The Language and Sentiment of Flowers

IT'S A STAFF PICK!

Just back from England and Scotland, where Victorian history saturates every corner. We stopped at Jane Austen's museum in Bath and wrote with a quill pen on beautiful paper. The experience made me remember why I keep fountain pens at home. My mailbox is usually 99% junk, which makes a handwritten note to a friend feel intentional and slightly defiant. Although modern recipients may miss the references, this flower dictionary gave me a whole new layer to work with in my letters. These coded messages use blooms in the same way Victorian letter-writers did when words felt too risky or too plain. (I provide the reference in the letter at the bottom.)

 I left Clarkia on your doorstep after dinner. A quiet way to say the variety of your conversation delights me without the weight of speaking it aloud.

- Paul Belliveau, V.P. New Media

This colorful book evokes an age gone by, before the days of email and overnight shipping—when communication between people was a very special occasion, made more difficult by time and space. 

To Victorian letter-writers of the West a new, exotic and secret language came from the East: communicating through flowers. The language of flowers became so refined in the nineteenth century that this dictionary was necessary. Using this source, one could send a message of reproach, passion, friendship, quarrel or a myriad of other sentiments singly and combined via a simple bouquet without ever penning a single word.

An Illustrated Reproduction of a Victorian Floral Dictionary in a Beautiful Hardcover Edition

• Publisher: ‎Applewood Books
• Print length: 96 pages
• Item Weight:‎ 5.6 ounces
• Dimensions:‎ 4.25 x 0.4 x 7.25 inches