Pollen Nation

Vernal Grass – The Daily Flower for 30 April

To the untrained ear, Anthoxanthum odoratum has the slightly repellent ring of a veterinary epidemic about it, but in truth the only people who should be turning up their noses are hayfever sufferers. The rest of us – beasts (especially bubulas ones) included – can smile benignly at this sweet-smelling yellow-flowered grass that’s full of the joys of spring... and of buffaloes and vanilla, if we’re to misconstrue its other common names.

Rather than smelling like beef or ice-cream, however, vernal grass has the distinctive scent of hay or freshly cut grass. Although, if you fancy bringing that scent indoors, you might do better to get a bunch of gerberas, which are also rich in coumarins, the source of the sumptuous smell.

Anthoxanthum odoratum (vernal grass) by James Lindsey

Good for giving to: People who're poor but happy, according to the floriographers.

Great vernal grass in literature: Allegedly about a lass in poor health (well, dead, to be precise)... but it's quite possible she was happy:

  O THOU! who sleep'st where hazle-bands entwine
The vernal grass, with paler violets drest;
I would, sweet maid! thy humble bed were mine,
And mine thy calm and enviable rest

From 'Sonnet XLIX'

Tags: flowers, vernal grass, vanilla grass, buffalo grass, Anthoxanthum odoratum, floriography

 

Broken Straw – The Daily Flower for 27 April

Danger! Danger! Hay voltage… Dick Valentine may have a bit of a funny way of pronouncing it, but of course he’s singing about a lofty surge in electrical power, not the stuff that horses eat. But he’d have been onto something if he were: broken straw connotes ‘Trouble! Trouble!’ in floriography.

Technically speaking, hay is actually different to straw, the former being mown grass and the latter threshed grain. Or, in idiomatic terms, the former’s what you make when the sun shines while the latter’s what you clutch at when it doesn’t. On a very bad day, that grasping results in you drawing the short straw, which is usually the last one. Trouble indeed.

Genuine Dorset straw by babbagecabbage

Good for giving to: People who're not very good at outwitting their opponents.

Great straw in literature: The trouble with the Scarecrow’s affliction is a no-brainer:

“But I do not want people to call me a fool, and if my head stays stuffed with straw instead of with brains, as yours is, how am I ever to know anything?”

From The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Tags: flowers, straw, floriography

 

Bridal Rose – The Daily Flower for 26 April

Brides. Are they blushing, or pure, do you reckon? Or, more importantly, were they more wayward or wan in the Victorian era, when the language of flowers was at its heyday? This isn’t a question of social mores, mind you, merely one of identification.

Nobody (well, if you consider Google to be everybody) seems to know to which rose the bridal rose refers. Some sources suggest it’s a rather stately pink rose called Souvenir de la Malmaison, while others suggest any white roses will do. Rose is a rose is a rose and all that. Besides, the sentiment is what counts in the end, especially when the sentiment is ‘happy love’.

Good for giving to: Brides, one would presume.

Great bridal roses in literature:

For their elder Sister's hair
Martha does a wreath prepare
Of bridal rose, ornate and gay:
To-morrow is the wedding day.
She is going

From 'She is Going' by Charles Lamb (1755-1834)

Tags: flowers, bridal rose, Souvenir de Malmaison, white roses,floriography

Peach Blossom – The Daily Flower for 25 April

You’ve heard that expression peachy keen? Well, if you ever find yourself feeling that way, but are a little shy of confessing in so many words, give the apple of your eye a sprig of peach blossoms, which connote ‘I am yours’ in floriography.

If that’s a little too forthright still, start by giving them a peach. The fruit of Prunus persica, you see, implies unequaled qualities and charms. But then you’d have to wait almost a full year before the pretty pink spring blossoms were once again in bloom before you could deliver your true message. Carpe flora, we say. Especially if you’re a constipated insomniac with worms.

Peach blossoms by mike warren

Good for giving to: Citizens of Delaware (it's their national flower) and coy misses and misters (see above).

Great peach blossoms in literature:

Seeing the blossoms of the peach tree
unfurling in the spring breeze,
all confusion is swept away
in the movements of the tangle
of branches and leaves

'Awake, Seeing the Peach Blossoms' by Zen Master Eihei Dogen (1200-1253)

Tags: flowers, peach blossoms, Prunus persica, floriography

 

Musk Rose – The Daily Flower for 24 April

Whimsical, impulsive, quirky — you wouldn’t expect less from a leggy lingerie model (although you should possibly expect more), but of an old rose? How Rosa moschata, the creamy white musk rose, came to connote caprice (with a lowercase c) is rather curious. Perhaps we should just put it down to the uncontrollable urge of a young floriographer. Well, the scent of musk (and the musk rose isn’t called the musk rose for nothing) is, after all, said to be a bit of an aphrodisiac.

Rosa moschata by Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840)

Good for giving to: Supermodels and quacksalvers.

Great musk roses in literature: Pretty things have a history of being patronised, it seems:

“Here’s the white musk rose, Mr. Betteredge — our old English rose holding up its head along with the best and the newest of them. Pretty dear!” says the Sergeant, fondling the Musk Rose with his lanky fingers, and speaking to it as if he was speaking to a child.

From The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Tags: flowers, musk rose, Rosa moschata, floriography

 

Cinquefoil – The Daily Flower for 13 April

Even now this landscape is assembling.
The hills darken. The oxen
Sleep in their blue yoke,
The fields having been
Picked clean, the sheaves
Bound evenly and piled at the roadside
Among cinquefoil, as the toothed moon rises:

This is the barrenness
Of harvest or pestilence
And the wife leaning out the window
With her hand extended, as in payment,
And the seeds
Distinct, gold, calling
Come here
Come here, little one

And the soul creeps out of the tree.

‘All Hallows’ by Louise Gluck

Cinquefoil by Doctor Swan

Potentilla: a genus of fever-curing herbs bearing moon-yellow flowers with toothed leaves; known in some circles as tormentil, in others as barren strawberry, and connoting sometimes ‘the dead’ and others ‘maternal affection’. Cinquefoil is thus a most apt choice of flower for this evocative poem by Louise Gluck.

Good for giving to: Beloved daughters and zombies.

Tags: flowers, cinquefoil, barren strawberry, floriography

 

Bindweed – The Daily Flower for 12 April

If they issued ASBOs to flowers, Convolvulus arvensis (Bindweed to his mates) would be the first to get one.

Bindweed, you see, is the delinquent teenager of the plant world. Forbid it from frequenting such insalubrious locations as the railway tracks and vacant lots, and, without fail, there you shall find it graffitoing its rather unimaginative white flower tag over every available surface.

Bindweed by zenera

Declared a noxious weed in almost every state of the US and connoting obstinacy in floriography, bindweed is inevitably a plant that's rather contrary of character: anti-clockwise twirling tendrils, fearless of anti-climb paint (it’ll scale any railings and fences it comes near) and mixed up with booze (apparently it flavours a liqueur called Noyeau).

But, like all teenagers – even the ones with ASBOs – bindweed has a sweet side. Rather surprisingly, it’s its smell.

Want to send some less obstinate white flowers with an even sweeter scent? Try these freesias.

Good for giving to: Stick-in-the-muds, or herd-followers.

Great bindweed in literature:

the bindweed flower
you put in my bashful hair
has faded
in the delicate light
of the evening.
'The bindweed flower' by Kawano Yuko (trans. Amelia Fielden and Ugawa Kozue)

Tags: flowers, Bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis, floriography

 

Beech – The Daily Flower for 11 April

A vaguely reputable weekend broadsheet (if memory serves me correctly) made reference to some research that suggested taller men with a good build were more likely to be rich and more likely to me married than shorter, weedier fellows. By all accounts, it’s not just strapping lads that get what’s considered ‘all the luck’ by the conservative Western eye: able-bodied arbours do, too.

Fagus sylvatica by antennae

Take the deciduous beech tree for example. It boasts smooth bark, a sturdy girth of up to 3m and can grow to almost 50m tall. What’s more, it shuns the effeminate flower in favour of more manly catkins and cupules, the latter encased in tough bur armour. What a man! (Yawn.) Of course this tree could only have the positive connotation of ‘prosperity’ in floriography.

In fact, if people were trees the beech would be the perfect partner for the unimaginative heterosexual heroine with trophy-wife aspirations… perfect, that is, until he revealed that his name was Fagus.

Fagus sylvatica (Common or European Beech) from Koehler's Medicinal-Plants 1887

Good for giving to: Those in need of good fortune.

Great beeches in literature: A portent of robbing the rich and so becoming rich oneself?

So saying, Robin Hood stepped forth from the shade of the beech tree, crossed the stile, and stood in the middle of the road, with his hands on his hips, in the stranger's path.

From The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

Tags: flowers, Common Beech, Fagus sylvatica, floriography

 

Barberry – The Daily Flower for 10 April

It’s little surprise that Barberry didn’t make it onto the flower fairy shortlist. I suspect the flower fairy fellowship didn’t even bother to investigate the plant before ruling it out; simply read the name ‘Berberis vulgaris’ and leaped to the conclusion that this was a crotchety old maid who wouldn’t make the grade.

By all accounts, the floriographers were of much the same opinion, assigning the European shrub the rather unfriendly connotation of ‘ill temper’. They may have had a point, however – after all, the barberry certainly does. Three points, to be precise... in the form of a tripartite thorn-like spine hidden below the leaves.

Although these spikes make the barberry a rather good washing line (see the literary quotation below), they’re rather irksome if you’re trying to get at the plant’s sour berries, which are delicious when made into barberry jam. Brave hosts could even go the whole hog and serve the jam with a cheeseboard after a meal of saffron chicken and barberry rice.

Barberry flower panicles by bc anna

Fancy some lemony loveliness without the prickles? Take a peek at Serenata's yellow flowers.

Good for giving to: Anyone who's been needling you.

Great barberries in literature:

"If she makes as much work after she comes as she has before, we might as well give up hope of ever gettin' any rest," sighed Miranda as she hung the dish towels on the barberry bushes at the side door.

From Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Tags: flowers, barberry, Berberis vulgaris, floriography

 

Mouse-Ear Chickweed – The Daily Flower for 5 April

Clust Llygoden Culddail may think it’s the only mouse-ear chickweed in the village, but it’s only the commonest one. And despite its bordering-on-unpronounceable name in Welsh (but that’s Welsh for you) and tongue-tripping binomial (but that’s Latin for you), it’s a plant that’s said to connote ‘simplicity’ in floriography. That’s not to say it’s the village idiot, though.

Au contraire, the Eurasian native Cerastium fontanum was highly regarded by the Cherokee Indians, who made an infusion of its stems and roots to cure any worm-infested offspring.

Cerastium fontanume (common mouse-ear chickweed)

The unfussy little white flowers that appear from April to September are probably what inspired mouse-eared chickweed’s meaning in the language of flowers. They’re rather simple to identify, too, and do things in nice round numbers: 10 stamens, five semi-bisected petals (so it looks like 10 if you count the tips) and a diameter of about 10mm.

Inspired by the simplicity of the mouse-eared chickweed? You might revel in the clean edges and minimal aesthetics of Serenata Flowers’ simple flower arrangements.

Good for giving to: Uncomplicated types.

Great mouse-ear chickweeds in literature: Why not write your own poem while you munch on some mouse-ear chickweed soup?

Tags: flowers, mouse-ear chickweed, Cerastium fontanume, floriography

 

Reed – The Daily Flower for 4 April

We are the hollow stems
We are the stuff of pens
Leaning together
Two metres high, colour of straw. Phragmites!
Connoting musical voice, when
We whisper together
Quite meaninglessly
In marshes, bogs and shallow lakes.
But in days of yore we cured the aches
Of ailing cottage dwellers.

(With apologies to T.S. Eliot.)

Phragmites australis by visulogik

Good for giving to: Choristers.

Great reeds in literature: Someone clearly didn't agree with the floriographers

It was a very simple little story, that of the slender brown reed which grew by the forest pool and always was sad and sighing because it could not utter music like the brook and the birds and the winds.

From The Golden Road by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Tags: flowers, reed, Phragmites australis, floriography

 

Gerbera – The Daily Flower for 3 April

From sunshine yellow to cerise pink, gerberas are a simple statement of happiness. Endemic to the sunny lowlands of South Africa, these versatile flowers unsurprisingly embody the light-hearted affability for which antipodeans are renowned.

The combination of bright colour and well-defined petals means these Transvaal daisies look as sensational in arrangements as they do accompanied only by a little bear grass. Rich in the chemical compound coumarin, gerberas have a sweet scent reminiscent of newly mown lawns. This simple aroma must have reminded the floriographers of their childlike gadding in fields, inspiring them to accord gerberas the connotation ‘innocent’.

Send gerberas at Serenata Flowers

The Gerbera species (pronounced jur-bra, or gur-ber-a) is named after Traugott Gerber, a German medical doctor active in Moscow during the middle of the 18th century. Although Gerber was the director of a botanical garden who was commissioned to educate students in herbology, there’s some curiosity as to why Frederic Gronovius named a perennial plant species from South Africa after him.

Gerberas are from the sunflower family, and the variety typically used in floristry is a hybrid created from Gerbera jamesonii and Gerbera viridifolia. A new development is the germini, which was bred for a smaller flower head (about 5cm across) and sturdier stem, keeping it upright for longer.

Gerbera flower delivery made easy with the Lipgloss bouquet from Serenata Flowers

Gerberas don’t respond well in overly warm or draughty areas, preferring indirect or filtered light. Their vase life (typically 14 days) is also shortened if they’re placed in close proximity to ripening fruit. Check the water level every day; changing the water and trimming the stems every four to five days can double the life of the flowers. If this leaves you with a very short stem, transfer the flowers to a low container to brighten up a bathroom or kitchen.

Good for giving to: Anyone above suspicion.

Great gerberas in literature: Not so innocent, here (although these are plastic ones). Interestingly, there's a variety of lilac germini called 'Aisha' (no 'l'):

& this is how it ends?
Some grimy memorial near stop 14,
duct-taped elegies from school friends
plastic gerberas & bad poems wrapped
around traffic lights, bridge struts, power
poles - stagnant flower vase water trapped
under the false, industrial epidermis;

From 'Alisha’s End' by BR Dionysius

Find out more (in fact, all) about gerberas at the All About Gerberas blog.

Tags: flowers, gerbera, germini, floriography

 

Rush – The Daily Flower for 2 April

Barbara, Benjamin, Geoffrey and Jennifer are four rather uproarious Rushes who’ve proved anything but reedy. Bulbous, Brewer’s, Georgia and Jointed, however, are four very reedy rushes that’ve come to connote ‘quietness’ in floriography.

Unlike the thespian, troubador and tenderheart Rushes listed above, true rushes are of the Juncus genus in the Juncaceae family and, being marsh plants, are more often spotted in the slime-like than in the limelight. Not that rushes don’t reach great heights: they’re a popular choice for weaving into thatched rooftops and hanging baskets (the botanical binomial is thought to come from jungere or jungo, meaning to join).

Juncus effusus by Johann Georg Sturm, Deutschlands Flora in Abbildungen (1796)

Good for giving to: Hushed and hollow men.

Great rushes in literature: A folk song that inspired one of Rabbie's classics:

I'll sing you one, Ho (or O)
Green grow the rushes, Ho
What is your one, Ho?
One is one and all alone
And evermore shall be (it) so.

Tags: flowers, rush, Juncus, floriography