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Victorian flower language, or floriography, gave flowers symbolic meanings that could be looked up in books and used to shape a bouquet. But there was no single authoritative code: meanings varied between guides, and evidence that people commonly arranged bouquets as precise secret messages is lacking.
What was the Victorian language of flowers?
Floriography is the practice of assigning symbolic meanings to flowers. It became especially popular in the nineteenth century, when printed flower dictionaries helped readers interpret individual blooms and compose arrangements. The tradition was older than the Victorian era: writers drew on earlier literary, religious, mythological, medicinal, and visual associations.
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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →British and American authors adapted earlier books and developed their own vocabularies. By 1869, John Ingram’s Flora Symbolica gathered meanings from multiple sources. The Royal Horticultural Society notes that flower lists grew extensive and contradictory, sometimes including plants unlikely to be practical bouquet choices. The RHS account of the language of flowers traces how these guides developed.
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One influential late-century example was Kate Greenaway’s Language of Flowers, published in 1884. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes it as an illustrated guide published by George Routledge & Sons, with colour wood engravings printed by Edmund Evans. The RHS identifies it as the last popular English book on the subject in the nineteenth century.
Did Victorians really send secret messages with bouquets?
Books, valentines, and other objects show that floral symbolism was real and widely circulated as an idea. That is different from proving that people routinely encoded detailed messages in everyday bouquets. English Heritage cautions that “there’s no real evidence that people actually designed bouquets to deliver specific messages” and suggests floriography may have functioned more as a parlour game for genteel women.
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Some guides described elaborate conventions for giving and receiving flowers; their instructions show what authors proposed, not necessarily what everyone practiced. Christopher Weddell, Senior Gardens Advisor at English Heritage, puts the longer history this way: “People – especially the Victorians – have attributed different symbolic meanings to flowers for thousands of years, but today the deeper and more complex language of flowers is all but lost.”
What did particular flowers mean?
Meanings depended on the reference consulted, and even the same flower could carry conflicting definitions. These examples are attributed to the source that records them rather than presented as one definitive Victorian dictionary.
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| Flower | Meaning recorded | Source and context |
|---|---|---|
| Myrtle | Love | English Heritage; the source also discusses its royal association and the Osborne House plant tradition. |
| Pansy | “You occupy my thoughts” | English Heritage connects the name with the French pensées, meaning thoughts. |
| Striped carnation | Refusal | English Heritage recounts Henry Phillips’s warning about offering this emblem to a suitor. |
| Yellow rose | Decrease of love or infidelity | English Heritage lists these among negative or passive-aggressive meanings. |
| Red rose | Deep love | The University of Delaware’s quick guide; this is that guide’s wording, not a universal definition. |
| Lavender | Distrust | Recorded by both the University of Delaware and English Heritage. |
| Carnation | Pride | A meaning shown on a card in the Met’s 1892 series. |
| Cornflower | Modesty | A meaning shown on a card in the Met’s 1892 series. |
| Poppy | Consolation | A meaning shown on a card in the Met’s 1892 series. |
| Tea rose | Jealousy | A meaning shown on a card in the Met’s 1892 series. |
Colour and variety could matter, as the yellow rose and striped carnation examples suggest. So could the author’s sources: English Heritage notes that writers assigned different meanings to the white rose. Before treating a flower as a message, ask which guide, place, date, and particular flower or colour the interpretation comes from.
How could bouquet presentation change a meaning?
Some flower guides treated an arrangement’s form and handling as part of its symbolism. The University of Delaware describes several bouquet forms and conventions, while the RHS notes that by the 1850s some guides assigned meanings to presentation and tilt.
- Talking bouquet: A tied arrangement described as a means of conveying floral symbols.
- Tussie-mussie: A small bouquet wrapped in lace, with herbs at its centre.
- Nosegay: A compact bunch carried or pinned to the chest.
- Giving and receiving: Some guides said the hand used to pass flowers, the bouquet’s tilt, or the recipient’s handling could affect the intended message.
These are conventions recorded in particular guides, not proof of consistent etiquette across Victorian society. A useful way to interpret any claim is to distinguish a book’s prescription from a surviving object and from evidence of everyday behavior.
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Flower dictionaries were only one route by which meanings circulated. The Met documents an 1892 American tobacco-card series called Floral Beauties and Language of Flowers. The series contains more than one hundred cards, each pairing a portrait with a flower meaning. Its examples include carnation for pride, cornflower for modesty, poppy for consolation, and tea rose for jealousy. The cards demonstrate that floral meanings appeared in commercial visual culture; their number does not measure how many people used floriography.
For a closer look at how one guide’s meanings differ from another’s, consult the RHS history, the Met’s essay on flower symbolism and its collection, and the University of Delaware’s guide to floral dictionaries. Treat each as a particular historical reference, not a key to a standardized code.
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