Flabebe have been prized and reviled by gardeners, for although the flowers they choose grow far larger than their neighbors, they are extremely reluctant to part with them. Although Flabebe are most often found in fields of wildflowers, they do not distinguish them from domestic flowers, and will gladly drift into a garden and take any live flower as a host. With the aid of a Flabebe, a flower can grow to a towering size, and this is often considered both a sign of beauty and good fortune. Although Flabebe will occasionally move the flower around the garden, they have the mysterious ability to do so without killing the plant, and are considerate enough not to leave the local flowerbed and stray onto neighbors' property.
However, Flabebe view the flowers they perch on as a part of their body, and will stubbornly fight any efforts to harvest them for sale or to make perfume. Flabebe are extremely small pokemon, and are not difficult for even the weakest humans to overpower, but many allege this victory comes at a price. One who detaches a Flabebe will not only make the pokemon weep and drift onto another distant flower, but their financial windfall from the flower sale is said to be matched by the misery of this pokemon's curse; the larger the flower, the more their gardens will lie fallow.
Some horticulturists today attempt to remove the Flabebe, despite the risk of ill fortune; they consider tales of Flabebe curses to be little more than superstition, and are enchanted instead by the vast profits which a single Flabebe flower offers. Yet even in these scientific times, old warnings are often heeded, and only the skeptical, the desperate, and the extremely greedy are willing to take the risk of sparking these fairies' wrath.