The complex form of the blue passionflower (Passiflora caerulea)
The complex form of the blue passionflower (Passiflora caerulea)
In 1890, in the early morning in a fashionable London suburb, a courier has just knocked, left something, then quickly departed. A young woman answers the door, but finds nobody there. She looks down to the doorstep and retrieves a small floral bouquet. She brings it to her face, smiling broadly while appreciating the scent of sweet violets, carnations, and daffodils. What could they mean? The woman’s expression becomes concerned. Is the bouquet a message from her best friend, the sister of a handsome young man not well liked by her overly protective parents? Is her friend acting as a go-between helping to arrange a secret rendezvous with the young man later that evening? All these things, and more, are written into the bouquet, in a formalized and secretive language of the flowers, if she can only deduce their true meaning. She brings the flowers to her room and consults her treasured book by the Reverend Hilderic Friend (1852–1940), Flowers and Flower Lore (1884). Let’s see—violets were included, so that could mean modesty, virtue, or possibly affection by her admirer.
Historically, flowers have been admired and used decoratively, adding their scents and beauty to our lives. But nineteenth-century women, especially those living in France and England, were caught up in a formalized culture of flowers, often painting elaborate floral scenes. Some claimed that the symbolic meanings given to flowers were an unstated universal language to be studied and used. This diversion originated in Asia and was introduced to England, France, and other countries via the published letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) of England. Her ladyship was a personal friend and confidant of the satirical poet Alexander Pope, with whom she corresponded from Turkey from 1716 to 1718. She told of a mysterious language among the people of Istanbul utilizing flowers that was about gallantry and courtly love.
A “Turkish love letter” required no ink or paper. It consisted of a small purse containing several objects. Each represented a different word or phrase, so the purse might contain a pearl mixed with cloves, a tulip, a piece of soap, coal, and a straw.
Articles, pamphlets, and entire books on the symbolic language of flowers first appeared in Paris and other French cities around the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–15). In literature, a prominent culture of flowers included elaborate flower poetry, such as love poems written by Charles-Louis Mollevant in 1844. He considered flowers to be charming couriers, le courrier charmant, used by shy young ladies, a way for them to secretly communicate with friends or lovers, thereby evading detection by their inquisitive parents.
The most important event that codified the language of flowers was the publication of a Parisian book in 1819 by Madame Charlotte de Latour, a pseudonym. Most scholars agree that the author’s real name was Louise Cortambert (1775–1853), the wife of geographer Eugène Cortambert. The Latour book, Le Langage des fleurs, listed flowers by their seasons, and meanings that single blooms or a mixed bouquet would convey between friends or lovers. For example, orange-colored flowers signified hope, while marigolds indicated despair, sunflowers represented constancy, and roses indicated beauty. A rosebud whose stem had its thorns and leaves intact signified “I fear, but I am in hope.” A rose with its thorns removed might convey the idea of “love at first sight.” Certainly, this was a complex and nonintuitive way to communicate one’s feelings.
Latour’s book was extremely popular in France and other European countries, yet regarded as somewhat risqué, perhaps because flower-messaging could be used to facilitate romantic encounters. Nevertheless, her readership was broad, and the book was reprinted many times. Other writers during this period were also infatuated with the idea of communicating symbolically using flowers. In his Le Nouveau Langage des fleurs (of 1898), Sirius de Massilie combined an examination of floral colors and their scents to produce a catalog of floral meanings. In his classification, white flowers conveyed purity, orange-colored blooms signified virginity, red flowers meant ardent love, green flowers expressed hope, yellow ones meant marriage, and violets were appropriate for widows. Roses of various hues had around twenty-one different meanings.
Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard (1803–47) was a famous Parisian cartoonist usually writing under the pseudonym J. J. Grandville. His greatest work, Les Fleurs Animées (1847), is an imaginative and delightful mix of satirical and poetic verses accompanied by colorful illustrations of flowers that morph into human beings. The careers and personalities of women, as anthropomorphized flowers, are indicated by the colorful flowers they wear as hats, dresses, or ornaments. In one, “Chardon,” we see a woman as a prickly thistle standing her ground while confronted by a donkey in formal attire.
The Flowers Personified: antiquarian image of a thistle flower by Parisian cartoonist J. J. Grandville from his Les Fleurs Animées (1847)
The Latour language-of-flowers book finally hit American shores in 1834, in New York City, under the title The Language of Flowers, or Alphabet of Floral Emblems. Additional books on the subject by Albert Jacquemart (1808–75) and many others followed soon after, and each had its own devoted following of readers and admirers. The introduction of inexpensive color printing (lithography) in popular books of this period helped promote and spread information about flowers, and how they could be used for covert communication.
The symbolic meanings of flowers in different cultures have not remained consistent throughout history. We don’t find inviolate or universal meanings, as suggested in the 1800s through the many editions of Latour’s book. Today, similar highly popular books and short accounts of floral symbolism and hidden meanings are still being published in France, England, and the United States.
Although the historical symbolic meanings of many different flowers have simply been lost or changed, a few have remained intact to this day, as follows:
Aster (Aster). Thought to represent daintiness and love.
Azalea (Rhododendron). Said to symbolize temperance, passion, and womanhood (in China), along with fragility and taking care of oneself.
Baby’s breath (Gypsophila). Reputed to indicate purity of heart, innocence (they’re white), and Christian religious ideas, including the breath of the Holy Spirit.
Begonia (Begonia). Believed to indicate a fanciful nature, or a cautionary note, telling someone to beware.
Calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica). Said to represent magnificent beauty. Certainly, they were symbols in paintings by artists such as Diego Rivera and Georgia O’Keeffe.
Camellia (Camellia). Suggests admiration, perfection, are a gift meant to bring good luck to a man, and also represent gratitude and noble reasoning.
Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus). Said to represent fascination, impulsiveness, capriciousness, joy, devoted love, along with disdain or refusal (if white carnations are used). Green carnations were sometimes worn by homosexual males.
Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum). Especially in China, they denote abundance, cheerfulness, a hope for wealth, optimism, truth (white mums), hope, rest, and friendship, and lasting love (red mums).
Gardenia (Gardenia). Suggested to mean secret love, purity, and refinement.
Iris (Iris). These usually purple and yellow-throated blooms indicate faith, wisdom, cherished friendships, hope, valor, promise in love, wisdom. That’s a lot to ask of one flower.
Lilac (Sryinga vulgaris). Indicates beauty, pride, youthful innocence, and youthfulness itself.
Marigold (Tagetes). Symbolizes grief, despair, and sorrow.
Orchids (Cattleya, Cymbidium, Laelia, etc.). Said to inspire love, beauty, refinement, having many children, thoughtfulness, and maturity.
Rose (Rosa). Symbolizes many things, but love is usually mentioned above all other connotations. Roses are also used to indicate remembrance, passion (red roses), purity (white roses), happiness (pink roses), infidelity (yellow roses), and unconscious beauty. I wonder what green and blue roses are telling us.
Tulip (Tulipa). Represents fame and perfect love. Red tulips mean “believe me” and are a declaration of love; variegated tulips mean “you have beautiful eyes”; and yellow tulips, “there is sunshine in your smile.” Cream-colored tulips say “I’ll love you forever.”
Violet (Viola odorata). Indicates modesty, but for some, a blue violet means “I’ll always be true.” A white violet means “let’s take a chance on happiness.”
Zinnia (Zinnia). Meant to symbolize thoughts of absent friends, long-lasting affection, constancy, goodness, and daily remembrances of loved ones.
We can agree that the nineteenth-century’s largely European language of flowers, no matter how charming, is almost defunct. In times past, though, presentations of flowers as wreaths, garlands, and chaplets had far more lasting and significant meanings.
In Greek and Roman times, laurel wreaths were given to champion athletes, including winning gladiators in Rome’s Colosseum, or to political leaders and victorious army generals. Floral garlands on religious statues were widely used to honor Roman deities. We’ve discussed the floral garlanding of animals, statues, and altars as part of Hindu and other religious ceremonies. In ancient Rome, garlands of roses were worn by banquet guests, floors were littered with roses, and they were often dribbled down from balconies, by servants or slaves, onto guests at banquets and other festive occasions. Real or painted roses on the ceilings of meeting rooms were reminders for participants to speak the truth. This is the origin of the term sub rosa, “under the rose,” to speak in confidence and secretly.
The ancient Olympic games were first celebrated in 776 BC, and for a millennium thereafter, in Olympia, Greece. These competitions had but one winner, the Olympionic. A judge placed a palm leaf in the winner’s hands while as many as forty-five thousand spectators cheered and threw flowers. An olive branch, the victory crown, was also placed on the head of the winner, who was given special status and advantages for the rest of his life in his home city or town. In Simonides’s ode to Astylos of Croton, a fifth-century Greek Olympic athlete, the poet proclaimed, “Who of men today has been adorned with so many petals and myrtles and crowns of rose thanks to his victory in the Games?”
In today’s winter and summer Olympics, we follow similar ancient traditions when medalists, or women’s Wimbledon winners, are given a bouquet of roses, along with a medal on a colorful neck ribbon, for their victories.
Today, all over the world, we use flowers as measures of recognition and tribute to worthy individuals. We present bouquets of various kinds of flowers, wreaths, or garlands as greetings to visitors (e.g., leis of fragrant Plumeria blooms to tourists upon disembarking by airplane in the Hawaiian Islands), and as tributes to musicians, actors, singers, other entertainers, and to visiting dignitaries and politicians at many public events. The most commonly used tributes or rewards for musical, theatrical, or athletic performances are bouquets of long-stemmed, red roses.
Among the world’s scientific, literary, and peacekeeping elite are the Nobel laureates. Each year about seventeen thousand carnations, chrysanthemums, tulips, and roses, along with apples and evergreen plants, are transported to Stockholm, Sweden, from the Italian city of San Remo, where Alfred Nobel (the prize’s founder) died on December 10, 1896. These magnificent floral displays decorate the Blue Hall of the Stockholm City Concert Hall, where the Nobel Peace Prizes are awarded each December 10.
Corsages worn on wrists or pinned to the bodice of a gown, along with boutonnieres for men’s lapels or buttonholes, are another form of signaling between humans. These floral emblems also denote social rank, status, and roles at various events and ceremonies.
The word corsage is confusing and misunderstood. It actually refers to the bodice portion of a dress, two halves laced together over the chest. The word comes from the term bouquet de corsage or bouquet de bodice and refers to a bouquet of flowers, a flower bud, or bow worn on the corsage between the breasts. Today, the word means a grouping of flowers worn on the breast, waist, or wrist.
Boutonnière is the French word for “buttonhole” and also refers to the decorative flower placed in the buttonhole of a man’s suit coat or tuxedo. The term and practice originated in the 1700s in France and England. The boutonniere was devised to ward off diseases, possibly evil spirits and ameliorate bad body odors. Men of the period often wore a boutonniere blossom daily. Over the years, men’s boutonnieres became reserved for formal and special events including weddings and proms. Today, they are used simply to tie together the look of a couple or to accent a man’s formal ensemble.
Corsages and boutonnieres are especially common at dances, weddings, and funerals in Europe and the United States. Corsages are a small floral arrangement, or single flower, attached to a pin, and the corsage is typically worn on the left side of the chest. Nowadays, this type of corsage is less popular with women since it may interfere with the style of their gown or weigh down a strapless dress. The boutonniere is more popular with men and usually pinned to the left lapel of a sports jacket or formal suit coat. The flowers of choice for urban, male boutonnieres are white or red carnations. The carnation had one rural competitor. Americans know this flower as the bachelor’s button, but the British and Germans know it as the bluebottle or the cornflower (Centaurea cyanus). If a country boy wore one, it meant that he was madly in love. However, if the flower faded too quickly, it was an omen that the object of his desire did not truly care for him.
In present times, speakers at conferences, judges, or officials at various events and meetings often wear corsages or boutonnieres as symbols of their authority, stature, or functionary role. Similarly, speakers or officials at conferences wear corsages or colorful ribbons setting them apart yet inviting recognition and interactions with other attendees.
Since antiquity, flowers have been given by individuals to family members, friends, or lovers as cherished gifts. Pronounced cultural differences exist for the flowers used and which ones might offend the recipient. For example, it is inappropriate to give white flowers as a gift in modern China since they are mostly used at funerals.
Nonetheless, flowers are one of the safest bets for a gift that will be appreciated. This is true for almost every culture (except those of the Islamic faith, where flowers are not given as romantic gifts between men and women). Rites of passage (birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, retirement parties, weddings, funerals, and various religious ceremonies) are all good opportunities to give flowers. For business travelers and corporate gift-giving, flowers are often a preferred and appreciated gift.
Flower gifting is prominent in China (especially to teachers). Peonies are the most popular flowers to give, along with chrysanthemums, and are often given at wedding ceremonies. Roses, lilies, and carnations are the most widely used blooms for funerals and expressing sympathy. These tightly compressed blooms express cycles of birth, life, death, and rebirth. Red is a lucky color for the Chinese, and they often give red blooms. In Russia, a single flower or a bouquet of flowers is often given as a birthday gift. Russians like to give flowers in odd numbers for joyful occasions. They give yellow flowers only to people who are sick or at funerals to express sympathy. On Women’s Day in Russia, red roses are given, along with spring flowers such as tulips, hyacinths, and goldenrod.
European countries have a strong culture of flower giving, especially England, France, Germany, and Switzerland. In England, guests visiting someone’s home often bring flowers, but not white lilies, for they signify death. As in the United States, red roses are typically reserved for romantic gifts. Germans consider red roses a bit too sentimental, or only for romance. Giving carnations, chrysanthemums, or lilies should be avoided because these symbolize mourning. France has similar traditions. In Europe, giving odd numbers of flowers seems to be an old tradition still in practice today. Giving thirteen flowers, however, is avoided, as this is considered unlucky. In Mexico, Colombia, Italy, and other countries where All Saints’ Day is celebrated, marigolds are used, but not given as gifts because they symbolize death and mourning.
Giving flowers in Africa has become especially popular in recent decades in larger cities and in Kenya and South Africa. The flowers given not only include roses and other perennial favorites, but hardy natives including proteas from the areas supporting flowers of the Cape region of southernmost Africa. Flowers, including the king protea (Protea cynaroides), are exchanged extensively during the Christmas holidays in South Africa. In Egypt, flower giving is mostly confined to weddings and funerals. And Muslims typically do not give flowers, especially among the most devoutly traditional sects, such as the Sunni.
In America, flower giving happens for almost any reason and for most of the ceremonies and occasions noted above. Poinsettias and Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera) are commonly given at Christmas, Madonna lilies at Easter, and roses and mixed bouquets for many other occasions.
What happens in countries in the southern hemisphere where the seasons are reversed? In Australia, Valentine’s Day is held in the dead of summer, but roses remain the appropriate bouquet. However, May is an autumn month in the southern hemisphere, so Mother’s Day means white chrysanthemums. When Australians celebrate their Remembrance Day and Anzac Day, out come the plastic, red poppies.
Poppies appear on lapels, which may also be adorned with sprigs of the herb rosemary after Shakespeare’s famous line “rosemary for remembrance.” John McCrae penned the famous poem “In Flanders Fields” based on his observation that the red corn poppies (Papaver rhoeas) had colonized war graves. By about 1920, essentially all English-speaking countries had adopted this flower to celebrate Veterans Day to remember those fallen in war. This flower had a completely different meaning in Greco-Roman art. Brilliant red corn poppies invade fields of wheat and barley and were associated with the spring return of Persephone to her mother, the grain goddess, Demeter. The recent use of this poppy to honor war dead has now displaced the ancient and long-held belief that the flower heralded the resurrection of a goddess from the land of the dead.
Can a lowly flower come to represent an entire country, or state? Yes, it can, and the association is old and has its roots in royalty and in many heraldic coats of arms across numerous countries and lands.
Sovereign nations have often selected a particular flower to represent them based on a rich folklore or religious beliefs coupled with the heraldry of old ruling families. The national flower of Malaysia is the bunga raya, the Chinese hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis), while the lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) is the national flower of India, and the fleur-de-lis emblem, derived from the iris, represents France. German-speaking peoples adopted the lowly cornflower or bachelor’s button. Queen Louise of Prussia (1776–1810) fled Berlin with her children to escape Napoléon’s army. She hid them in a field of blue cornflowers and kept them from crying by weaving garlands of the blossoms. A century later the cornflower became a favorite of Kaiser Wilhelm, and the cornflower has never quite lost its reputation as a flower of the First World War.
A flower meant to represent an entire nation can present a problem. Its roots suck up a lot of unpleasant history about royal prejudices, religious biases, and military adventures. Perhaps that’s one reason America took so long to select a national flower. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation to make the rose (any rose would do) the floral emblem of the United States. The push for a national flower began decades earlier thanks to Republican senator Everett Dirksen (1896–1969), who favored the marigold that originated in Mexico. By the time Reagan signed the flower bill into law, our national flower became the Peace rose, not one of our many native, wild species. The Peace rose is a European hybrid! Think about it. A “frenchified” garden pleaser became our national flower two hundred years after we adopted the bald eagle as our national bird. No wonder literary critic Lewis Mumford once remarked, “Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf.”
The search for a flower to represent each American state started in the 1890s, but there has never been much concern for our resplendent and diverse native flora or botanical accuracy. Maine made the cone of the white pine (Pinus strobus) its state flower in 1895, but a pinecone isn’t a flower. Vermont, possibly in deference to its dairy industry, voted for the red clover (Trifolium pratense) in 1894, with its nutritious leaves and flowers for cows. Alaska waited until 2004 to legitimize the common forget-me-not (Myosotis alpestris).
Some US states have been a bit schizophrenic about whether to choose native wildflowers or imported but popular garden flowers from faraway lands. Alabama has been represented by the Asian camellia (Camellia japonica) since 1959 before promoting their native oak-leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) to state wildflower in 1999. Sometimes the logic runs backward. Tennessee stuck with its native flora and voted for the maypop (Passiflora incarnata), one of the few passionflowers native to temperate America, in 1919, but then brought in garden irises in 1933. Things are even worse in Pennsylvania. Its citizens voted for the lovely mountain laurel in 1933, but then added the Eurasian crown vetch (Securigera varia) as their conservation flower in 1982, since it prevents soil erosion. Today in the state it is regarded as an invasive weed.
My home state of Arizona, which moved from territory to statehood in 1912, chose in 1931 to make the former territorial flower, the creamy-white flower of the spiny, columnar cactus the saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea), its state bloom. I like that choice. If you are curious about your own state, my website gives a listing of all the state flowers in the United States.
One state flower rises above its role in a popularity contest. The great state of Texas wisely chose the bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis), a spiked, brilliant blue legume known as a lupine, for its state flower in 1901. During the spring, it can cover thousands of acres across the hill counties, especially around Austin, beautifying the landscapes around the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
The irrepressible, dynamic former first lady “Lady Bird” Johnson (1912–2007) popularized this little Texas plant. She used it as a wonderful example of how to beautify America during the presidency (1963–69) of her husband, Lyndon Johnson. She believed that American highways and roads deserved the ornamentation, colors, and beauty of native wildflowers, not ugly billboards. The choice of bluebonnets to seed the roadsides of new and upgraded highways was brilliant. The flowers grow close to the ground and don’t impair a driver’s roadside vision; prefer fast drainage, luxuriating in gravel and broken stones by the side of the road; and don’t need fertilizer. Bluebonnets also provide nectar and pollen for many bees while their leaves are food for caterpillars of hairstreak butterflies. This wildflower requires little care as it’s a winter annual, sprouting and greening the landscape during wet, cold months, then flowering, seeding, and dying in spring. Texas is one of the few states that actively seeds its highways with its state flower, along with other native Texas blooms.
From the mysterious florigraphic bouquet left on a doorstep in nineteenth-century London to an online order of red roses for delivery to one’s wife or husband, flowers continue to be silent yet potent couriers delivering our feelings and cultural traditions to one another. In the next two chapters, we explore the meanings of flowers in various forms of artistic expression, from Shakespeare to the lavish still-life paintings of Dutch masters to the postmodern art world, exemplified in works by O’Keeffe and Warhol. Flowers live not only in gardens and roadsides and the wild, but in our imaginations in literature and art as well.
