{"id":7940,"date":"2025-02-19T19:05:29","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T19:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/?p=7940"},"modified":"2025-02-19T19:05:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T19:05:30","slug":"language-of-flowers-speaks-volumes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/2025\/02\/19\/language-of-flowers-speaks-volumes\/","title":{"rendered":"Language of flowers speaks volumes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

The following is written by museum intern student Joy Curry.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Illustrated plate from Poetry of Flowers<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Front plate of Poetry of Flowers<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Illustrated plate from Poetry of Flowers<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Valentine\u2019s Day is, among other things, a common time to give and receive flowers. If you visited a florist this last holiday, you might have seen some explanations on what flowers mean. You may have heard of the symbolism attached to different colors of roses for example, a red rose means love, and a yellow rose means friendship\u2014but you can send even more specific messages with your bouquet if you know where to look. During the Victorian period, floral enthusiasts published full-blown dictionaries explaining a symbolic \u201clanguage of flowers.\u201d This language of flowers gained popularity from a misinterpretation of the Turkish harem game of S\u00e9lam, which involved rhyming items, as a language of symbolic objects that lovers used to communicate with one another in secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here in Special Collections and Archives, we have two poetry compilations that contain floral dictionaries: Poetry of Flowers<\/em> selected by Mrs. C. M. Kirtland,<\/a> and Frances S. Osgood\u2019s 1860 book The poetry of flowers and flowers of poetry; to which are added, a simple treatise on botany, with familiar examples, and a copious floral dictionary<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These books show that Victorian \u201cflower language\u201d was far from standardized. For example, Kirtland and Osgood give very different meanings to the Bachelor\u2019s Button flower. Osgood describes it as meaning \u201cI with the Morning\u2019s Love have oft made Sport,\u201d while Kirtland claims that it means \u201cCelibacy.\u201d So, if you want to use floral language to communicate with someone, make sure you\u2019re both referencing the same dictionary!<\/p>\n

We hope you had a happy Valentine\u2019s Day\u2014but even if you didn\u2019t, here are some floral ways to express your feelings, courtesy of the Mabbott Poe Collection!<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00b7 A bouquet of Cherry Blossom or Foxglove, Scarlet Auricula, and Turk\u2019s Cap means \u201cYour insincerity and avarice make me hate you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00b7 A bouquet of Nasturtium, Oak Leaves, Heliotrope, and Everlasting or Immortelles means \u201cYour patriotism, courage, and fidelity merit everlasting remembrance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00b7 A bouquet of red roses, Carolina Syringa, and Sycamore means \u201cI love to disappoint your curiosity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00b7 A bouquet of Lemon Geranium and Withered White Rose means \u201cOur unexpected meeting left but transient impressions.\u201d If you receive this bouquet, the book recommends responding with a bouquet of African Marigold and Moonwort, meaning \u201cVulgar minds soon forget.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seaton, Beverly. The Language of Flowers : A History \/ Beverly Seaton. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995.<\/p>\n

Nossett, Lauren, and Luca Pixner. \u201cThe Language of Flowers and the (Re)Productive Female Body in Hedwig Dohm\u2019s Werde, Die Du Bist.\u201d Feminist German Studies 36, no. 1 (2020): 144\u201365. doi:10.1353\/fgs.2020.0011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is written by museum intern student Joy Curry. Valentine\u2019s Day is, among other things, a common time to give and receive flowers. If you visited a florist this last holiday, you might have seen some explanations on what flowers mean. You may have heard of the symbolism attached to different colors of rosesContinue reading “Language of flowers speaks volumes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":7948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[819,820,821,674],"syndication":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7940"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7940"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7958,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7940\/revisions\/7958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7940"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=7940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}