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Language of flowers

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For the indie pop band, see Language of Flowers (band). For the song written by the composer Edward Elgar, see The Language of Flowers.

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Purple lilac symbolizes "first emotions of love" in the language of flowers.

The language of flowers, sometimes called floriography, was a Victorian-era means of communication in which various flowers and floral arrangements were used to send coded messages, allowing individuals to express feelings which otherwise could not be spoken. This language was most commonly communicated through tussie-mussies (small flower bouquets), an art which has a following today.[citation needed]

The nuances of the language are now mostly forgotten[clarification needed], but red roses still imply passionate, romantic love and pink roses a lesser affection; white roses suggest virtue and chastity and yellow roses still stand for friendship or devotion. Also commonly known meanings are sunflowers, which can indicate either haughtiness or respect[where?] – they were the favorite flower of St. Julie Billiart for this reason[citation needed].

Inevitably there are geographic variances.

History

The notion of plants having meanings is traditional, as seen for example in the play Hamlet, (circa 1600), Act 4, Scene V, in the passage beginning "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance, ...". The 19th century interest in a language of flowers began in 17th century Ottoman Turkey, specifically the court in Constantinople, connected with the tulips from the Netherlands (see tulip mania). This was then introduced to Europe by two people, Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762, English), who introduced it to England in 1717, and Aubry de La Mottraye (1674–1743), who introduced it to the Swedish court in 1727. This was then eventually popularized in various European countries – in France, it was popular about 1810–1850, via such books as Le Langage des Fleurs ("The Language of Flowers", 1819, Charlotte de Latour), while in Britain it was popular during the Victorian age (roughly 1820–1880), in the US about 1830–1850, and spread worldwide.

Symbolic meaning of flowers

See also

External links

  • The Flowers Personified by R. Martin, 1847.
  • History of the Language of Flowers, a chapter excerpt from the book Flowers, the Angels' Alphabet by Susan Loy, 2001.
  • Katherine L. Bryant (2008-03-10). "The Language of Flowers". Retrieved 2012-11-28. A list of flower languages of several books published in the 19th century.
  • Language of Flowers, a book by Kate Greenaway (1846–1901). A full scan via the Internet Archive.

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