1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to brainstud a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Laura 2 00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: vogelbam here. Floriography, the association of flowers with special virtues 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: and sentiments has been a practice from antiquity to the 4 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:22,520 Speaker 1: present day. Ancient Chinese flower calendars established the tradition of 5 00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:26,560 Speaker 1: associating seasonal flowers with meanings, beginning in the seventh century BCE, 6 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:30,880 Speaker 1: a making January's winter flower the plum blossom, a symbol 7 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:35,440 Speaker 1: of beauty and longevity. By the seventeen hundreds, the concept 8 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:38,720 Speaker 1: of salaam, the Turkish language of flowers and objects, found 9 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 1: its way to Europe, further establishing the idea of associating 10 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:48,040 Speaker 1: flowers with meanings. The eighteenth century religious visionary and Madman 11 00:00:48,159 --> 00:00:52,200 Speaker 1: poet Christopher Smart wrote, for there is a language of flowers, 12 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:55,960 Speaker 1: for there is a sound reasoning upon all flowers, For 13 00:00:56,080 --> 00:01:01,760 Speaker 1: elegant phrases are nothing but flowers. Smart's use of the 14 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:05,920 Speaker 1: terminology language of flowers is likely the earliest literary record 15 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:10,480 Speaker 1: of the informal phrase. By the early eighteen hundreds, the 16 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:13,959 Speaker 1: language of flowers was commonly recognized in Europe, and many 17 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:17,000 Speaker 1: devotees of the tradition had begun hand copying lists of 18 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:21,240 Speaker 1: flowers and their symbolic meanings. Are you a friend on 19 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 1: the outs who wants to skip the drama of a 20 00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 1: face to face then place a lemon verbina plant on 21 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:29,959 Speaker 1: your bestie's front stoop for forgiveness. Or maybe you're a 22 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:34,679 Speaker 1: vocabulary challenged suitor who feels some kind of way present. 23 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:40,080 Speaker 1: You're someone special with the heliotrope bouquet for infatuation. Practically 24 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:44,440 Speaker 1: any emotion or black thereof, from apathy represented by Candy 25 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 1: tuft to zeal represented by elderflower can be conveyed with 26 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:53,280 Speaker 1: a just right arrangement for the article. This episode is 27 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:56,080 Speaker 1: based on How Stuff Work. Spoke with Susan Loy, an 28 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:59,520 Speaker 1: American artist and calligrapher, whose award winning book Flowers the 29 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:03,320 Speaker 1: Angels Alphabet is a standard reference for floral dictionaries and 30 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 1: the Victorian language of flowers. She said the idea of 31 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:11,200 Speaker 1: a symbolic language of flowers made its way to Victorian 32 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 1: Europe and North America through a cross cultural migration of 33 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:18,359 Speaker 1: ideas and lore from China, Japan, Turkey, Greece, and Rome. 34 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:22,960 Speaker 1: The Victorian language of flowers is primarily a literary tradition 35 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:25,720 Speaker 1: that grew out of the genre of sentimental or gift 36 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:29,080 Speaker 1: flower books, which had its roots in the literary almanac, 37 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:32,480 Speaker 1: an annual publication, often a New Year's gift book that 38 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: included a calendar. Literary almanacs were particularly popular around Europe 39 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 1: and the United States from the eighteen twenties through the 40 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:45,639 Speaker 1: eighteen sixties. The language of flowers books that grew out 41 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:49,760 Speaker 1: of the tradition were sort of dictionaries of flowers, including 42 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: associated meanings or sentiments, illustrations of the flowers, botanical information 43 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:58,959 Speaker 1: and lore, poetry about the flowers or those associated sentiments, 44 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:04,120 Speaker 1: and perhaps a floral calendar. Some even included a fortune 45 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:09,040 Speaker 1: telling game called a floral oracle. Modernly, lots of juicy 46 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:12,280 Speaker 1: stuff has been written about the repressive strictures of a 47 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:16,320 Speaker 1: stilted era that led daring lovers and blossoming romantic hopefuls 48 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:19,400 Speaker 1: to employ the Victorian language of flowers as a secret, 49 00:03:19,639 --> 00:03:23,960 Speaker 1: encoded form of communication. Lore has it that a single 50 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: flower or cryptic bouquet could express hidden desires, forbidden longings 51 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: and erotic imaginings. One dare not speak out loud. During 52 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:36,400 Speaker 1: a time when etiquette loomed large over the tufted velvet 53 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:38,920 Speaker 1: love seat and decorums sucked all the oxygen out of 54 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 1: the parlor. What claustrophobic Victorian couple wouldn't opt for a 55 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:46,640 Speaker 1: midday meander through the garden of flower dictionaries in hand. 56 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:52,000 Speaker 1: But here's the thing, Lloy explained, there is very little 57 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 1: evidence that ordinary people in the Victorian era actually used 58 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:59,160 Speaker 1: the language of flowers as a means of communication. This 59 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:01,240 Speaker 1: is a myth that has been propagated by the writers 60 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:06,360 Speaker 1: and editors of Language of Flowers books. Artists, designers, florists, marketers, 61 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:09,560 Speaker 1: and writers are more likely to have used and continue 62 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: to use floriography. Many of the Language of Flower books 63 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:17,040 Speaker 1: in my personal collection state in their introductions that Victorians 64 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: used the language of flowers in their courtship, but neither 65 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:23,280 Speaker 1: historians nor I have found much evidence that they actually did. 66 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:28,279 Speaker 1: One exception is the use of language of flowers in nosegays, 67 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:32,440 Speaker 1: which originated in medieval times. During Victorian era, nosegays were 68 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:36,279 Speaker 1: called tussy mussies and sometimes included flower symbolism. From the 69 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:41,000 Speaker 1: language of Flowers, it turns out there wasn't even a 70 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:45,560 Speaker 1: single cohesive language. Alloy's research suggests that somewhere between four 71 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:48,440 Speaker 1: hundred and six hundred Language of Flowers books were published 72 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:52,440 Speaker 1: during the Victorian era. As she said, many of the 73 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:55,440 Speaker 1: writers and editors copied each other's dictionaries, so there is 74 00:04:55,520 --> 00:05:00,320 Speaker 1: some agreement regarding flower meanings. Individual flower associations, however, are 75 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:03,760 Speaker 1: not universal, and there is not one lexicon of agreed 76 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:07,520 Speaker 1: upon meanings even within a single culture. As symbolic flowers 77 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:10,600 Speaker 1: and their lexicons are often tied to the geography and 78 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:15,479 Speaker 1: customs of a given region, this really only makes sense. 79 00:05:15,839 --> 00:05:18,440 Speaker 1: Many of the flowers in the lexicon are wild flowers, 80 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 1: others are garden flowers, some are florist flowers, meaning that 81 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:27,440 Speaker 1: access to specific blooms is kind of a big deal. However, 82 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:31,720 Speaker 1: there are lots of common themes like love, beauty, and friendship. 83 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:36,480 Speaker 1: Often the meanings were expressed in personal statements. For example, 84 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:40,479 Speaker 1: a sentiment expressed by Virginia Creeper was I cling to 85 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:44,680 Speaker 1: you both in sunshine and shade, or listed under peach 86 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:49,880 Speaker 1: your qualities like your charms are unequaled. There were lots 87 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:53,679 Speaker 1: of nuances. Ivy was said to symbolize friendship or lasting 88 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:58,279 Speaker 1: friendship because of its clinging habit, while periwinkle indicates early 89 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:02,159 Speaker 1: and sincere friendship. Snowdrop connotes a friend in need or 90 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:06,599 Speaker 1: a friendship inadversity, while zynia represents thoughts of absent friends. 91 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:10,840 Speaker 1: Some of the meanings have negative connotations, and the Victorian 92 00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:14,080 Speaker 1: writers tended to associate these with yellow flowers, such as 93 00:06:14,279 --> 00:06:18,440 Speaker 1: the daughter for meanness or a yellow rose for jealousy. 94 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: Some of the writers included chapters on the special meaning 95 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:25,480 Speaker 1: assigned to the arrangement of flowers. For example, subtle signals 96 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:27,799 Speaker 1: might have been sent if a particular flower were worn 97 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:32,600 Speaker 1: in the hair or in a corsage. Lloyd said, usually 98 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:35,120 Speaker 1: the original meaning would be reversed if a flower is 99 00:06:35,160 --> 00:06:40,520 Speaker 1: worn upside down. One poet and floriography maven of her day, 100 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:45,200 Speaker 1: Katherine H. Waterman Esling, wrote in eighteen thirty nine, the 101 00:06:45,279 --> 00:06:48,400 Speaker 1: language of flowers has recently attracted so much attention that 102 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:50,880 Speaker 1: an acquaintance with it seems to be deemed, if not 103 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:53,919 Speaker 1: an essential part of a polite education, at least a 104 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:59,560 Speaker 1: graceful and elegant accomplishment. The long lived language of flowers 105 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:03,719 Speaker 1: craze was ushered in from eighteenth century Constantinople via Lady 106 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:06,880 Speaker 1: Mary Wortley Montague in travel letters that she mailed to 107 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:10,560 Speaker 1: her friends. In Europe. A Montague, a feminist poet who 108 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:13,680 Speaker 1: was married to the English ambassador to Turkey, accompanied her 109 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:17,320 Speaker 1: husband to his post in seventeen seventeen and became captivated 110 00:07:17,360 --> 00:07:20,880 Speaker 1: by the customs there. In a letter to her friends 111 00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:24,280 Speaker 1: back home, she wrote, there is no color, no flower, 112 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:27,920 Speaker 1: no weed, no fruit, herb, pebble, or feather that has 113 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:31,640 Speaker 1: not a verse belonging to it. And you may quarrel, reproach, 114 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:34,840 Speaker 1: or send letters of passion, friendship, or civility, or even 115 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:41,360 Speaker 1: of news without ever inking your fingers, Allois said. Montague's 116 00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:45,040 Speaker 1: Turkish Embassy letters were published in seventeen sixty three, shortly 117 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 1: after her death, and made her famous. The letters described 118 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 1: Turkish life, including the salaam, the Turkish language of flowers 119 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:56,480 Speaker 1: and objects undemonic system where flowers or objects rhyme used 120 00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:00,200 Speaker 1: as an aid for memorization. Examples don't translate well well 121 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:02,640 Speaker 1: because of the rhyme, but an example in English might 122 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:07,560 Speaker 1: be pair, do not despair. Although Salam is an ammonic system, 123 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:09,960 Speaker 1: it became known in Europe as a system of associating 124 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: flowers with sentiments. Probably the most famous and influential floriography 125 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:18,560 Speaker 1: book is by the well known writer and illustrator of 126 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:22,200 Speaker 1: children's books, Kate Greenaway, who lived in England from eighteen 127 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:26,360 Speaker 1: forty nine to nineteen oh one. Her book The Language 128 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 1: of Flowers, first published in eighteen eighty four, has been 129 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:32,800 Speaker 1: translated into many languages and continues to be reprinted to 130 00:08:32,840 --> 00:08:37,839 Speaker 1: this day. Even if Victorian's thought and spoke about floriography 131 00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:41,240 Speaker 1: more than they actually put it into practice, it's interesting 132 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:43,920 Speaker 1: to think about the movement as a pre digital version 133 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:49,000 Speaker 1: of emoji culture, Lois said. Many of the contemporary flower 134 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:52,079 Speaker 1: emoji sentiments could be found in a typical Victorian Language 135 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:56,040 Speaker 1: of Flowers dictionary. Like the Victorian Language of Flowers, flower 136 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:59,520 Speaker 1: and plant emoji symbolism often relies on a characteristic of 137 00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:04,559 Speaker 1: the plant for its significance, which is to say that 138 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:08,000 Speaker 1: just as sending an emoji of a peach, chili, pepper, 139 00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:11,440 Speaker 1: or eggplant doesn't literally mean that you're thinking about produce. 140 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:16,679 Speaker 1: Victorians were finding ways to express themselves figuratively. In the 141 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:20,839 Speaker 1: eighteen nineties. The Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde famously 142 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:24,240 Speaker 1: asked his friends and advocates to wear green carnations, which 143 00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:29,200 Speaker 1: he hinted would simultaneously signify homosexuality, while meaning nothing at all. 144 00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: When How Stuff Works spoke with Loy back in twenty twenty, 145 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:37,880 Speaker 1: they asked her to create a hypothetical bouquet that expresses 146 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:41,600 Speaker 1: the language of flowers for our current times, and I 147 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:44,280 Speaker 1: think it's still pretty applicable. She said that she would 148 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:49,440 Speaker 1: include balm for cure, coltsfoot for justice, mint for virtue, 149 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:54,920 Speaker 1: nistertium for heroism, dogwood for honesty, oak for honor, olive 150 00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:59,560 Speaker 1: for peace, pimpernel for change, pomp and rose for kindness, 151 00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:04,040 Speaker 1: stuf our flower for reciprocity, time for courage, and white 152 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:09,880 Speaker 1: chrysanthemum for truth. But Lloy said this bouquet represents qualities 153 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:17,679 Speaker 1: that we need more of in our contemporary world. Today's 154 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:20,320 Speaker 1: episode is based on the article red Roses Are Yellow, 155 00:10:20,559 --> 00:10:23,480 Speaker 1: Every Flower has a Secret Meaning on how Stuffworks dot Com, 156 00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:26,520 Speaker 1: written by Carrie Tatreu. Brain Stuff is production by Heart 157 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:28,920 Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is 158 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:32,200 Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts my heart Radio, 159 00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:35,760 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 160 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:38,240 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.