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The Language of Flowers – the secret Victorian love code
The Language of Flowers – the secret Victorian love code
Source: http://fiveminutehistory.com/the-lan...-code-of-love/
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.
The Flower Market by Victor Gabriel Gilbert
The Lower Market, Paris by Victor Gabriel Gilbert, 1881
The Flower Seller, Avenue de L’Opera, Paris by Louis Marie de Schryver, 1891
The Flower Market by Victor Gabriel Gilbert
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
Picking Bluebells by George Henry, R.A., R.S.A., R.S.W.
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.”
Aloe and Pomegranate flowers – bitterness and conceit
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.
Girl With A Rose by Gustave-Leonard de Jonghe
Young Girl with a Rose by Emile Vernon
Lovers under a Blossom Tree by John Callcott Horsley (English, 1817 – 1903)
To express adoration, a suitor would send dwarf sunflowers.
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.
The Marriage of Victoria, Princess Royal, 25 January 1858 by John Phillip
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Flowers still have their representations in modern times too. 
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