Each spring as sap runs through the trees again and seasonal birds return, stirring our hearts with their songs, we eagerly anticipate spring’s flowers. Hearty bulbs poke green shoots through thawing ground, and soon golden crocus, purple iris, yellow daffodils and red tulips returns color to the stark landscape of winter. We know that color has meaning, but what about the nature and quality of flowers and plants themselves? Can flowers speak to us in dreams?

The idea of “saying it with flowers” began long before the modern and familiar icon of FTD. The language and symbolism of flowers, herbs and plants has a rich and colorful history.  In Constantinople in the 1600s, which later became Istanbul, flowers grew to have meaning and actually became a sophisticated code which enabled lovers and others to send unspoken messages. The language of flowers was introduced to Europe by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who was a society poet of the day and a celebrated letter writer. In 1716 she accompanied her husband to the Turkish court in Istanbul. As a result of her discovery of the language of flowers she brought the code back to England where it found fertile soil.  

After coming to England the idea then passed to the French and subsequently back to England during Victoria’s reign through Madame de la Tour’s book Le Langage des Fleurs. The lusty French version proved too risqué for refined English society and subsequent versions had to be toned down. One wonders what spicy sentiments have been lost.

Within the floral code more than 800 flowers came to have distinct meaning and the  messages encoded into bouquets could be both subtle and complex. Author David Squire gives an example, “Gillyflower and heliotrope with a leaf of virginia creeper would mean “I offer true friendship, affection and devotion.” While another bouquet of monkshood, mountain ash and blue violet conveys, “Danger is near; be prudent and faithful.”

Flowers embody beauty and the ephemeral nature of life in form.They are the reproductive organs of their plants, inviting insects through their colors and scents, who in turn affect pollination. They also represent the eventual blooming and fruition of the soul. When flowers appear in dreams as always examine the context. Is the flower a bud, opening or fading? This may indicate the stage of the subject matter: beginning, maturing or winding down.