This Year, Say It With Flowers
Feb 8th, 2016 by bachmann
For centuries, giving flowers or bouquets has always been a common way to convey sentiments, such as love, celebration, sorrow, etc. This practice seems to be universal and can be found in traditional cultures throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The application of this practice is often called floriography, where a particular meaning has been assigned to specific flowers. The interest in the language of flowers really took off during the Victorian Era, where gifts of bouquets or arrangements were often sent as coded messages to the receiving party. With the repressive and restrictive nature of etiquette in Victorian society, flowers offered a way to express feelings that could not and should not be uttered aloud. If one was well versed in floriography, or had access to a printed floral dictionary by Sarah Carter Edgarton or Robert Tyas, he or she could translate the visual meaning and develop an ongoing secret “conversation”.
In his book, Flowers, Their Use and Beauty, Language and Sentiment, published in 1857, Arthur Freeling offers a resource for floriography with a comprehensive definition of terms, historical interpretations, and nuanced sentiments, to help participants build a sophisticated vocabulary of flowers.
After so many books have been published upon
the subject, it would, prima facie, appear almost
presumptuous to offer another to the public; but
a little consideration will prove that a book, or
that books are still wanting to give to Flowers their
full power and significance. The present is an
attempt not only to produce in one volume what
would be technically termed “a language,” and “a
poetry of flowers,” but also to give the mind of the
inquirer an association of ideas, by which he may
recal the Sentiment of which the Flower is the
emblem as soon as the flower is presented or seen…
As in all cases it is best to define the terms
used, we beg to inform the gentle reader that, for
the sake of uniformity, at the head of each Flower
we have employed the term Sentiment, to indicate
the passion, thought, sentiment, or expression of
which a Flower may be the emblem ; for instance,
the Variegated Tulip is the emblem of Beautiful
Eyes. It appears thus in our book:—
Name of the Flower.—The Variegated Tulip.
Sentiment.—Beautiful Eyes.
With bouquets, one can put together a combination of flowers to form a more sophisticated sentiment, analogous to using words to form poetry or prose. For example, put together: peach blossom, box, cypress and marigold, carnation and lily of the valley and you would express the following sentiment:
“I am your Captive, but your Stoicism drives me to Despair; give me your Love and Return me to Happiness”
…or put together the geranium, water lily, harebell, cypress and marygold, lupine, golden rod, hawthorn, allspice, and red rose to articulate this overwrought sentiment:
“Your Preference would Purify my Heart, but your Apathy and Disdain consign me to Grief, Dejection and Despair; Encourage me by thy Benevolence and give me a Token of Hope. My Love is Incorruptible.
Arthur Freeling provides lengthy historical background for his individual floral entries. For example, the Hydrangea as a symbol of heartlessness.
Hydrangea–Heartlessness
The origin of this idea is not so easily
ascertained as many of those which
we shall have to notice; it seems,
however, to arise from the fact that it gives
very much larger expectation of, and therefore
hope for, perfect flowers, than it ever
realizes, as the plant is distinguished above
all others for its number of abortive flowers
in this degree, therefore, it is a fit emblem
of those heartless wretches of the coquette
species (man or woman), whose glory it is
to raise hopes which they never intend to
realise, without any regard for that “blight
of the heart,” which, if survived, is, we believe,
from much observation, a greater creator,
than callousness of feeling, of those interesting
singularities, “old maids;”…
- Description:
- Freeling, Arthur. Flowers :their use and beauty in language and sentiment. London : Darton and Co., 1851.
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:11034838
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University
- Description:
- Mayo, Sarah C. Edgarton. The flower vase :containing the language of flowers and their poetic sentiments. Lowell : Powers and Bagley, 1844.
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:7661378
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University
- Description:
- Tyas, Robert. The hand-book of the language & sentiment of flowers :containing the name of every flower to which a sentiment has been assigned. With introductory observations. New York : J. Langley, 1844.
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:5128578
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University
[…] in Love’ valentine’s card from the Museum of London, and these digitised images from Arthur Freeling’s Flowers, Their Use and Beauty, Language and Sentiment (1857). Follow […]