Introducing the Language of Flowers

It’s well-known that a red rose symbolizes love, but what’s not as well-known is that most flowers have a special meaning attached to them. Using flowers and their meanings to create and send messages has been practiced for thousands of years and across all cultures. This is the language of flowers. 

While the popularity of the language of flowers hit a high point during the Victorian era, today it’s existence has almost been forgotten. I first learned of it from a novel I read by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, aptly named, The Language of Flowers. Within the first few pages I was captivated by the way you could make a bouquet of flowers have a special meaning, purely from your choice of flowers. However, I quickly realized why the popularity of this “language” has fallen out of favour; intriguing and exciting as it is, the intricacies of the language make it difficult to use. It turns out every flower can have more than one meaning, and sometimes those meanings are total opposites of each other! Take a sunflower, for example. It can mean ‘adoration’, because of the way it turns its face towards the sun. But it can also mean ‘haughtiness’, because it can look like it’s turning its nose up at something. 

Despite these complications, I think now is a perfect time in history to start using this means of communication again. Today we live in a time when people are intrigued with the past, yet also a time of technology and social media. So while we value ancestry and all things vintage, we are also made very aware of what the latest trends are, and then we seem to want what everyone else has. Using the symbolism in the language of flowers is a great way to connect the past with the present. For example, you can take inspiration from an image of a flower bouquet on Instagram, and then make it unique by using flowers that give it a personal message. 

 In modernizing this language, we can make it popular again. In upcoming posts I will share with you ideas of how to take the complications away from the meanings, and then how to incorporate them into your flower use so you can create personalized and meaningful flower arrangements for your friends, your family and yourself to enjoy.