The Language of Flowers – the secret Victorian love code

[Kazimiera]

The Language of Flowers – the secret Victorian love code

Source: http://fiveminutehistory.com/the-language-of-flowers-the-secret-victorian-code-of-love/

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For Victorians, flowers were the language of love.

Proclaiming feelings in public was considered socially taboo, so the Victorians expressed intimacy through flowers.

Myriad market stalls and street sellers sprang up to cater to the Victorians’ need to communicate covertly.

Learning the particular meanings and symbolism assigned to each flower gave Victorians a way to play the subtle game of courtship in secret.

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The Flower Market by Victor Gabriel Gilbert

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The Lower Market, Paris by Victor Gabriel Gilbert, 1881

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The Flower Seller, Avenue de L’Opera, Paris by Louis Marie de Schryver, 1891

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The Flower Market by Victor Gabriel Gilbert

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Flower Vendor on the Grandes Boulevards, Paris by Victor Gabriel Gilbert

Coded into gifts of blooms, plants, and floral arrangements were specific messages for the recipient, expressing feelings that were improper to say in Victorian society.

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The Bunch of Lilacs by James Tissot, 1875

Alongside the language of flowers was a growing interest in botany.

Housing exotic and rare plants, conservatories enjoyed a golden age during the Victorian era, while floral designs dominated interior decoration.

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Dora laughing held the dog up childishly to smell the flowers by George Goodwin Kilburne, 1874

Dedicated to the “language of flowers” were hundreds of guide books, with most Victorian homes owning at least one.

Often lavishly illustrated, the books used verbal analogies, religious and literary sources, folkloric connections, and botanical attributes to derive the meanings associated with flowers.

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Floral poetry and the language of flowers, 1877

The appearance or behavior of plants and flowers often influenced their coded meanings.

Plants sensitive to touch represented chastity, whereas the deep red rose symbolized the potency of romantic love.

Pink roses were less intense than red, white suggested virtue, and yellow meant friendship.

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Elegant Lady with a Bouquet of Roses by Emile Vernon

Colour also had more specific meanings.

A white violet meant “innocence” while a purple violet said that the giver’s thoughts were “occupied with love” for the recipient.

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Violets, Sweet Violets by John William Godward

Bluebells communicated “kindness,” peonies meant “bashfulness,” rosemary was for “remembrance,” tulips represented “passion,” and wallflowers stood for “faithfulness in adversity.”

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Picking Bluebells by George Henry, R.A., R.S.A., R.S.W.

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Peonies in a Bowl by Charles Ethan Porter, 1885

Some plants were used to send negative messages.

Aloe meant “bitterness,” pomegranate, “conceit,” and rhododendrons meant “danger.”

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Aloe and Pomegranate flowers – bitterness and conceit

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Still LIfe of Rhododendrons by Edward Lamson Henry, 1885

Sending and receiving flowers was a way to fend off or attract suitors.

If a suitor declared his devotion by sending a rose, or showed his preference with apple blossom, the recipient could respond with a yellow carnation to express disdain or straw to show a request of union.

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Girl With A Rose by Gustave-Leonard de Jonghe

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Young Girl with a Rose by Emile Vernon

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Lovers under a Blossom Tree by John Callcott Horsley (English, 1817 – 1903)

To express adoration, a suitor would send dwarf sunflowers.

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Sun and Moon Flowers by George Dunlop Leslie, 1889

Myrtle symbolized good luck and love in a marriage.

At her wedding in 1858, Princess Victoria, the eldest child of Queen Victoria, carried a sprig of myrtle taken from a bush planted from a cutting given to the Queen by her mother-in-law.

Thus began a tradition for royal brides to include myrtle in their bouquets.

In the royal wedding of 2011, Catherine Middleton included sprigs of myrtle from Victoria’s original plant in her own wedding bouquet.

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The Marriage of Victoria, Princess Royal, 25 January 1858 by John Phillip

[Kazimiera]

Displaying small “talking bouquets” or “posies” of meaningful flowers called nosegays or tussie-mussies became popular.

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The Posy by Edward Killingworth Johnson

Decorative “posy holders” with rings or pins allowed them to be worn and displayed by their owners.

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1854 Bouquet holders.

Made from brass, copper, gold-gilt metal, silver, porcelain, glass, enamel, pearl, ivory, bone and straw, the holders often had intricate engravings and patterning.

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19th century bouquet holders.

Other Flower Meanings

Burdock ---> Importunity. Touch me not.
Buttercup (Kingcup) ---> Ingratitude. Childishness.
Camomile ---> Energy in adversity.
Carnation, Striped ---> Refusal.
Chrysanthemum, White ---> Truth.
Coltsfoot ---> Justice.

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The Flower Market by Victor Gabriel Gilbert

Crocus ---> Abuse not.
Daffodil ---> Regard.
Daisy ---> Innocence.
Jasmine ---> Amiability.

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At the Flower Market by Victor Gabriel Gilbert

Dandelion ---> Rustic oracle.
Dogwood ---> Durability.
Dragonwort ---> Horror.
Ivy ---> Fidelity. Marriage.

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Flower Seller with Child by Victor Gabriel Gilbert

Everlasting Pea ---> Lasting pleasure.
Elderflower ---> Zealousness.
Fennel ---> Worthy all praise. Strength.
Lemon Blossoms ---> Fidelity in love.

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The Flower Market by Victor Gabriel Gilbert

Flytrap ---> Deceit.
Foxglove ---> Insincerity.
Anemone ---> Forsaken.
Lavender ---> Distrust.

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Flower offering to a child by Victor Gabriel Gilbert

Marigold ---> Uneasiness.
Hemlock ---> You will be my death.
Hibiscus ---> Delicate beauty.
Honeysuckle ---> Generous and devoted affection.

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Flower Seller by Victor Gabriel Gilbert

Who will buy?

The film versions of Oliver! and My Fair Lady made the London flower sellers famous, but their life was far harsher than their Hollywood depictions.

So high was the demand for flowers that it created many opportunities for street traders and the exploitation of child labour.

Victorian social researcher Henry Mayhew wrote about flower sellers in his book London Labour and the London Poor, 1851—a groundbreaking and influential survey of the city’s poor:

Sunday is the best day for flower selling, and one experienced man computed, that in the height and pride of the summer four hundred children were selling flowers on Sundays in the streets. The trade is almost entirely in the hands of children, the girls outnumbering the boys by more than eight to one. The ages of the girls vary from six to twenty, few of the boys are older than twelve, and most of them are under ten. They are generally very persevering and will run along barefooted, with their, “Please, gentleman, do buy my flowers. Poor little girl!” or “Please kind lady, buy my violets. O, do! please! Poor little girl! Do buy a bunch, please, kind lady!”

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St Martin-in-the-Fields by William Logsdail, 1888

[♥ Lily ♥]

Nice paintings and interesting information. Thanks for sharing this. :) Flowers still have their representations in modern times too.