Decorative style of a tea set

May 3, 2015 7:29 PM

Not knowing botany I have to ask - what flowers are these supposed to be

I am not a botanist by any stretch of the imagination. But I would like to be able to say what the flowers on my tea set happen to be. Detail and full set. Suggestions?

posted by ptm to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

The flowers suggest carnations to me, but the leaves aren't quite right. I'd guess that they're fanciful depictions of tea roses.
posted by jquinby at 7:35 PM on May 3, 2015

The blue ones look like fully blown roses. I am not a rose expert but I know that some varieties stay fairly tightly curled as they age, but others get very loose and messy looking, like this one. The leaves and flower buds definitely look like roses. The little white star-shaped ones, no clue. Given the overall lack of botanical accuracy in the depiction, maybe they're meant to be ivy flowers? Assuming the odd tendrilly thing is meant to be ivy, which is a bit of a reach on my part.
posted by Athanassiel at 7:58 PM on May 3, 2015

Blue peony and stephanotis.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 11:18 PM on May 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Oh, I think fluffy battle kitten has it for sure. Compare with other china designs featuring blue peonies. Nicely done!
posted by jquinby at 5:03 AM on May 4, 2015

They reminded me a little bit of a cornflower.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 7:19 AM on May 4, 2015

I looked at cornflower, roses, dahlias, clematis, and peonies. The buds and color made me think peony. I also wondered about tropical flowers but couldn't find anything that buds like this.

I think what you really have here is a loose interpretation of some kind of blue flower. The style of the flowers reminds me more of something Asian but the shape of the tea set does not suggest Asian to me. I know next to nothing about tea sets.

I think it's a super interesting set, though.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 11:10 AM on May 4, 2015

Best answer: Those are roses. Look at the buds and the leaves - definitely roses. Don't be distracted by the color, because there are no true blue roses, and roses don't have (living) leaves that are pale brown, either.

Peonies have buds that are perfectly round. Peonies also come in almost every color except blue. Also, peony leaves are lobed with smooth edges; rose leaves are usually serrated and range from oval to almost round.

"Blue" varieties of rose and peonies (and some other flowers) you might see advertised aren't really blue, but a kind of mauve. If you see a true blue rose or peony it's a white one that's been dyed or Photoshopped.

The white flowers and vines I don't recognize. It can't be stephanotis; the leaves aren't right. It could be star jasmine or something else; there are lots of vines with white star-shaped flowers.
posted by caryatid at 6:57 PM on May 4, 2015

The blue ones are roses, painted the wrong color. This happens all the time with mass-produced goods.
posted by oneirodynia at 7:16 PM on May 5, 2015