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Here's how to keep your flowers alive longer
Don't have a green thumb? Don't sweat it! Here's some tips on how to keep your bouquet beautiful for longer than ever before!
My wife knows I love flowers, so recently she gifted me a book about flowers: “The Language of Flowers a Fully Illustrated Compendium of Meaning of Literature and Lore for the Modern Romantic.”
It was written by a veteran flower gardener, Odessa Begay, who took upon herself the task of describing and romanticizing 50 of our common flowers. The first couple of pages were about the Victorian practice of floriography, which was the use of flowers as coded messages.
Although floriography predates the Victorian era by centuries, it reached a zenith during this period. The author attributes this to the Victorians’ reticence to speak directly or flirt overtly. Wealthy Victorians were also greatly engaged in horticulture on their large estates, and flower growing and plants were an obsession. Several books were produced in the 1800s that signaled which flowers to use to convey various messages. After the Victorian era and in the aftermath of WWI, the practice declined with changes in society.
The book presents 50 flowers with the message that each was given to express in earlier times as well as some history and sometimes poetry about the flower, all of which I found to be interesting and a tribute to the author who undoubtedly spent hours upon hours of research to produce this book. I enjoyed reading these listings as it included so many flowers that I have grown and cared for over my gardening lifetime. Little did I know the messages that I could convey with these flowers. For example, magnolias represent “perseverance,” daisies “innocence,” and hibiscus “delicate beauty.”
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Roses had many representations, no doubt due to their abundance and long association with romance. A full-blown pink rose represents “engagement,” whereas a half-blown pink bloom represents “love” and a red rose stands for “deep modesty,” a white rose “I am worthy of you” and a white rosebud “a heart that is ignorant of love.”
The symbolic use of dahlias was to indicate “forever thine.” I am not sure that my wife appreciates the symbolic indication, but she does enjoy my dahlia bouquets. The dahlia is a flower I love to grow. Did you know the dahlia originated in Mexico and was described by a Spanish physician sent to Mexico in 1570? However, it wasn’t until 1789 that some tubers were sent to Spain and it was subsequently named after a student of the famous taxonomist Carl Linnaeus, Anders Dahl,
The book is full of anecdotes, historical notes and poems. For example, under Carnations, a Victorian floriographer lists three colors which indicate a message. Red is for “love" white for “talent” and yellow for “disdain.” The disdain comes from a historical event where the sultan of the Ottoman Empire had a tendency to cut off the heads of any Greeks who were found wearing yellow boots. That definitely would put yellow at a disadvantage in floriography. It also might explain today’s political disdain Turks and Greeks seem to have for each other.
The forget-me-not, Mysotis, has been a symbol of love and remembrance since medieval times. The delicate blue flowers of this plant have adorned the rose garden at my new home and for the first year I enjoyed their prolific blue blooms. However, I soon discovered that they qualify as a weed that spreads by seed rather profusely and have become much less tolerant of their presence. It has a long history. In 1398, Henry of Lancaster was banished from England by his cousin King Richard II for collaborating with some of Richard’s enemies. While in exile Henry chose the forget-me-not as an emblem because he did not want people to forget him. Subsequently, he returned to England and overthrew Richard II, became King Henry IV and made the flower his official symbol.
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“Starry night” is a famous painting by Vincent van Gogh and this book’s provides one possible explanation for this unusual painting. It has been theorized that Van Gogh may have suffered from epilepsy and was treated for that with digitalis, which is derived from foxgloves, Digitalis purpurea. If overused, it can cause Digitalis intoxication, which causes the patient to see halos of yellow light and yellow speckles or yellow-tinted vision. Van Gogh’s art is loved now, but alas the poor man was never appreciated when alive and his life had a tragic end. Pam and I visited his grave on a tour of France three years ago.
If you are a flower lover, I recommend this book.
If you have a gardening-related question you can contact the UC Master Gardeners at (209) 953-6112. More information can be found on our website: http://sjmastergardeners.ucanr.edu/CONTACT_US/
The Link LonkSeptember 04, 2020 at 04:43AM
https://www.recordnet.com/story/lifestyle/home-garden/2020/09/03/book-flower-lovers-can-learn-language-beloved-blooms/5699807002/
The language of flowers speaks to history, romance and poetry - Stockton Record
https://news.google.com/search?q=Flower&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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