For the last three years people have noticed a special kind of rainbow-colored roses being worn by some participants at the Reykjavik Pride Parade. They represent the rainbow community and can be bought at the flowershop Upplifun which is stationed in Harpa Concert Hall near the Reykjavik harbour. The owners of the shop, Árni Einarsson and Ómar Ellertsson stumbled upon these special roses in Holland three years ago and imminently thought of Reykjavik Pride.
“It was actually quite by accident that we found those roses,“ Árni explains. “We were visiting one of our florists in Holland when we saw them and we ordered twenty for the Reykjavik Pride that year, just to see how it would go. It went so well that last year we ordered 150 roses and this year we are selling 200 of them.”
But how are those roses made? “The florist cuts a furrow in the stems of the roses in four places and puts them in plant water of four different colours and when those colours unite in the bud the rainbow colours appear,” Árni says. “They are really beautiful.”
Árni says that the roses have caused quite a stir, especially among foreign tourists who are keen to have their photos taken in front of the arrangement in the shop. “They have never seen such roses before and think it’s extraordinary,“ he adds. “But the Icelanders have also received them very well, many hotels buy bouquets to display doing the Reykjavik Pride week, but mostly people buy just one or two, for themselves and their partner, and I have to say that the roses are no less beautiful on their own.”
Árni and Ómar have been running the Upplifun flowershop since 2013 and it has been a success, according to Árni. Ómar is a florist but Árni used to be a bookseller and true to form he has brought in books to sell at the store. “It’s mostly tourist books,” he admits. “By far the largest part of our clientele is foreign, so there are no books here in Icelandic.”
“… young queer people today are so much happier than we were. When I was young and coming out as gay the group of my friends split in the middle; those who accepted me as gay and those who didn’t. That does not happen anymore. Nobody cares if you are gay or straight and would not dream of abandoning their friends because of their sexual orientation.”
And no gay literature either? “No, not as such. But all the categories have faded in recent years, so there is hardly any distinction between gay books or ‘normal’ books anymore, just as in life itself. Being gay has become such an accepted thing in Iceland that one hardly even thinks in those terms longer.”
Is that a good thing or is it bad? “From my perspective it is good,” Árni says. “Mostly because young queer people today are so much happier than we were. When I was young and coming out as gay the group of my friends split in the middle; those who accepted me as gay and those who didn’t. That does not happen anymore. Nobody cares if you are gay or straight and would not dream of abandoning their friends because of their sexual orientation. So, yes, I think the ´norm core’ movement of the queer society has done a lot of good. Of course one has to respect and admire the fight that our pioneers had to fight and all the great things they accomplished for us, but on the whole it is my opinion that things are a lot better today.”
Back to the roses, are they only for sale during this week? “Yes, we started selling them on Thursday and they will be available until the last one is sold. It’s a limited stock, so people who want to celebrate Reykjavik Pride with a rainbow rose really have to get a move on.”