Pollen Nation

Common Nettle – The Daily Flower for 31 October

You’d expect something a little devilish for the Hallowe’en flower, but Urtica dioica, the common or stinging nettle, is definitely more trick than treat. Little wonder, then, that it symbolises cruelty in floriography.

Urtica dioica by Michael Gasperl (Migas)

The flower of the common nettle is capable of producing a treat, however – assuming you like herbal infusions. If not, you’re out of luck, as the little inflorescences are not exactly great beauties.

Good for giving to: Brutal brewers.

Great nettles in literature: How spooky... they have the power to raise people from the dead:

“Then he shot the arrow and fell back and would have died, but he lit on a nettle and sprang up too gaily for a corpse.”
From Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

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Tags: flowers, common nettle, stinging nettle, Urtica dioica, floriography

Parsley – The Daily Flower for 30 October

Mercurial and untrue – who would have thought it of the tasty herb Petroselinum, adder of flavour to fish, treater of tabbouleh-eaters' taste buds, and, most importantly, inducer of gratitude in friends of garlic munchers?

Petroselinum neapolitanum by Howard Cheng

Despite its many munificent properties, the chlorophyll-rich parsley plant is accorded the meaning of ‘fickleness’ in floriography. Or perhaps it’s because of those properties… the etymology of parsley’s botanical name (roughly, rock celery), suggests our forefathers confused it for something it wasn’t.

Good for giving to: Friends who take precautions against vampires. Especially ones who say they don’t, but actually do.

Great parsley in literature: It plumbs moral depths in floriography, but more physical ones in fiction:

“You will remember, Watson, how the dreadful business of the Abernetty family was first brought to my notice by the depth which the parsley had sunk into the butter upon a hot day.”
From ‘The Return of Sherlock Holmes’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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Tags: flowers, parsley, Petroselinum, floriography

Red Raspberry – The Daily Flower for 15 October

Once upon a time there lived a nymph. Instead of the usual dryadic monikers of forest folk, this particular nymph went by the name of Ida. She was a bit of a fruit fiend – and one day met her misfortune by plucking her favourite treat, a white raspberry, from a thorny bow.

Rubus idaeus from Prof. Dr. Otto Wilhelm Thomé’s Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885

A nymph she may have been, but Ida had rather human fingertips, filled with a sanguineous substance – just like the rest of us. Only her blood was a little hardier than ours, and caused raspberries for evermore red to be.

Making such a permanent mark on the world is hardly a cause for gloom, however. So perhaps the Victorians assigned the meaning of ‘misery’ to the flower of Rubus idaeus because the five-petalled, rose-like blossom didn’t have the good fortune to acquire the same ruddy hue as its fruit.

Good for giving to: Anyone in need of a thimble.

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, raspberry, Rubus idaeus, floriography

China Rose – The Daily Flower for 14 October

At last! A flower whose physical characteristics offer more than just a tenuous connection with its floriographic connotation. China roses really can claim to have beauty always new.

Rosa chinensis by Sakurai Midori

How, you ask? Well, unlike the other roses that adorned the gardens of Europe in the late 18th century, Rosa chinensis boasted two fancy new features of a rather Dorian Gray sort.

Not only do the imported orientals darken with age (most uncharacteristic for roses, which normally fade), but the plants produce more than one ‘crop’ of blooms in a season. Beauty always new indeed!

Good for giving to: Botox victims.

Great China roses in literature: Tom Waits? It must be poetry:

“Will I meet a China rose there in dreamland?
Or does love lie bleeding in dreamland?
Are these days forever and always?”
From ‘Flower’s Grave’

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Tags: flowers, China Rose, Rosa chinensis, floriography

Deep Red Rose – The Daily Flower for 13 October

“My love is like a red, red rose,” opined Mr Burns. Not a deep red rose, we hope. For, in floriography, it is believed that the deep red rose connotes shame. Bashful shame, but shame all the same.

Deep secret by Zixiette

Although it’s likely the Victorian floriographers were talking about deep-red roses in general, if they had a specific one in mind, it was probably Deep Secret… or it would have been, if the big-flowered, plummy scarlet tea hybrid wasn’t only cultivated in 1977.

As an ‘old rose’, Deep Secret has all the traditional rose qualities: a strong scent, large velvety petals, longevity and a knack for attracting the eye of anyone who passes it. So, whether or not it connotes shame, you can be sure you’ll have someone blushing if you give them one – but they’ll be blushing with happiness. (You can always stick to the gorgeous Grand Prix roses though, if you’re wary of conveying mixed messages)

Good for giving to: Shameless hussies.

Great deep red roses in literature: A reference from Wilkie Collins, in a chapter (perhaps tellingly?) entitled ‘The Bride’s Mistake’:

On her head is a bonnet to match, relieved by a quilling of white muslin with one deep red rose, as a morsel of positive color, to complete the effect of the whole dress.
From Law and the Lady

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Tags: flowers, deep red rose, Rosa Deep Secret, floriography

Rose Mundi – The Daily Flower for 12 October

Parti-coloured prettiness and a mild, spicy scent defines the garnet-striped Rosa gallica versicolour – but don’t be fooled into thinking this is a totally innocent flower. Yes, the Victorians assigned Rosa mundi the connotation ‘you are merry’ and ‘variety’, but, one must ask, after whom was this old rose beauty named?

Rosa gallica versicolour by Kurt Stueber (Rosa mundi)

Numerous sources suggest this semi-double-petalled white with its splashes of crimson and candy stripes was named after the beautiful Rosamund Clifford, who spent her days (and most probably nights) entertaining the already-wed Henry II. Fair she may have been, but worldly, too, if her tombstone inscription is not interpreted as mere slander.

Good for giving to: Uncoy mistresses.

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Tags: flowers, Rosa mundi, Rosa gallica versicolour, Fair Rosamond’s Rose, floriography

Black-Eyed Susan – The Daily Flower for 11 October

Rudbeckia hirta isn’t Netherglish for a dirty-mouthed animal that’s been injured. Au contraire, it’s the floriographic symbol for pure-mindedness. How d’ya explain that shiner, then, when you discover that Rudbeckia hirta is better know as Black-eyed Susan?

Black-eyed Susan by Shannon

Black-eyed Susan may have a dark heart, but her leaves are sunshine yellow and her inflorescence can grow to a whopping 30 cm across – an appearance perhaps better suited to her epithet Gloriosa Daisy (she is a true child of the Asteraceaes).

She does court trouble, however. Black-eyed Susan is the flower used by enamoured damsels to determine whether he loves them… or loves them not.

Good for giving to: Good girls who can’t quite guess someone’s intentions.

Great Black-eyed Susans is literature: Does a song from the great Moz count?:

“Oh, Black-eyed Susan
What don't you believe in?
‘No is always easier than yes’”
From ‘Black-Eyed Susan’ on My Early Burglary Years

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, Black-Eyed Susan, Gloriosa daisy, Rudbeckia hirta , floriography

Wheat – The Daily Flower for 3 October

If the Victorian floriographers are to be believed, never a wealthy coeliac there will be. To them, wheat connotes ‘you will be rich’.

Wheat by Very Good with Computers

Wheat, a.k.a. Triticum, is a grass better known as a key ingredient in pasta and vodka that as a plant that bears a remarkable flower – most probably because its flowers are rather unremarkable. Far more remarkable is the evidence that suggests this cereal has been around since 6,000 B.C., so don’t let looks deceive you.

Good for giving to: Paupers with prospects. And Estonians.

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, wheat, Triticum, floriography

Juniper – The Daily Flower for 2 October

Aah, where would the colonial madams have been without their G&Ts? Indeed, where would many of us be! It’s no wonder the flower of the coniferous juniper bush is said to connote protection.

Juniperus communis from Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885

Juniper flowers aren’t anywhere nearly as exciting as the plum-coloured juniper berries. And while gin might be great to sweeten the mood for mingling, the fact that Juniperus communis is monoecious means that the little yellow male flowers don’t spend much time socialising in the company of the green female flowers. Which is, one must concede, protection of another sort.

Good for giving to: Anyone on a hit-list.

Great junipers in literature: Not quite as protective as silver and garlic, perhaps:

“A little ways off, beyond a line of scattered juniper trees, which marked the pathway to the church, a white dim figure flitted in the direction of the tomb.”
From Dracula by Bram Stoker

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Tags: flowers, juniper, Juniperus communis, floriography

Horse Chestnut – The Daily Flower for 1 October

Luxury! Sheer luxury! That’s hardly an image muddy British schoolboys evoke when they emerge, battle victorious, from the playground. But, then again, they’ve been bandying about the seeds of the horse chestnut tree, not the flowers.

Horse chestnut flowers by Reijii

Conkers aren’t lavish items by any means, but the flowers of Aesculus hippocastanum are hardly the epitome of opulence, either. Perhaps it’s the small red dot on the sheer white blossoms, a bit like a sold sticker below an artwork in a fancy gallery, that inspired the Victorian floriographers – anachronisms and all that aside.

Although, seeing that the panicles of blossoms are used to create a Bach flower remedy that banishes unwanted thoughts and mental arguments, the floral connotation could be referring to the most desireably deluxe state of mind.

Good for giving to: Posh schoolboys with muddled minds.

Great horse chestnut flowers in literature: A deluxe description from Ms Montgomery:

“Girls, sometimes I feel as if those exams meant everything, but when I look at the big buds swelling on those chestnut trees and the misty blue air at the end of the streets they don't seem half so important.”
From Anne of Green Gables

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, horse chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum, floriography