Hidden history: People once sent flowers to insult enemies, compliment friends, propose marriage
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – For a moment, pretend that you're living during the Victorian Era and the person you're crushing on has just sent you flowers. He must like you, right?
Wrong.
The Victorians were a bit dark. They didn't just send flowers to commemorate important events, as we do today. They also sent flowers to tell someone they hated them.
Victorians were good at being passive-aggressive. The way they used flowers was often a polite way of being cruel, so if you're curious about the meaning of your favorite flowers, keep reading.
The Victorians sent flowers with hidden meanings-- but here's the catch. You could only decipher the meaning of a bouquet if you had a flower dictionary. So if you didn't know there was such a thing as a flower dictionary, you could spend your whole life receiving flowers and thinking you were popular when, in fact, you were loathed.
No, it's not a comforting subject. But (culturally speaking), there's a little bit of the Victorian era in each of us, and some of these flower and leaf definitions are downright funny when combined into a sassy bouquet.
So prepare yourself because you're about to get old-schooled by a Victorian-era flower dictionary that may change how you feel about the history of the floral industry.
Flower dictionaries
In Language of Flowers, illustrated by Kate Greenaway in the mid-1800s, flower meanings were straightforward. For instance, the yellow Acacia meant a "secret love." Sending Adonis meant that someone was having painful recollections of the past.
The list of flower definitions was long in the 1800s, and you could use a flower dictionary to send someone the perfect message. Maybe you were in love with a dear friend who had a vulgar mind and appreciated them for it, or perhaps you needed to tell someone you were thankful for their stupidity.
And no, this isn't a joke. Flower bouquet meanings were a Victorian-era tradition.
Sir Francis Bacon once said that out of monuments, names, words, proverbs, traditions, private records, evidence, fragments of stories, passages of books, and the like, we do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time.
It's hard to imagine that 150 years ago, society was drastically different than it is today. But it was, and here's the scary part: society will be drastically different in 150 years than it is today. How you live your life right now will one day be seen as archaic.
It's an uncomfortable truth, but it's truth just the same.
With that thought in mind, here is a handful of 1800s flower definitions for your reading pleasure/displeasure.
- Abatina = fickleness
- Acacia = friendship
- achillea Millefolia = war
- African Marigold = vulgar minds (perverts)
- Agnus Castus = coldness, indifference
- Almond = stupidity, indiscretion
- Almond flowers = hope
- Allspice = compassion
- Aloe = grief
- Alyssum = worth beyond beauty
- Amaranth = immortality, unfading love
- American Elm = patriotism
- American Linden = Matrimony
- American Starwort = cheerfulness in old age
- Anemone = sickness, expectation
- Apple blossom = fame, preference
- Apple thorn = deceitful, charming
- Bachelor's Buttons = celibacy
- Red Balsam = touch me not
- Barberry = a sour temper
- Basil = hatred
- Bay leaf = someone who will only change when they die
- Bee Ophrys = an error
- Belladonna = silence
- Clematis = poverty
- Clotbur = rudeness
- A four-leaved clover = be mine
- White clover = think of me
- Colchicum = my best days are past
- Purple Columbine = resolved to win
- Corchorus = impatient of absence
- Arkansas Coreopsis = love at first sight
- Broken corn = a quarrel
- Cranberry = the cure for a heartache
- Crocus = abuse not
- Cypress = death, mourning
- Daffodil = regard for
- Daisy = innocence, I share your sentiments
- Dogwood = durability
- Elm = dignity
- Fern = fascination
- Fig tree = prolific
- Fir = time
- Flax = I feel your kindness
- French marigold = jealousy
- A dark-colored Geranium = melancholy
- Heliotrope = Devotion, faithfulness
- Hemlock = You will be my death
- Holly = foresight, enchantment
- Ivy = fidelity, marriage
- Kennedia = mental beauty
- King-cups = golddigger
- Lime tree = conjugal love
- Magnolia = love of nature
- Mignonette = your qualities surpass your charms
- Moschatel = weakness
- Moonwort = forgetfulness
- Myrtle = love
- Narcissus = egotism
- Oak leaves = bravery
- Oats = bewitching music
- Olive = peace
- Peach blossom = I am your captive
- Pear = affection
- Peopny = bashfulness
- Quaking grass = agitation
- Quince = temptation
- Rose = love
- Christmas rose = you tranquilize my anxiety
- Japanese Rose = beauty is your only attraction
- Rosemary = remembrance
- Sardony = irony
- Spanish jasmine = sensuality
- Sweet basil = good wishes
- Scottish thistle - retaliation
- Variegated tulip = you have beautiful eyes
- Tussilage = justice shall be done to you
- Sweet violet = modesty
- Volkamenia = may you be happy
- Walnut = intellect
- Wall-flower = fidelity in adversity
- White Pink = talent
- Dried white rose = death preferable to loss of innocence
- Zinnia = thoughts about absent friends
Has someone ever sent you red roses, and you knew that red roses symbolized love? Have you ever been told that yellow roses mean someone thinks of you as a friend?
Every aspect of a plant was symbolic to the Victorians--from the type of flower to its leaves to its color. And combining such symbolism into bouquets was a form of writing that did not require a pen.
The gift of a white pink with Spanish jasmine could have been promptly answered with quaking grass and dried white roses.
Life wasn't always sunshine and roses during the Victorian era. Sometimes, a gal needed to tell a relentless suitor that she wasn't open to their advances or that she hated how her brother-in-law treated her sister.
Even today, brides still choose their wedding flowers based on meaning.
And happy is the bride whose bouquet contains Arkansas Coreopsis, Volkamenia, Kennedia, Cranberry, and a Christmas rose--because that kind of bouquet could eventually lead to a garden filled with American Starworts.