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.)
