In the 1600's, a language of flowers developed in Constantinople and in the poetry of Persia.
Charles II introduced the Persian poetry to Europe, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu brought the flower language from Turkey to England in 1716.
It spread to France and became a handbook of 800 floral messages known as the Book Le Language des Fleurs.
Lovers exchanged messages as they gave each other selected flowers or bouquets. A full red rose meant beauty. Red and white mean unity.
Crocus said "abuse not", while a white rosebud warns that one is too young for love.
Yellow roses were for jealousy, yellow iris for passion, filbert for reconciliation and ivy for marriage.
- Valentine's Day Love Traditions
flower arrangement:
just two yellow daffodils, the first to bloom
- L.A. Davidson
When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment.
I want to give that world to someone else.
Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower.
I want them to see it whether they want to or not.
- Georgia O'Keeffe
flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals.
Some seem to smile, some have a sad expression, some are pensive and difident, others again are plain, honest and upright.
- Henry Ward Beecher