But critics say the cut-flower ban will wilt patients' spirits.

Flower power is being zapped at a number of hospitals in the Kansai area because of concerns about bacteria in the plants' water that could cause infections.

The ban on cut flowers is not going down well with patients or experts on healing.

Jiro Miura is one patient who doesn't see the point.

``The last time I was hospitalized, I tried to take my mind off my problem by talking to the roses,'' said the 69-year-old Miura, who had surgery late last year. ``The flowers are an expression of kindness. It's lonely without the flowers, even if the ban is for hygiene purposes.''

Meanwhile, some experts say flowers provide color and comfort for patients trapped in their hospital rooms for extended periods. The psychological lift from the flowers can play a role in helping patients recover, they say.

Others question whether hospitals have the right to deny visitors the chance to demonstrate their goodwill toward friends and family in hospitals.

At Takatsuki Red Cross Hospital in Osaka Prefecture, cut flowers have been banned since September 2002.

The ban there stems from a nurse's inquiry about the ability of bedridden patients to look after the flowers, especially if the patients had few visitors.

If the patients were unlikely to replace the water in the flower vases, and with warm temperatures in the hospital rooms, the water could become an incubator for bacteria, she reasoned.

A hospital team designed to tackle infectious diseases began an investigation of flower-vase water.

The team, headed by Tadashi Hatayama, the head of the urology department, found the bacteria pseudomonas aeruginosa present even in water that had been replaced the day before.

The bacteria can lead to blood poisoning in people with weakened immune systems.

Based on the study, Takatsuki Red Cross Hospital banned cut flowers for its patients. The sale of flowers at the convenience store in the hospital was also halted. A pamphlet distributed to patients since last September also declares the ban. Signs, posted since February in wards, also announce the ban.

However, a number of patients began complaining about the ban and the hospital was unable to completely enforce it.

The hospital then introduced a new policy of having flowers temporarily held at the nurse staff room. The flowers are returned to visitors when they leave the hospital.

Hatayama said the hospital had no choice but to implement the ban.

``If we ignored the problem knowing it was dangerous, we could not claim to have fulfilled our responsibility as a hospital,'' he said.

There are a number of other hospitals taking similar measures, especially among larger hospitals that handle many patients in serious conditions.

The Osaka Police Hospital banned all cut flowers last April and has also removed vending machines selling flowers.

``When we spot flowers, we rush to the person and ask that they not bring them into the hospital,'' said Mitsuko Kawakami, head of the nursing department.

The Sakai Municipal Hospital also included the flower ban in its pamphlet distributed to patients starting in April 2002.

At the Osaka University Hospital, flowers have been banned since December 2003 in the obstetrics and gynecology department ward. Hospital officials are now considering expanding the ban to cover the entire hospital.

Some hospitals are taking a completely different approach.

St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo's Chuo Ward continues to sell cut flowers at the hospital shop.

``We have no plans of banning flowers since there has been no clear causal link established between the flowers and infection,'' a hospital official said.

The Kyoto University Hospital has instituted only a partial ban on cut flowers: in the pediatrics wards and hematology departments.

Hospital official Sumio Hisamoto said: ``There are both advantages and disadvantages to flowers. There should be no problem with patients who are hospitalized for broken bones.''

Officials with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare are not planning to instruct medical institutions to institute bans because there have yet to be any reports of infections caused by flowers brought by visitors to the hospital.

Keita Morikane, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, said hospitalized patients with weakened immune systems were especially susceptible to bacterial infections.

``However, flowers also have the effect of healing the soul through their color and odor,'' Morikane said. ``Since it is thought that the soul is one cause of disease, comforting the soul can lead to recovery from an illness. What measures a hospital implements will be determined by how it views the merits and demerits of flowers.''

So why don't visitors just bypass the ban by bringing potted flowers?

It just isn't done in Japan. There's a taboo against potted plants for patients because the roots symbolize a long hospital stay.(IHT/Asahi: March 10,2005)