Why is it that you must never take a bunch of red and white flowers to a hospital ?

I know its bad luck but why ?

Why is it that you must never take a bunch of red and white flowers to a hospital ?
When working as a staff nurse I worked with a sister who would not allow red and white flowers in a bouquet together. She said it was bad luck and that it invited death on to the ward. Apparently the red represents blood and the white bandages. Why this means death I haven't a clue. She was an excellent nurse though.
Reply:This is an urban myth.


There is no truth in it at all.


Just like mobile phones will blow up petrol stations.
Reply:its supposed to mean death.
Reply:In England there exists a strong aversion to having in hospitals bouquets in which red and white flowers have been mixed. Such a combination, it is said, will bring on the death of someone on the ward where the flowers are taken, but not necessarily the demise of the recipient of the cursed nosegay. Red flowers are usually considered lucky, their scarlet hue reminiscent of blood and thereby symbolizing life, so this is a departure from the expected — normally, scarlet or crimson blooms would be greeted with approval. However, the combination of red and white, it is said, signifies blood and bandages and is therefore to be shunned. We are told florists will balk at or even refuse to make up such bunches if they know they're intended for hospital patients and that some ward sisters will forbid such floral arrangements on their floors. "My mother, then a nurse, was told off by the ward matron in the Forties for putting a patient's red and white flowers in the same vase," said one British woman to the Daily Mail.





Flowers brought to a patient should never be laid upon the ailing person's bed. Also, it is said when the ill or injured person recovers enough to go home, he must leave all his sickroom bouquets and potted plants behind lest he himself be back there shortly.





However, the greatest superstition attaching to flowers and hospital wards has to do with the floral offerings' purported ill effects upon the air in enclosed spaces. It is widely and erroneously believed flowers (cut or growing in pots) will suck up the oxygen in a sickroom, thereby depriving the invalid of needed sustenance. Our earliest print sighting of this belief dates to 1923, but the belief itself is clearly older.





Flowers do not deplete wards of their life-giving oxygen. Quite the opposite, in fact: while plants do use oxygen at night, they give off ten times as much during the day, which means their presence enriches the air rather than impoverishes it. As for any residual misgivings about leaving a sick person overnight in a room with plants that are siphoning some of the oxygen from that space, consider this: in an hour, a pound of plant leaves uses about 0.1 liters of oxygen, whereas a 150-pound person resting quietly uses more than 71 litres of the gas.





Ergo, the nurse who enters the room a few times a night to check on the patient uses far more of that space's oxygen than does a whole floral array.





Here are some flower superstitions:





* In some places, it is thought bad luck to give someone an even number of flowers, because even numbers of flowers are reserved for the dead.


* Speaking of flowers for the dead, don't take flowers off a grave, or you might soon find yourself in one.


* If you pick a dandelion that's gone to seed and blow at it, the number of seeds still on the stem will be the number of children you'll have.


* If you pick a daisy and count out the petals as you remove them with "he loves me", "he loves me not", you'll find out how the boy you fancy really feels.


* If a girl picks a bunch of flowers, especially daisies, with her eyes closed, the number of flowers indicate how many years until her marriage.


* Some flowers, such as anemones are used as charms to ward off disease or ill fortune.


* Day lilies are believed to alleviate sorrow by causing the wearer to forget her troubles. Poppies have a similar effect.


* Don't pick foxgloves or you'll offend the fairies.


* It is considered unlucky to have real flowers on stage or to give an actress flowers before a show. Use artificial flowers on the set and wait until after a performance to give flowers to a performer.
Reply:Snopes has a good article about that and more. Apparently the superstition is that they basically suck the living spirit out of someone - particularly the white flowers.