The Meaning Behind Flowers
In this weeks ‘Wonder&Wild’ I wanted to explore the meaning behind flowers, and this has arisen since my most recent workshop and collection – Bright Blossoms. And even more so as its Valentines Day, I was looking into the differences between a bouquet and a posy, and what I found was really interesting.
Other than the obvious difference which is size, so a posy is a small bunch of flowers and a bouquet is more sizeable, they also mean different things. This originated predominantly during the Victorian age, when flowers as a message, as a gift became popular. During this period, there were strict rules of what could or couldn’t be said, and so due to this flowers were used to give a ‘not-so-secret’ message to someone.
Even more interestingly, the colour of these arrangements would also indicate a meaning, for example, a posy of red roses would portray a meaning of love, and this still predominantly stands as we give red roses traditionally on valentines day. On the other hand, a posy of pink roses would portray a message of a crush on someone, and more sadly, a posy of yellow roses would portray a message of rejection. Poor guy!
The meaning behind flowers has continued even to this day, and as much as each colour is very much related to our own memories and experiences. The colours of flowers do generally bring about similar emotions for all of us, and this is part of the reason why Sown&Wild introduced ‘Bright Blossoms’ earlier this year. I wanted to bring colour into peoples’ homes, to ignite positive emotions and a distraction from our British winter weather.
So what do the colours of flowers mean, what emotions and messages do they give. Here is a summary -
- Red flowers portray love, desire and passion, and depending on the shade a degree of warmth.
- White flowers indicate purity and innocence hence the use traditionally in weddings, but also reverence and humility.
- Pink flowers, as previous noted are one of indicating a fleeting crush but equally these are used with friendships – to show grace, admiration and joy.
- Yellow flowers are for a more mellow, chilled and happy message with a connection to new beginnings, new intentions.
- Orange flowers portray excitement and energy.
- Green flowers indicating health and that connection to earth, as well as good luck and abundance.
- Purple flowers are linked to messages of admiration, respect, royalty and dignity.
- Blue flowers representing trust, faith and wisdom.
All of these messages, and meanings behind flowers are also termed ‘floriography’. To put it more simply, the language of flowers, used to communicate meanings and messages, to ignite emotions and memories. They are natures way of distracting us from the mundane, captivating our attention, reminding us of past times, and sending ‘not-so-secret’ messages.