Step up your Valentine’s Day game and craft a unique and personal bouquet that is just as special as your partner with a little help from Victorian Floriography.
Victorian Floriography, or the language of flowers, became popular in England when poet and aristocrat Lady Mary Wortley Montagu visited Constantinople and sent letters home about a Turkish game called sélam. This game involved quietly passing objects amongst each other that rhymed with the word they actually wanted to say and responding with another object.
However, in her letters, Lady Mary romanticized this game and gave flowers specific meanings of love, friendship, secrecy, and jealousy. Britain became enchanted by the sophisticated code of flowers and used it to express their deepest feelings during a time when societal norms limited self-expression. Most meanings come from the bloom’s color, while other meanings come from myths and medicinal use. Other flowers get their meaning from the imagination of the author writing their own Floriography book.
If you need help picking the right flowers for your Valentine’s Day arrangement, search the Victorian Floriography dictionary or simply visit the Garden on February 11 and 12 to make a small bouquet that says just how much you love and appreciate your Valentine. We will have red roses for deep passionate love, yellow tulips for appreciation, sunflowers for loyalty, and more. Come build your bouquet to say exactly what you need this Valentine’s Day. Available for free while supplies last.
