The Language of Flowers

 

Reviews by Jeanne

Growing up, I adored Agatha Christie’s mysteries, especially the ones with Miss Marple as the sleuth. However, I found myself frequently mystified by some of the clues—specifically, Miss Marple’s recognition of meaning in flowers sent as messages.  How were people supposed to know all that? As an adult, I found books on the flower languages and became intrigued.  The Victorians were the ones who really popularized the idea, and Miss Marple having grown up in that era would of course be knowledgeable about it so it all made more sense to me.  Here are a few books the library holds on the topic:

The Floral Birthday Book by Bernard F. Carter says that it is based on an old book Carter found in “an almost derelict cottage in Cornwall.”  The book had illustrations of flowers, one for each day, and a verse or anecdote accompanying.   Charmed, watercolorist Carter had the book restored as much as possible but ended up more or less recreating it himself by painting all the plants mentioned. Naturally, the first thing most people do with such a book is to look up birthdays of family and friends to see the listing! I chose October 28, which has Purple Columbine as the flower.  It means “Resolution” and the quotation is from Shakespeare. In the back is a list of all the plants (not all are flowers) with the scientific name, the meaning, and the date associated with the plant.  The true standout of this book, though, is the illustrations.  While not large at three per page, they are exquisitely detailed.  This one is great fun to browse!

More modern and in some ways more informative is The Secret Language of Flowers:  Rediscovering Traditional Meanings by Shane Connolly, photography by Jan Baldwin. This book is in sections by meanings such as “Expectations, birth & beginnings” to “Remembrance, regrets & farewells.” The text gives some excellent background on the chosen plant or flower, historical use, and meaning as well as what some mean in combination.  The pictures are lovely but sometimes are of bouquets rather than the individual flower. There aren’t as many plants listed as in the previous book, but I relished the text with the more detailed information. At the back, there is a listing of plants with the meaning, but perhaps even more important, there is a listing of meanings with the plant names.

Flowers, the Angels’ Alphabet:  The Language and Poetry of Flowers by Susan Loy features beautiful portraits of flowers with their meanings and a history.  There’s also a brief description of where the flowers grow.  These illustrations are just wonderful; I could see these framed on a wall.  These take up just about a third of the book, while the rest is devoted to meanings with the associated flower or plant, and then the reverse, the plant followed by a meaning.  With this one, complex meanings are given and it should be noted that a flower can have different meanings.  I could totally see sending messages this way, especially if you wanted to insult someone under the guise of giving them a seemingly lovely bouquet.   I have a couple of people I would like to send a scarlet geranium to, all the while having plausible deniability because there’s more than one meaning. On the positive side, I will cherish my zinnias all the more now, because they mean thoughts of absent friends.

By the way, some meanings have changed in modern day possibly due to commerce. After all, it’s better to market yellow roses as being symbols of friendship than infidelity or jealousy!

I’m ready to revisit some of those Miss Marple stories now, and with these books by my side I think I stand a better chance of cracking the case! 

 

(PS There is a charming little mystery series by Beverly Allen, The Bridal Bouquet Shop Mysteries, in which the heroine makes up bouquets using the language of flowers, which I enjoyed thoroughly. The first title is Bloom and Doom.)