1st Story - Fateful Meeting with Smeraldo, Prologue Story

For more about the Smeraldo blog, click here.

Please do not post my translation without credit. Translated by @courtneylazore.

This post was originally published in 2017, then deleted from the blog and reuploaded in 2018. The only change was the date of the shop opening switching from September to late August (both coincided with BTS comebacks) and the name of the flower conference changing from FLOWER 2012 to Annual Flower Conference. The post was deleted again and reuploaded in 2020 with no changes from the 2018 version. The 2017 version is reflected here.

Hello. I am Florist Testesso.

The reason I started this blog was to introduce the ‘smeraldo’ flower. I’m saying this in advance, but I’m preparing to open a flower shop that specializes in the Smeraldo flower around the middle of September. Thinking about it, this place could just be a promotion blog for my shop, but I don’t think that my encounter with the smeraldo flower is just simple business.

My first connection with the smeraldo flower dates back to 5 years ago. At that time, I was studying abroad in North Dakota in America. In order to participate in FLOWER 2012, hosted by an American floral academy, I went ahead and traveled to Virginia. It was 5 hours of flying time from North Dakota to Virginia, and it took more than 7 hours total to get from my dorm to the academy.

But after going on that long road, when I arrived at the event hall, I discovered a banner that said “origin of the playing card.” Flower 2012 had already ended the previous week, and there was an event opened by an American playing card society. I had written the incorrect date in my diary. It was ridiculous at the time and I was at a loss for words, but looking back, I think everything was connected. I was so tired then and didn’t have enough energy to go somewhere different, so I flopped down into a seat and listened to a lecture. It was a relief the talk was interesting, and since my job is as a florist, the part that was related to flowers was the most amusing. As you may have expected, that flower was… “smeraldo.”

If you look at the photo you’ll understand, but the smeraldo flower carries a warm ambience. Its flower petal shape is romantic, and its color is mysterious and profound. Doesn’t it have the feeling of some sad situation? That’s right. Smeraldo is a flower that has the meaning of heartache and troubled circumstances. This situation can be known in the language of flowers too. (T/N: in the symbolic meaning of flowers). In Italian it is “non potevo dire la verità,” or “truth I couldn’t speak” in Korean. Looking at the language of flowers, you can guess the love—sad love—of that situation, right?

Going forward, through this blog I’ll slowly untie the tangled story of this flower and playing cards.