The secret language of flowers

For centuries now, we have given meaning to flowers.

Aphrodites, the Greek Goddess of love, lust and beauty, was said to have been born from the foam of the Mediterannean Sea and where the foam fell on dry land white roses grew. And to this day a white rose signifies the purity and innocence of love.

It was Aphrodites too who gave meaning to a red rose. While hurrying to the aid of her lover, Adonis, it was said that she caught her flesh on the thorns of the white rose bush, drawing blood and turning the white rose petals red. And so it is that we still give red roses as a symbol of both love and passion.

In 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu went to Turkey with her husband, the then British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. She was a prolific writer of diaries, essays and poems, and her Turkish Embassy Letters which were published shortly after her death in 1763, proved very popular.

In them she spoke of a "language of flowers" used by the Ottomans, and the interest sparked by her writings prompted other authors to develop lists of flowers together with their meanings.

Flower dictionaries were produced, detailing the meaning behind the giving and receiving of flowers, and during Victorian times interest in the language of flowers reached its peak.

Bouquets were often created with a great deal of thought so as to encompass a hidden meaning in what were prim and proper times.

As the poet Thomas Hood said, "Sweet flowers alone can say what passion fears revealing."

The giving of pansies for example symbolised "loving thoughts", a yellow carnation disappointment or rejection.

A red rose symbolised love, and even although the language of flowers has largely been forgotten, we still give red roses on St Valentine's Day because of our Victorian ancestors.