Language of Flowers

Flowers actually do have ways of communicating to the world at large; by scent and by color. That’s how they attract their pollinators. The pollinator stops in for a refreshing sip of nectar and ends up with pollen all over her jodhpurs. Bees perceive color quite differently from us. After discovering a large new flower field, a bee, after having sampled the goods, will return to her hive and do a dance which tells her co-workers what she found and gives exact coordinates. And the flowers and bees do all this without the aid of computers. Pretty amazing.

But that’s probably not the kind of language you had in mind. You may be thinking about the intricate signals that the Victorians flashed botanically. Well, much more has been made of it than there really seems to have been in real life. If there was a whole lot of credence given to that quaint idea, it would show up in the contemporary literature—but it doesn’t. Nor does it take up space in the housekeeping tomes of the period. It was probably a fad among young ladies with nothing better to do—the Victorian equivalent of a magazine quiz today.

Flowers have been used in traditional ways for both weddings and funerals since prehistoric times and different cultures ascribe different symbolism. For instance, in many Asian cultures white flowers symbolize death. But the roots of what we think of as a Victorian fancy really go back to medieval Europe. The first is the religious symbolism created early in the history of the Christian church—but hundreds of years after the death of Jesus of Nazareth. The cult of Mary was developed to instruct women how to behave in a church which had become patriarchal. Since most people were illiterate, flowers were used to symbolize the attributes of the ideal woman. These ideas took form in the paintings and stained glass windows that served to instruct the illiterate in their religion.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the most fascinating women of all time, decided to compete with the Queen of Heaven and developed a Court of Love, from whence we get so many quaint impressions of ‘chivalry’. She instituted elaborate courtship rituals with lover’s tokens and all kinds of ceremony. And, of course, a language of flowers. As with all fads and fashions, this one took on a life of its own. Hundreds of years later, Shakespeare had Ophelia go mad with a bouquet. One of the links will take you to an explanation of all the herbs the poor girl distributes to her phantoms. You will find links to several different sites of floral linguistics. Don’t be too surprised if they don’t agree.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

| |