Flowers are such beautiful things, both visually and metaphorically. Each flower carries its own meaning in a sense, like how a red rose resembles love to many, how a poppy represents remembrance to those who die in war or how a sunflower can represent happiness. There is so much meaning within them, but I’ve always wondered, where do these meanings come from? What decides these meanings?
After looking into it, a lot of these meanings vary. Sometimes it can be historical, sometimes it’s about the way a flower behaves or even its colors.
Sunflowers are a perfect first example. Sunflowers can represent optimism, joy and warmth. These meanings are derived from the flower itself. For example, its bright yellow petals and sun-like shape contribute to this meaning as yellow is connected in our mind as a warm and joyful color and so is the sun.
Another aspect is the way in which a sunflower behaves. For those who don’t know, outside of their yellow petals and sun-like shape, sunflowers’ names derive from a specific behavior they portray. When they grow, they consistently face towards the sunlight in order to absorb as much sunlight as possible to grow. This aspect can be attributed to the optimistic meaning behind the flower, as it can be seen as always looking at the bright side.
Next up, there are roses. Out of all flowers, red roses are probably the most well known for their symbolism. Red roses are known to symbolize love and romance. Many know this, but not many truly know the origin behind this meaning. Well, the truth is that this origin is derivative from multiple places. Mostly though, it is from a mixture of mythology and religion.
In Greek mythology, they were a flower that sprouted as Aphrodite walked. Aphrodite being a goddess of love and beauty. Then, in Early Christianity, it had been a symbol of the Virgin Mary’s virtue. Lastly, going back to Greek mythology, the word “Rose” is an anagram for another Greek god of love known as “Eros.”
Another flower with interesting symbolism is the Lotus flower. The Lotus flower is renowned as a flower that represents purity, resilience, strength and rebirth. It is depicted in several pieces of media as a very sacred flower, one such example being “Avatar the Last Airbender,” in which it is used as a symbol of enlightenment belonging to a group within the show named after the white lotus.
The Lotus flower, somewhat, derives its meaning due to a similar circumstance as the sunflower, but also some ties to religion as well just like the rose. They gain part of their meaning from how they bloom from muddy waters. Lotus flowers also have been seen by Ancient Egyptians to close and sink into the water at night and bloom once more in the light, resulting in the development of their cultural meaning as well.
This symbolism was most likely cemented into our brains due to its religious history within Hinduism and Buddhism, where it is also seen as a symbol of purity and beauty.
Lastly there is the poppy flower, a symbol of remembrance used to honor those who died in war. Unlike the previous flowers, I find this one’s origin extremely interesting and honestly kind of sad.
To find the origin, we have to go all the way back to the time of World War I. Several battles occurred and so many lives had been lost. Within many of some of the most major battlefields, such as the battlefields of Flanders, Belgium, red poppies grew from the ground across their grounds.
The red of these poppy flowers would come to symbolize the blood of fallen soldiers. This is even further cemented and immortalized later on Dec. 18, 1915, through a poem titled “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae which used vivid descriptions of these poppies blooming within the fields to encourage those soldiers to continue the fight and honor those who sacrificed their lives in the war.
Since then, poppy flowers have dawned the symbol of remembrance for those who tragically lost their lives in war. This is such a beautiful example as for why I love flower symbolism. Sure sometimes, the reasoning may be simplistic and that’s fine of course, but when the symbolism has a full story behind it like it does here, it just adds so much more to that meaning.
The history of floral language doesn’t end here though. There are nearly over 200,000 species of flowers so there is no way for me to discuss the origin of every single flower’s symbolic nature. Will that stop me from learning more about flowers though? The answer is no. Over the years I’ve come to love flowers more and more, especially their symbolism. I’ve even gone so far to incorporate their symbolism into my own stories and characters
Floral language is such a beautiful thing, as one way or another, it might just teach you something new about the flowers and the rich stories some can tell.