Throughout human history, flowers have played a significant role as gestures and gifts. Though specific meanings and traditions may change, flowers remain a part of human connection.
Ancient Greeks (who associated flowers with gods), Romans, Egyptians and Chinese all refer to the use of flowers in their stories and myths and place them at a high importance. But, it was only in the mid-1700s that the significance of flower giving increased. when the French and English visited Turkey, they discovered an entire language of flowers which gave meaning to different flower types. From this time on, the Victorian culture created a meaning for every characteristic of a flower.
People in Victorian era did not believe in verbal expression of emotion, so flowers quickly became an acceptable form to communicate one’s feelings.
The flowers’ color, size, condition, presentation and even flowers’ position in relation to each other all conveyed meaning. And a flower presented to someone upside down meant the opposite of its supposed original meaning. There were numerous books written on how what each flower and bouquet meant, but because they were not all written by the same author or in the same time period there have been times where the giver and receiver each had a different interpretation of the gesture.
Today most people no longer know the old-fashioned meaning of many flowers, and we now live in the world where it is not out of the ordinary for a woman to give flowers to a man. We have option to send either virtual flowers or real, give it personally or use delivery service, whichever way it may be, flowers are still a huge part of our lives, and I feel like they will be for many many years to come, regardless of acceptable form of communication, be it text message, phone call or person to person.