Ikea， only to watch it “bloom” on your dinner table in the dead of a New England winter.11 The people who ship soilgrown flowers from across the globe are the ones selling a falsehood； what authentic connection to nature could possibly arise from such a convoluted12 arrangement？ And how sad that a flower， so alienated from its true home， is supposed to communicate feelings of genuine connection.

Handcrafted flowers， by contrast， make no pretenses. They are the sincerest of flowers， precisely because they are made—with intention， craft， ingenuity and quirky imperfection.13 Born in the heart and shaped by the singular14 hand of the gift giver， these artful flowers are the ones that most resemble love itself.

每當(dāng)我公開承認(rèn)自己喜歡人造花的時候，都感覺像在承認(rèn)自己的性格缺陷。因為至少人造花的名聲不好。拿它們當(dāng)裝飾品吧，俗氣；送禮吧，不體面。人們普遍覺得人造花讓人感覺詭異且壓抑。它們身上那種墮落的虛假，讓人不禁聯(lián)想到生日聚會上小丑衣服的翻領(lǐng)，或者懶惰牙醫(yī)的候診室里讓人憂傷的尼龍垃圾袋。

我理解人們?yōu)楹胃矚g鮮花——我們的想象力賦予鮮花生命，它們嬌嫩又獨特，并因其有限的生命而顯得彌足珍貴。其實鮮花并非表面上看起來的那么珍稀，也沒有我們想的那么獨特。它們的真實性——其吸引力的精華所在——常常是虛無縹緲的。

就這個問題，我和我媽爭論了好多年。她是土壤種植鮮花的鐵桿粉絲，堅決反對人造花。有一次我稱贊商店里的人造花，她卻說她發(fā)現(xiàn)我的世界觀黯淡無趣?！拔覐奈催@么教育你呀，”她說完立即從我身邊走開，仿佛無法容忍看到我和這些人造花站在一起。事后，她這樣總結(jié)自己的立場：“你怎么不在沙拉里放假生菜呢？我相信你的客人會喜歡的?！蔽也辉僭噲D和她爭論，而是采用更“卑劣”的方法軟化她：最近我寄給她一張絲綢牡丹的照片，并誘導(dǎo)她稱贊照片里的花，而不事先揭秘這些其實是人造花。

不管我媽怎么說，我并不認(rèn)為人們評判一朵花的珍貴時真的要首先取決于它的有機真實性。以阿諾德大王花為例：它如上帝希望的那樣，生長在野外，但它看起來就像一個敞開的傷口，散發(fā)出一股腐爛的老鼠味。相較之下，人造花雖非來自大自然，但它早已覓得高貴的居所。從中國帝王的皇宮到凡爾賽宮，人造花曾一度為貴族階層所青睞。據(jù)說法國國王路易十四的侍臣曾四處尋求絲綢花來裝飾皇室的床蓋。從皇家飾品到現(xiàn)代工匠更為大眾化的創(chuàng)意制作，人造花一直是值得驕傲的傳統(tǒng)。

或許有理由解釋為何這么多人都愛買Eco Flower的環(huán)保花?；蛟S人們看到，一朵蘭花所謂的真實性背后，是它從生長地被“綁架”出來，于是你才能在宜家一時興起買下它，只為了看著它在新英格蘭隆冬時節(jié)“盛開”在你的餐桌上。將土壤種植的花兒運往全球的商人，其實是在販賣虛假，因為經(jīng)過這般周折，這些花兒還能保留多少真正的自然元素呢？而要求一朵遠(yuǎn)離故土的花帶給人們與自然的聯(lián)結(jié)感又是多么令人傷心的事。

相比之下，人造花就免去了那份矯揉造作。它們才是最真誠的花，因為它們是用心、工藝、創(chuàng)意又帶點兒奇特的不完美的結(jié)晶。人造花是送禮人用心制作的手工作品，所以它們才最能代表愛。

1. tacky： 俗氣的，劣質(zhì)的； tactless： （說話或行為）不圓通的，不明智的。

2. debauched： 墮落的，道德敗壞的；lapel： 翻領(lǐng)。

3. authenticity： 真實性。

4. hard-liner： 不妥協(xié)者，強硬派；simulacra： 模擬物。

5. sleazy： 低劣的，低級庸俗的。

6. Rafflesia arnoldii： 阿諾德大王花，是世界上最大的花，以英國植物學(xué)家約瑟夫·阿諾德的姓氏命名。

7. stately： 莊重的，高貴的；perch： 高位，突出的地位。

8. Versailles： 凡爾賽宮，位于巴黎西南郊，1682—1789年間曾是法國的王宮及政治中心，1979年被列入《世界文化遺產(chǎn)名錄》；Louis XIV： 路易十四（1638—1715），自號太陽王，是波旁王朝的法國國王和納瓦拉國王，也是歐洲歷史上在位時間最長的君主（1643—1715）；courtier：朝臣，侍臣；canopy： （床、座位等上的）頂罩，華蓋。

9. lineage： 血統(tǒng)，世系。

10. Eco Flower： 一家環(huán)?；ㄊ?，創(chuàng)辦于2014年，總部位于美國猶他州，使用的材料都是可再生或循環(huán)使用的，如木頭、粗斜棉布、粗麻布、紙張等。

11. impulse-buy： 即興購買；in the dead of winter： 在隆冬時節(jié)。

12. convoluted： 錯綜復(fù)雜的。

13. ingenuity： 心靈手巧，善于創(chuàng)新； quirky： 奇特的，古怪的。

14. singular： 非凡的，突出的。