A whole, new parade of flowers comes into bloom as we sail into summer. Daisies, roses, peonies and other summertime favorites replace tulips, lilacs and cherry blossoms. This seasonal showcase provides the perfect opportunity to revisit the topic of floriography.
Floriography is the language of flowers. By assigning specific sentiments to various flowers, people exchange carefully selected flowers to communicate furtively. You may recall from my previous blog post, Say It With Spring Flowers, floriography was popular during the Victorian era and numerous books were published to explain the secret language. My favorite flower dictionary, titled Floral Emblems, was written by Henry Phillips in 1825. I appreciate Phillips’ explanations of why certain sentiments have been assigned to specific flowers.
Today’s blog post builds upon the springtime version of this story by adding a series of summer flowers and the sentiments they represent. I’ll kick off with an obvious choice―the rose!
Rose : Beauty
“This queen of flowers is considered the pride of Flora, and the emblem of beauty in every part of the globe.” states Phillips.
Roses are one of, if not the, most popular flowers. Part of the rose’s popularity is undoubtedly due to its promotion by the floral industry. The below 1927 advertisement from the Society of American Florists is a case in point.
Notice the big box of red roses, which according to the scenario described in the ad, our hero sent to his love interest after a lovers’ quarrel.
The advertisement features the tagline “Say it with Flowers” which some experts consider to be one of the top 20 advertising slogans of all time. As the story goes, back in 1917, a Boston adman was discussing possible slogans with the president of the Society of American Florists. When the president said “There is nothing that you can’t say with flowers – when you send flowers, it says everything”, the slogan was born.
The idea of using flowers to communicate specific messages was directly related to the Victorian practice of floriography. The “Say it with Flowers” campaign was launched for Mother’s Day in 1918 by the Florists’ Telegraph Delivery association. The slogan was used for over 50 years.
Day Lily : Coquetry
“This fragile beauty is made the emblem of coquetry, because its flowers seldom last a second day.” states Phillips. Coquetry, a word you don’t often hear these days, is defined as “a flirtatious act or attitude”.
Foxglove : Youth
The blooms of the foxglove are beautiful although the plant is known to be seriously toxic. Therefore, I find it a little unsettling to see it assigned the sentiment of “Youth”. Phillips explains it is “the light down which covers the stalks of this plant, [which] induced the poets to make it the emblem of youth.” If you examine the below photo carefully, you can see fine hairs of light down in the top few floral tubes.
Dahlia : Dignity and Elegance
The dahlia has a fascinating history. According to the 1870 book, Flowers: Their Language and Poetry, “the Dahlia is a native of Mexico, where Baron Humboldt found it growing in sandy meadows several hundred feet above the level of the sea. It ornamented the royal gardens of the Escurial, at Madrid, for several years before Spanish jealousy would permit it to be introduced into the other countries of Europe.
Count Lelieur having by some means obtained a root from the Dons, introduced it into France, where it soon attracted attention. From that time it engaged the notice of continental floriculturists, who propagated the plant so copiously, that at the general peace in 1814, English travellers were as much astonished by its profusion as they were delighted with its richness and brilliancy.”
Notably, this account doesn’t quite align with the detailed Timeline of Important Dates in Dahlia Cultivation and Hybridization as published on The Stanford Dahlia Project website. But it does, more or less, support Phillips’ explanation that “The first introduction of this Mexican flower marked the year when France became revolutionised; these plants were lost, until again introduced in the year that saw Napoleon made Emperor of the French nation”. As a result of the political turmoil that coincided with its presence, the dahlia was made the emblem of “Instability”.
It seems to me, the magnificent dahlia is getting short shrift with this association. I checked several other floriography references and found that, although most agreed with the “Instability” sentiment, a few assigned the more agreeable sentiment of “Dignity and Elegance”. I’m going to take poetic license to feature the latter sentiment.
Daisy : Innocence
In her 1842 book, The Lady’s Book of Flowers in Poetry, Lucy Hooper heaps praise on the merit of flowers. Hooper shares this eloquent description: “Flowers are types of our brightest hopes, they are emblems of joy, they have been even called ‘the alphabet of angels.’ And the harmony of their colors, the variety of their forms, the profusion with which they are scattered over every solitary place, make us consider them as fragrant gems of the earth, beautiful ministers of winged and spiritual thoughts”.
She provides this charming anecdote about the white daisy: “In the by-gone days of chivalry, when a lady wished to intimate to her lover that she was undecided whether she would accept his offer or not, she decorated her head with a frontlet of white daisies, which was understood to say, ‘I will think of it’.”
Phillips often quotes poetry to explain the sentiments assigned to a particular flower’s bloom. The daisy, for instance, is assigned the sentiment of “Innocence” as supported by the poem, The Daisy, by James Montgomery:
“There is a flower, a little flower
With silver crest and golden eye,
That welcomes every changing hour,
And weathers every sky.”
Yellow Iris : Passion of Love
The yellow iris is made to represent the “Passion of Love”. As best I can decipher, this association was formed in two steps. The first step is to visually compare the bloom of the yellow iris to the flame of a fire. The second step, as documented in the 1820 Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, suggests a flame can be defined as “passion of love”. The dictionary’s author, Samuel Johnson illustrates his word definitions “in their different significations by examples from the best writers”. In this case, he includes a few lines by Abraham Cowley who was considered one of the leading English poets of the 17th century.
“My heart’s on flame, and does like fire
To her aspire …
Come arm’d in flames, for I would prove
All the extremities of love.”
So, in this rather roundabout way, the yellow iris was assigned the sentiment of “Passion of Love”.
Iris : Message
Not all irises, however, are yellow. In fact, irises bloom in a rainbow of beautiful colors.
“This flower, which the poets have chosen as the emblem of the messenger of the gods, takes its name from the celestial bow, on account of its various colours” states Phillips.
He quotes a single line from the Latin epic poem Aeneid written by the Roman poet Virgil.
“The various iris, Juno sends with haste.”
Hydrangea : Boaster
Next up is one of my all-time favorite flowers―the hydrangea. Hydrangea shrubs typically hold their showy blooms for several months. The blooms, which are actually masses of flowers called flowerheads, are either shaped like mopheads or lacecaps.
Sadly for the hydrangea, it has been assigned the emblem of a “Boaster” or a “Braggart”. The reason, as Phillips explains, is “because its magnificent flowers are never succeeded by fruit, thus resembling the vaunting words of a braggadocio, which are not followed by suitable results”.
Personally, I can’t imagine any scenario where I would want to send someone hydrangeas to call them a boaster. But, this is where floriography gets even more interesting―and considerably more complex.
There are rules about flower placement and arrangement that help to communicate the full message of the floral emblems. As Phillips puts it “But to express ourselves more readily by floral emblems, it is necessary that we should lay down grammatical rules for the government of this silent language”.
“The first principle is to observe that the pronoun I, or me, is expressed by inclining the flower to the left, and the pronoun thou, or thee, by sloping it to the right … as the flower should lean to the heart of the person whom it is to signify.
The second rule is, that if a flower presented upright expresses a particular sentiment, when reversed it has a contrary meaning”.
So, let’s return to the question of possible scenarios for the hydrangea. If I understand it correctly, if I gave someone an upside down hydrangea bloom with the flower leaning towards the left, I would be sending the message that “I am not a boaster”. Hmmm… good to know!
Rosebud : I Fear, But I Hope
The grammar of floriography can become even more complicated. Phillips uses a rosebud to illustrate the point. “Thus, for example, a rose bud upright with its thorns and its leaves means, ‘I fear, but I hope”. If the recipient returns the rose bud, it must be examined carefully for any change in position or condition. “If the same bud is returned held downwards, it signifies, ‘you must neither hope nor fear’ but if the thorns be stripped off, it expresses, ‘there is everything to hope’; deprived of its leaves, it signifies, ‘there is everything to fear”.
Lavender : Mistrust
I’ve shared my admiration of lavender in previous blog posts including Stop and Smell the Lavender and Weaving Lavender. But, unfortunately, lavender’s beautiful fragrance has earned it the sentiment of “Mistrust”. It is “symbolical of mistrust and disunion, because it is frequently used to cover disagreeable odours” explains Phillips.
Lupine : Voraciousness
“The ancients named this plant Lupinus, from Lupus, a wolf, on account of its voracious nature” reports Phillips. That huge appetite, “is such, that it draws in all the nourishment of the soil to feed its own growth, and consequently, destroys other vegetation; but in doing so, it forms an excellent manure for poor and foul lands”. You can learn more about lupines in my previous blog post Lupines: Invasive Beauty or Next Big Thing?Presumably, lupines weren’t often given in Victorian times as it’s hard to imagine sending someone a message about voraciousness!
Magnolia : Dignity
On the other hand, sending someone a magnolia blossom to communicate the sentiment of “Dignity” seems more likely.
Magnolia grandiflora is a striking, evergreen tree native to the Southeastern United States. It is beloved for its large, white fragrant flowers which grow up to 12 inches in diameter.
Philips tells us “The grandeur of this flower is appropriate to the elevated station which it takes in the vegetable kingdom, for in its native soil it advances itself above the forest trees, displaying its dignity, and dispensing its fragrance throughout the woods”.
Peony : Bashfulness
The peony has been assigned the sentiment of “Bashfulness” or “Shame”. Phillips explains “The blushing petals of this flower are made symbolical of the countenance that is rouged with conscious shame. Impudence frequently takes delight in painting the cheeks of females, by talking in a way that modesty cannot answer”.
When you see a lovely, pink peony in full bloom, like the one show below, it’s not difficult to understand how the authors of floriography would have drawn a comparison between the peony’s petals and the rosy cheeks of a blushing maiden.
Poppy : Consolation
The poppy is used as the floral emblem of “Consolation”. The reason, as Phillips explains, is that “it procures ease and sleep to the restless invalid”. Obviously, that connection is due to the Papaver somniferum, a species of poppy, which is the source of the narcotic drug mixture opium.
Porter & Coates elaborate in their 1870 book Flowers: Their Language and Poetry, “The well-known somniferous qualities of the poppy are adduced as another reason why it should be deemed symbolic of consolation and of oblivion. That it, the producer of Nature’s sweet restorer, balmy sleep, should be chosen as the emblem of the alleviation of our troubles, does indeed appear just.”
Pictured below is the rare Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis baileyi) which I was incredibly lucky to see at the Memorial University Botanical Garden in St John’s, Newfoundland last summer.
Sunflower : Smile on Me Still
Last, but not least, is a crowd favorite―the sunflower! This is one of only a few flowers that is grown as a crop as well as an ornamental. Sunflowers have a variety of uses including vegetable oil production, food use and bird seed. They also serve as a cover crop and wildlife planting. Fields of blooming sunflowers are indeed an amazing sight (see my previous blog post In the Sunflower Field).
In the world of floriography, sunflowers are assigned a few, widely disparate sentiments―from “False Riches” to “Adoration” to “Haughtiness” to “Smile on Me Still”.
Phillips says “The sun-flower is made the emblem of false riches, because gold of itself, however abundant, cannot render a person rich who is poor in spirit.” Personally, I prefer the “Smile on Me Still” sentiment as offered by Miss Sarah C. Edgarton in her 1848 book, The Flower Vase; Containing the Language of Flowers and Their Poetic Sentiments.
More Info
Previous blog posts mentioned in today’s blog post include:
. Say It With Spring Flowers
. Stop and Smell the Lavender
. Weaving Lavender
. Lupines: Invasive Beauty or Next Big Thing?
. In the Sunflower Field.
The following books and articles were consulted in the writing of this blog post:
. Floral Emblems by Henry Phillips; published in 1825. The book is available here on Internet Archives.
. Creative Review article regarding “Say it with Flowers” slogan.
. Flowers: Their Language and Poetry published by Porter & Coates in 1870. The book is available here on Internet Archives.
. The Lady’s Book of Flowers in Poetry by Lucy Hooper; published in 1842. The book is available here on Internet Archives.
. Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson; published in 1820. The book is available here on Internet Archives.
. The Flower Vase; Containing the Language of Flowers and Their Poetic Sentiments by Miss Sarah C. Edgarton; published in 1848. The book is available here on Internet Archives.
. A Timeline of Important Dates in Dahlia Cultivation and Hybridization on The Stanford Dahlia Project.
Today’s Takeaways
1. “Flowers are types of our brightest hopes, they are emblems of joy, they have been even called ‘the alphabet of angels.” Lucy Hooper
2. Study floriography to understand the specific sentiments assigned to various flowers.
3. Consider incorporating the secret language of flowers into your next gift flowers.
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