Cactus Flower Meanings and Legends: The Latest Collection
The cactus is sustained by the “desert sweet spring” and has a strong ability to resist drought and scorching sun. Even under such harsh conditions, the cactus can still bloom. It is precisely because of this perseverance and tenacious vitality of the cactus, but do you know what the cactus's flower meaning is? Let's take a look together below!
The Cactus's Flower Meaning
The cactus's flower meaning is strength.
Legend of the Cactus One
The cactus has a heart that is tough outside and soft inside. At the beginning of creation, the cactus was the most delicate thing in the world. She was tender as water, and a light touch could take her life. God could not bear it, so He added a suit of armor over her heart, hard as iron, and covered with sharp thorns that wound anyone who came near. From then on, no one could ever see the cactus's heart again, and every creature that approached her would be left bleeding. A long time later, a brave man wanted to wipe out this evil thing. With one swing of his sword, the cactus was split in two, and from within came green liquid. It turned out that this was the sealed heart of the cactus. Because no one understood its loneliness, it had turned into teardrop after teardrop, and those green teardrops made the frail cactus stand out all the more for her strength. So the cactus's flower meaning is -- strength.
Legend of the Cactus Two
The cactus was once extremely charming and stunning. When the Queen Mother of the West ordered the hundred flowers to bloom in winter, the one that refused was not only the peony, but also the cactus. But why is the cactus not mentioned? It is said that this was because the cactus's beauty at that time was no less than the peony's, and everyone took her for a peony.
Therefore, the Queen Mother of the West exiled her to the desert to make her a plant unknown to anyone. So day after day the wind and sand eroded her beautiful face, and a thousand years of drought cracked her cream-like skin. Her only companions were wind and sand, and still more wind and sand. Day after day in the scorching sun she lost the beauty she once had. Having lost her delicate loveliness, she was completely transformed in that harsh environment. Her thick leaf pads grew covered with fine thorns. Those flowers returned to the immortal garden for certain reasons. Only the cactus, changed beyond recognition, remained in the desert, silently probing the cruel ways of the world.
Several thousand years passed, and the cactus finally had a chance to be reborn. This time, after reincarnating as a human, the cactus was born into a happy and complete family. But because of habits formed over several thousand years, she would always, intentionally or not, reveal some cactus traits in her life, such as tenacious vitality, cherishing every drop of water and nutrient, and always warily rejecting new things from outside. These were traits she had never changed since her reincarnation. Of course, her greatest traits were still her charming face and her kind heart. As the saying goes, it is easier to change rivers and mountains than to change one's nature!
Legend of the Cactus Three
Long ago, at the foot of Luofeng Mountain east of Yangshan City, there lived a rich landlord. This landlord had a daughter who was born with a beauty that could make fish sink and geese fall, and outshine the moon and shame flowers. Everyone who saw her loved her. At that time, there was a lecher. Although he was nearly sixty years old, he did not conduct himself with self-respect and loved to frequent brothels. Even though he already had one wife and ten concubines, because he had money in hand and was fond of the new and tired of the old, when he heard there was such a peerless beauty, he could not help drooling. So he sent people with silver to the foot of Luofeng Mountain to seek a marriage. That landlord, because he was greedy by nature and dazzled by money, was so blinded by riches that he ignored his own daughter's happiness and readily agreed. When the girl heard this, she refused no matter what. But with the command of parents and the words of a matchmaker, what could she do? "Of the thirty-six stratagems, running away is the best!" She fled her home that very night. The sky was vast, the earth was vast. Where could she hide? But she could not care about that anymore. She only knew to walk and walk, and finally she came to the Fengping Pass. She was hungry and tired, and truly could not walk any further. Then she noticed a thatched hut by the road, so she went up and knocked, planning to rest for a while and decide what to do when day broke.
The one who opened the door was a young man. By the light of the pine torch, the girl saw clearly that she knew this young man. He often came to her home to sell firewood. When the young man saw her, he thought, wasn't she the daughter of the landlord down the mountain? What was she doing here alone in the dead of night? The girl tearfully told the young man the reason and course of her flight, and the young man deeply sympathized with her plight. He lived alone, and there was only one bed in the thatched hut. What could he do? He gave the bed to the girl, while he gathered some straw, spread it on the ground, and slept there. Lying in the bed, the girl thought: where would she go after daybreak? This young man was so kind-hearted, why not entrust her whole life to him? The girl revealed her true feelings to the young man and expressed her wish. The young man had unexpectedly gained a wonderful prize, and a beautiful wife had flown to him out of nowhere. How could he not be happy? So with heaven as matchmaker and earth as guarantor, they bowed to heaven, bowed to earth, and bowed to each other, forming a union meant to last a hundred years.
One day, the young man came home with a face full of worry. His wife asked him what was troubling him. He said: "Your father knows you married me, so he makes all kinds of difficulties and resolutely refuses to buy my firewood. If the firewood cannot be sold, what will I use to buy rice?" His wife said: "Don't worry! When I ran away, I brought a golden bowl. Take it and exchange it for rice." The young man looked at the golden bowl his wife brought out and said: "There is one of these bowls in the deep mountains too." "Is that so?" "It is even bigger." "Quick, take me to see it." So the two went into the deep mountains. This place was where the young man often sharpened his knife, and that bowl was indeed bigger than a basin, shining brilliantly and dazzling to the eye. After the wife saw it, she was overjoyed and said: "With this divine bowl, we need not fear having no rice." At that moment, the golden bowl suddenly spoke: "I am a divine bowl. What do you want?" The husband and wife said together: "Food is the first necessity of the people. Having rice is enough." "Good! I will give you another bag of seeds as well. Plant them and you will surely have a good harvest." From then on, the young couple rose early and stayed up late, clearing wasteland and farming, raising pigs and chickens. Their days gradually improved, they built a new house, and around it they planted many fruit trees.
When the landlord at the foot of Luofeng Mountain heard that his son-in-law had a divine bowl, he wanted to go up the mountain to seize it. When he led his servants to Fengping Pass, a clear breeze suddenly blew and lifted the young couple onto the clouds, where they were received by immortals into the heavenly palace. Just as the landlord was astonished, a great wind arose, and that divine bowl actually turned into a huge hand that blotted out the sky and sun. In an instant it pressed the landlord and all the servants he had brought under a great stone, and they could never come out again. From that time on, on this great stone six or seven chi wide, over a zhang long, and more than a zhang high, there was left a handprint over a cun deep, with palm and fingers clearly distinct. Therefore, the common people called it "Immortal's Palm," and men of letters listed it among the "Ten Scenic Spots of Yangshan," naming it "Stone Palm Immortal Trace."