
Red Peak, floral clock style
It may be a surprise to you, as it was to me, to learn that “say it with flowers” did not orginate as Interflora’s slogan but was in fact a 1934 British musical film. Faced by the many memes associated with the Red Peak flag in New Zealand, I felt I could reinterpret it with flowers. First up was the one in the style of floral clocks, perhaps.

Version 2 in wild cherry blossom and anemone
It is not that I am totally enamoured of the Red Peak flag option. It is that I do not appreciate being given a choice of four designs for our proposed new national ensign that are a silver fern, a silver fern, a silver fern and a close-up of a fern frond (for that is what the black and white koru represents). Given that our Prime Minister has made no secret of his strong preference for a silver fern, I can’t help but feel that crowd-sourcing the designs and then going through a $28 million “public consultation” and not one, but two referendums, all to achieve what looks like a pre-determined outcome is a bit of a have, really. Over 10 000 designs submitted and it came down to three silver ferns and a close-up of an unfurling frond? I feel short-changed, as apparently the majority of New Zealanders do at this stage of the campaign.

Red Peak, rendered in Hippeastrum aulicum and wild cherry blossom.

Red Peak in Narcissus Thalia and what I think is a tritonia, not a sparaxis

Well done,very well done. A choice between three fish skeletons and a swirl is no choice really. Democracy!!!??