Valentine Florigraphy

"By all those token flowers, that tell
what words can never speak so well"
Byron

For years and years I have been interested in, or perhaps one might say obsessed with, floral folklore and symbolism and the "language of flowers" or "florigraphy". This form of secretive communication has ancient beginnings, but was particularly popular in Victorian times, especially for Valentines. I thought you might enjoy a mini lesson on "reading" three of the many floral symbols that are so common in Victorian love tokens. Pay close attention. There is a test at the end.



Rose.
The rose is the flower of love. The mythology surrounding the rose is that it was created by Chloris, the Greek goddess of flowers, with the help of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who gave it beauty, Dionysus, the god of wine, who gave it a sweet scent, and the three Graces who added charm, brightness and joy.

Rumor has it that King Nebuchadnezzar used rose petals to fill his mattress, and to decorate his home because he loved the scent. It is believed that roses were strewn into the river to welcome the Mogul emperors of Kashmir home from their travels. The ancient Romans were crazy about roses. The emperors filled their baths with rose water, and sat on thick carpets of rose petals for feasts and other kinds of wild parties. It is said that the farmers around Rome turned their fields from producing food to roses to keep up with the demand, which created food shortages.

There are different meanings attached to the color of a rose. Red is associated with passion and desire, and boldly states, "I love you!". Pink symbolizes gentleness and "you are gentle, graceful, lovely". White represents regard and purity, and communicates, "I am worthy of you". Yellow roses are used with caution because while they can mean friendship, and "I rejoice in your friendship", they can also indicate a decrease of love, or even a declaration of infidelity.



Pansy.
Pansies are the emblem of thoughts, especially tender and pleasant thoughts. Pansies communicate "I am thinking of you", or "You occupy my thoughts". The name comes from the French word "pensee" which means "thought", and the phrase "penzez a moi" or "think of me". The little flower with the smiling face was thought to be a love potion and was the cause of Titania falling in love with an ass in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Another common name for pansies is "hearts ease", and it is believed that carrying the flower around with you will ensure the love of your sweetheart.



Forget-Me-Not.
Forget-Me-Nots are associated with loving remembrance and true love. The folklore surrounding this flower is that there were two lovers who were walking along a river. The tiny blue flowers were growing along the bank and the man bent down to pick them for the woman, which caused him to fall into the water. Unable to swim, and being swept to his death, his last effort was to throw the flowers to the woman while calling out, "love me, forget me not!". The woman never forgot him, and dedicated the flower to her lover. In some versions of the story the man is a knight, and drowned because his armor was too heavy to swim in. Sometimes it is an about-to-be-married bride and groom. That's the thing about folklore, there are lots of versions of the same story.


So now, with that information, you can decipher a few of the secret messages communicated in the following Victorian valentines. (The test) Oh, and the hands shown usually communicate friendship, as in "extending the hand of friendship".

Just to get you started I will do the first one. I might "read" it like so: "This valentine comes with my fond love, and the pansies add: I am thinking of you tenderly today, my dearest darling." (I imagine the Victorians saying stuff like "dearest darling" all the time. I have probably watched too many Disney movies.) You don't have to put the message in a sentence. Just notice what the flowers are communicating. It adds a layer of deeper sentiment.




Now, you try it. What is this valentine communicating without any words at all?





This one has a slightly different message than the one above because of the color of the roses.





This one is very sweet. The meaning behind all of those Forget-Me-Nots adds so much to the simple words.




And this one is a riot of the emotions of love! I would go with the positive aspects of the yellow roses because they are in such an abundant combination with red and pink roses.


This concludes our lesson for today. Hope you enjoyed it. And by the way, you all got an A on the test just for paying attention to my ramblings. Class dismissed.