Flowers as Emblems: What Blooms Were Said to Mean

Humility and faithful love: the page records the sweet violet as modest in the shade and sacred to Venus and Aphrodite, yet also scattered on the graves of the young because Persephone was gathering violets when Hades carried her away.

Young love: its name comes from the Latin primus, the first, and in the language of flowers it is young love and the confession that one cannot live without the beloved. Hung at doors on May Eve, it also kept out fairies.

The declaration of love: the page traces the tulip from Central Asian mountains through Ottoman gardens to Dutch tulip mania, and records the red tulip as an open avowal of the heart.

A flower that speaks in colours: red for deep and aching love, pink for a love that never forgets, white for pure sweet affection, striped for refusal and yellow for disdain.

Silence and purity: the white rose belongs to the Moon rather than to Venus, and the page records it as the rose hung sub rosa above the council table so that all said beneath it stayed confidential.

Hope and a message from the divine: named for Iris, the Greek goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods, it became the royal fleur-de-lis of France and stands for hope after storm.

Loyalty and constancy: the golden disc is described as a living image of the Sun, and the young heads turn to follow it through the day, which is why folk practice reads it as a herb of loyalty and truth.

Remembrance and sleep: sacred to Morpheus and Hypnos, the poppy is the flower of dreams, and its scarlet field bloom became the emblem of the fallen and of remembered death.

Levity and an open heart: the page says its airy spire answers to swift and ardent attachment, with colours carrying shades of both first love and fickle fancy. The whole plant is poisonous.

A bloom with a double edge: in the language of flowers it stands at once for graciousness and for presumption or deception, while magical herbalism holds that it reflects a curse back upon its sender.

Refinement and rare beauty: the language of flowers gives it luxury and refinement, and in China it is one of the Four Gentlemen, a symbol of integrity and noble character.

The flower of a short day: it opens its blue trumpets at dawn and closes them before the day is old, an emblem of the brevity of life, of love that fades and of each morning fresh resurrection.