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The Secret Language of Flowers! When did the art of sending bouquets of flowers, with hidden messages conveyed through each symbolic bloom become so popular? Did people really send messages to each other through flowers? How did men and women of the Victorian era use flowers as symbols in their daily lives? Find out all this and more in this month’s episode!

KEY SOURCES:

The poem read at the beginning of the episode is "The Language of Flowers", an unpublished song from a poem by the American geologist and poet James Gates Percival, with music written by the English composer Edward Elgar when he was only fourteen years old. It is dated 29 May 1872, inscribed "by Edward W. Elgar", with "words by Percival" (at first thought to be Elgar himself) and dedicated "to my sister Lucy on her birthday."

The Floral Offering: A Token of Friendship by Frances Sargent Osgood (Carey and Hart), 1847

The Language of Flowers by an Unknown Author (London: Ernest Nigler),

1850French Flower Books of the Early Nineteenth Century by Beverley Seaton,

Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Fall—Winter 1982—83, Vol. 11, No. ½ (Fall—Winter 1982—83), pp. 60-71

Language of Flowers: a Miscellany by Mandy Kirkby (Pan Macmillan), 2011

The Language of Flowers: A History by Beverley Seaton (London: University of Virginia Press), 2012

Language of Flowers - Illustrated by Kate Greenaway (London: Read Books Limited), 2013

The Meaning of Flowers: Myth, Language & Lore by Gretchen Scoble and Ann Field (California: Chronicler Books LLC), 2014

The Reason for Flowers: Their History, Culture, Biology, and How They Change Our Lives by Stephen Buchmann (London: Scribner), 2015

Floriography: The Myths, Magic & Language of Flowers by Sally Coulthard and Clover Robin (Quadrille), 2021

The Complete Language of Flowers: A Definitive and Illustrated History by S. Theresa Dietz (New York: Wellfleet Press), 2022

Flowers and Their Meanings: The Secret Language and History of Over 600 Blooms (A Flower Dictionary) by Karen Azoulay (United States: Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed), 2023

‘Painting of Queen Victoria by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-73). Currently held by the Royal Collection Trust’

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