asu in the news 02-06-08 to - ASU News - Arizona State University

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ASU in the News URL: Link to original text Source: azcentral.com Title: Art professor comments on Victorian florals Nielsen NetRatings: 1989619 Favorability: Positive Full Text: Everyone knows that if you receive a dozen red roses, there’s a passionate lover in your life. What if you receive yellow roses? Someone is expressing friendship. Pink carnations? You’re unforgettable. Or, maybe, ’thank you.’ The language of flowers is as capricious as love itself. Red roses are one of the few flowers whose meaning is universal and constant. The ancient Greeks associated roses with the blood of Aphrodite’s Adonis. Ivy, as well, almost always signifies faithfulness or fidelity because it clings to surfaces. advertisement But receive a yellow chrysanthemum and it could mean either you’re being slighted or that you have a secret admirer. In Japan, chrysanthemums are the national flower, symbolizing long life and happiness. The meanings of various flower types dates back thousands of years, but the practice was especially popular during the Victorian era. ’What I think made the Victorians stand out in this area is their commercialization of floral messages, just as they commercialized Christmas and even childhood by promoting specialized products for these occasions,’ says Julie F. Codell, a professor of art history at Arizona State University. Meanings were based on folktales, herbal medicine, the flowers’ appearance and other cultural associations that had been handed down. Mythology is a popular source for significance. Hyacinths are associated with sports and games because in Greek mythology, Hyacinth, a boy whom Apollo loved, was killed by a discus. Various ’dictionaries’ of floral meanings, called floriographies, were produced during in Victorian days, and two people had to have the same dictionary if the flowers were to have meaning. ’Expressing love was a serious business for the Victorians,’ Codell says. ’A man had to be careful not to be misinterpreted as a suitor, or face possible breach of contract. And women needed to protect themselves against revealing their feelings too hastily to an unworthy partner, since anything women inherited went to their husbands.’ Flowers also were popular in Victorian art, used to convey the mood of a character or scene, Codell says. ’In John Everett Millais’ painting Ophelia, in which she is singing while floating down the river before drowning, the artist put in flowers mentioned in Shakespeare’s play, such as nettles and daisies, and added some others very popular with Victorians - fritillary for sorrow, poppy for death, forget-me-nots denoting Hamlet’s rejection of her love - to convey the feelings and fate of the drowning Ophelia. ’Victorians knew their botany well, and people complained that Millais’ many symbolic flowers could not have been together, since they all bloom at different times, an indication of how carefully Victorians read paintings.’ The floriographies included herbs (rosemary for remembrance, parsley for festivity); trees (spruce for hope in adversity, oak for hospitality) and even fruit (cranberry for hardiness). Contemporary lists of floral meanings leave out the more obscure examples, such as: monkhood (’beware, a deadly foe is near’), belvedere (’I declare war against you’) and meadow saffron (’my happiest days are past’). The Society of American Florists includes a list on its Web site, aboutflowers.com, of more commonly used flowers and happy meanings. The symbolism of yellow carnations has been changed from rejection to cheerfulness. Kevin Holt, owner of Fresh Cut Romance in Phoenix, says creating a bouquet based on the old lists would be tricky because of flower availability and the aesthetics of combining certain blooms. ’At 94
Valentine’s Day, the most common arrangements are the red roses and Oriental lilies,’ Holt says. Love and beauty endure. Reading between the lilies Larry Roof, owner of the North Carolina-based Web site languageof flowers.com, began researching flower meanings in the 1980s when he started his business, which sells Victorian-style gifts and silk-flower bouquets. His list includes only those meanings he was able to verify with at least three scholarly sources. amaryllis - pride azalea - temperance bachelor’s buttons - delicacy basil - hatred cactus - endurance calla lily - magnificent beauty carnation - pink, unforgettable; red, pure love; striped, maybe; white, yes; yellow, no cherry tree - good education evergreen clematis - poverty purple columbine - resolved crocus - youthful gladness dahlia - dignity American elm - patriotism fern - sincerity scarlet geranium - comfort gerbera daisy - pink, friendship; red, love; white, congratulations; yellow, joy holly - foresight and domestic happiness jonquil - ’I desire a return of affection’ lavender - distrust lily - beauty marigold - despair mint - virtue orange blossom - bridal festivities pear - affection poinsettia - cheer Queen Anne’s lace - fantasy ASU in the News 95
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