Say It With Flowers….Really!!

Almost everyone likes to get flowers, (women in particular) but until I wrote this article  I really didn’t think much about the type of flower or their meaning.  I like certain flowers and arrangements but I don’t know their names or reference.

They say the language of love is universal…but the real name for the language of love is called "floriography".  What is floriography? 

It is the "language of flowers".  In the Victorian-era it was a means of communication in which flowers and floral arrangements were used to send messages via codes.  People could say things (through the flowers)…that
they were unable to speak with words. 

This was actually a really good idea because during the Victorian era….baths weren’t as common as they are today (if you know what I mean….??
so it made things smell just a little better.

King Charles II brought the language of flowers to Sweden from Persia in the 17th Century.  Flowers have a language of their own with which a man can pronounce his love for a woman and where she can in turn answer with perfumed words. 

The rose tells a tale of romance while the basil or yellow rose displays feelings of unhappiness.  Ivy is the most  faithful of all. Having flowers symbolize something is an idea of many cultures.  However, American floral vocabulary was used mostly during the late 1800s and 1900s.  It was considered to be part
of every "proper" girl’s education.  Friends loved to get small bouquets in order to try to decipher the hidden meanings.  Similar to text messaging!!
The knowledge of floral language has waned but some basics are known by most people.  Red roses imply romance and passion, pink roses shows interest but not love, white roses suggest virtue and yellow roses is for friendship or devotion.

If you wanted to show respect you could send some sunflowers…. the iris (named after the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology) shows that a message is being sent….a pansy means you’re thinking about someone and the ivy represents fidelity.

So, a man could essentially send a woman a bouquet of iris to convey the attempt to send a message of which he might follow up with pink flowers meaning that he likes her.  When he knows her better he may send her some red roses to imply more serious and romantic emotions then finally he may send some ivy showing how devoted he is to her.

Cupid (the angel of love) dipped his arrows with flowers and the bridal crown is also made of flowers. There are so many occasions you would send or receive flowers it is precisely for that reason, girls in the 1800s were taught it’s meanings in school.  One thing can be said….manners were more prevalent then.  Men had to court her with flowers and good behavior. 

Hail to the days of  ‘yore….