The Victorian era was awash with illicit glances, unspoken longing, and repressed emotion. Yet few periods have birthed the kind of artistry it saw. Nowhere was this more evident than the literary world: the scandalous tales of Byron faded into the distance, making way for the rhythmic verse and potent imagery of Tennyson. Another artistic revolution was imminent – modern floristry was taking its first, tentative steps, with the emergence of tussie-mussies, nosegay bouquets, and more.

Floriography: The Language of Flowers in the Victorian Era Floriography: The Language of Flowers in the Victorian Era

Although the secret Turkish harem language of sélam’ is not exactly like the language of flowers today, it did give repopularize to the idea of saying something with flowers rather than words. John Singer Sargent included flowers in many works during the same era, including Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. The works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti also featured flowers, such as Sancta Lilias and Monna Pomona . Floriography Today When you want to let a friend know you’re thinking of them, yellow roses are a great choice. They stand for friendship, happiness, and joy, as well as restarting old friendships. Add in some white roses , which say how grateful you are for your friendship. These charming and compact flower books were a cross between an almanac about plants and flowers, a dictionary of flowers and their associated meaning, floral poetry, prose, fables and natural history. They were coffee table-worthy and usually very compact so that they could be carried around. Here, a tradition known as selam started as a game in which Constantinople’s harem workers attached meanings and rhymes to flowers. It was a great way to communicate without the need for the written word, especially since many could not read or write at the time.One of the earliest English books to be be published about the language of flowers was 1825 ‘Floral Emblems, or A Guide to the language of flowers’ by British botanist, horticultural writer and gardener Henry Phillips. Phillips drew on classical literature, Shakespearian associations, earlier French floriographies and his own imagination to give meanings to different breeds and colours of flowers. Many other writers followed him, and the list of supposed meanings grew over the century. Different writers gave plants different meanings, so for instance the rose represents beauty, but according to different writers a white rose can either represent innocence, silence, a Holy death or that someone was worthy of another person. Jean-Michel Othoniel: The Secret Language of Flowers: Notes on the Hidden Meanings of the Louvre’s Flowers (BEAUX LIVRES) Pink flowers send a message of affection, sweetness, and warmth. They’re a great choice to indicate friendship, love, and gratitude. In Thailand, pink is associated with trust, while in China, pink flowers are associated with good fortune. Blue From passion and purity to love, jealousy and death, plants and flowers have their own special meaning and symbolism, which can also be influenced by their colour.

The Language of Flowers | English Heritage

Several orange flowers are associated with wishes of prosperity. These are great choices to add to a congratulations bouquet and include tiger lilies and alstroemeria. A question that remains is whether this was something that most everyone understood or was a secret language among only a definable group. Certainly, this is a Anglo-centric perspective but there are definite analogs in Europe and North America. Can anyone enlighten me further? The flowers also functioned as a type of deodorant, masking the unpleasant odours of life and body. From the flower references in the Christian bible to the teachings of Buddha, Chinese medicine to Japanese folklore, flowers have long held special meaning across cultures and time. But the practice of using flowers to send coded messages really took off during the 1600s in the Ottoman Empire.With thanks to my supervisor, Dr Ana Parejo Vadillo, who introduced me to floriographyand the language of flowers.