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
How can one help shivering with delight when one's hot fingers close around the stem of a live flower, cool from the shade and stiff with newborn vigor!
- Colette
Lowly, with a broken neck,
The crocus lays her cheek to mire.
- George Meredith
I do not think I have ever seen anything more beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking at.
I know the beauty of our Lord by it.
- Gerald Manley Hopkins