flower

All flowers have a meaning. The Victorians used to use flowers as a symbol to express their feelings. Here is a list of different flowers and their meanings. For hundreds of years flowers have held hidden meanings, derived from mythology, folklore, religious and historical symbolism. The floral bouquet you send or receive brings a special coded message, depending on the flowers you choose.
see rose meanings
'Sweet flowers alone can say what passion fears revealing' Thomas Hood

The study of the meaning of flowers is an actual science known as floriography, and it reveals an extra underlying meaning to sending or receiving flowers - subtle and secret messages can be passed through the different blooms.

During the 18th century sending flower messages based on a Turkish secret language of flowers became popular. This was known as sending a 'Persian Selam' - a coded bouquet to reveal your feelings of love or attraction. The Victorians became very knowledgeable in flower language and chose their bouquets carefully. Flowers gave them a secret language that enabled them to communicate feelings that the propriety of the times would not allow, there were strict restraints on courtship and any displays of emotion.

So next birthday, anniversary, Mother's day or any other occasion you plan to send flowers make sure you don't send the wrong message in your flowers. Even the way you hand over the bouquet sends a message too - flowers held in your right hand mean 'yes', whereas flowers held in the left hand mean 'no'.

Now I will show you some flowers and their meaning and I hope that enjoy you and teach you something new about the flowers….!

Flower meanings

Anemone - dying love - derived from the Greek for 'windflower', mythology relates the anemone sprung from the tears of Aphrodite as she mourned the death of her love, Adonis. In folklore the anemone is believed to bring luck and protection against evil. The flower was said to foretell rain by closing its petals, and fairies were believed to sleep beneath the petals of the wood anemone during the night after they closed at sunset.

Bluebell - constancy and everlasting love - believed to call the fairies when rung, and thought to be unlucky to walk through a mass of bluebells, because it was full of spells. It is also considered an unlucky flower to pick or bring into the house. The Latin name for this flower is Endymion who was the lover of the moon Goddess, Selene. The goddess put Endymion into an eternal sleep, so she alone could enjoy his beauty. Bluebells were said by herbalists to help prevent nightmares, and used as a remedy against leprosy, spider-bites and tuberculosis, but the bluebell is poisonous.


Forget-me-nots - true love and remembrance - mythology describes this as the flower chosen by a brave knight as a posy for his sweetheart before going to battle, as he knelt to gather the tiny blue flowers he fell into a river and was swept away, calling to his love to 'forget me not'.


Moss - symbolic of maternal love - soft and comforting used widely by birds in nesting.