When I think of the phrase "Say it with flowers" I recall the old cartoon where that florists' slogan hangs in a window smashed by a football, and the kids responsible have used assorted blooms to spell out the message "Sorry" on the pavement in front of the shop.

Hilarious!

In ice skating, saying it with flowers has become as much a part of the sport as a triple salchow or the "Kiss and Cry" area over the last 30 years. Fans at ice arenas around the world have shown their appreciation of performances in ice skating or ice dance by hurling all manner of stuff, including flowers, onto the field of play.

If this was football they would probably be arrested - although to be fair, bottles and coins are not among the objects which regularly land ice in the wake of skating programmes, no matter how badly they have been carried out.

No. What you get nowadays if you are a skater of any note is flowers and teddy bears, although other gifts thrown from the gallery have included money, sweets and women's underwear.

A bouquet of flowers lie on the ice, a tribute to a skating performance at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. But who's going to pick them up then? ©Getty Images

Back in the day, it used to be in vogue to hurl red roses onto the ice at your skater of choice. But concerns were raised that bits of stem or petal would remain on the surface and represent a potential slipping point for subsequent performers.

This health-and-safety nightmare was nullified by a ruling that, if you wanted to throw flowers at a man or woman with metal blades on the bottom of their boots, those flowers had to be in the form of a bouquet. That is, wrapped in cellophane or similar. It was the "safe sex" imperative for floral tributes.

I recall watching Katerina Witt provoke a cascade of bouquets after her performance at the Hamar Ice Rink during the 1994 Winter Olympics Games in Norway. The German phenomenon, who was reported to have received 35,000 love letters after winning Olympic gold in 1988, was making a comeback which involved the latest in a long line of eye-catching costumes and oodles of poise and prowess.

Witt discovered however - as did Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean at those same Lillehammer Games - that the event moves on technically in a way that makes it hard even for the most accomplished of Olympic champions to return to the heights of the sport.

The charismatic German skater had to settle for seventh place in the Hamar Arena – but she got a gold-medal number of bouquets flung onto the ice around her, even if none of the offerings appeared to match her most valuable previous thrown gift of a Rolex watch (suitably wrapped, one trusts).


Katarina Witt of Germany completing her free skate at the 1994 Winter Olympics. Before long, she was bombarded with bouquets ©AFP/Getty Images

While flowers remain a standard item of appreciation, in recent years, the teddy bear has found its own place on the ice.

Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan, who took the individual silver medal at the Sochi 2014 Games, revealed recently that he had received around 1,200 of these little furry tributes in the space of six years.

Unfortunately, as several skaters have discovered, attempting to donate all these cuddly little bears to children's charities or hospitals is not practical, as the charities and wards insist that such donations have first to be dry-cleaned, and in some cases packaged.

Chan's house, like those of numerous fellow skaters, has thus become a somewhat curious sanctuary for legions of small furry bears. He keeps most of his in the garage.

Canada's Patrick Chan, pictured training in Sochi before taking the individual Olympic silver medal this year, has no problems with skating. But he does have a problem with teddy bears ©Getty Images

There is another constant element involved here. Let's consider. The fan picks up the bouquet or bear, throws it onto the ice. The skater takes them home, puts the flowers in water, phones the local children's hospital about the bears and then puts them in his or her garage.

And making this whole curious chain of events possible is the Flower Retriever.

Earlier this month Skate Canada held flower retriever auditions for local children who wanted to be a part of the Skate Canada International that will take place in Kelowna, British Columbia from October 30 until November 2.

When it comes to such auditions, many are called and few are chosen. Of the 24 children aged nine to 13 who turned up, 12 were judged suitably skilled in the tricky business of clearing the ice of teddy bears, candy bars and similar (the audition presumably didn't test them on women's underwear) with complete efficiency so that other volunteers can fill up jamboree bagsfull of adoration to present to the skaters after they leave the kiss-and-cry area.

What's in it for the kids, you ask? Well, they're part of an exciting atmosphere, they are playing a small but vital part in the success of their given event and - who knows, maybe one day it will help them to become the person at whom the teddies and flowers are directed, rather than the person charged with scooping them all up.

Red roses. They used to be the tribute of choice for the ice skating fan - but now they are viewed as a health and safety nightmare ©Getty Images

As was the case with Nam Gguyen.

In January 2011, at the age of just 12, this son of Vietnamese immigrants earned the distinction of becoming the youngest junior men's champion in Canadian figure skating history, defeating opponents ranging in age from 16 to 19.

Cuddly toys had figured early in this young skater's career - at the age of eight, after winning his first national title in the novice class, Nguyen clutched a teddy bear to him after his victory.

And a year before his junior win, he had been inspired by his experience at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics - where he was a flower gatherer who graduated to a performer during the concluding Olympic drama.

Earlier this year, Nguyen became world junior champion. So the children who will scan the ice in Kelowna later this month can all dream that one day the jamboree bag of adoration might be coming their way...

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £8.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.