Flowers: An Introduction
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| A lily |
Flowers bear the same broad symbolism as vegetation generally, with a stronger orientation towards fertility. They are used to signify beauty, leaning heavily into the feminine. They are also a mark of spiritual purity, innocence without guile, blessings of the divine, hope, spring, youth, tenderness, dawn, the fragile and transitory nature of life, the joys of paradise, etc.
In other words, flowers are generically fluffy in meaning.
The flower summarizes the full cycle of life, death, and rebirth into a single icon. This observation forms the basis of the Japanese art of flower arrangement, Ikebana, and is widely explored in still-life paintings worldwide.
Enlightenment
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| Medicine Buddha, Bhaisajyaguru (detail), pigments on cloth. Tibet (18th–19th century). Rubin Museum of Art. |
Funerary Flowers
Funerary flowers tend towards the lightly scented. This compiler suspects this is so that the scent doesn’t ward off or offend the spirits of the dead, as plants known to ward off negative spiritual influences or magic attacks are regarded as such for their pungency.
Flowers and Magic
The cup shape of flowers maps onto the feminine and passive instrument of water, the chalice, itself an analogy for the womb.
Flowers and Specificity
This symbolism can change with emphasis on a particular species or cultivar, influenced by name, shape, color, habit, medicinal properties (real and imagined), toxicity, and mythological, legendary, or folkloric reference.
For this reason, this compiler is developing a massive catalog of plants from across the Old World for as many of the above-listed properties as can be reasonably gathered,* which he intends to share on this blog (or, perhaps further down the road, a wiki).
That said, there are some trends in the stories of flowers that cannot be tied to a species, real or imagined, but instead to properties like color and locale. We’ll examine one such grouping.
*This is a lie; the information already gathered is well beyond reasonable.
Blue Flowers in Gypsy Folklore
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| Campanula persicifolia near Tehumardi, Saaremaa Island, Estonia. |
Stealing (again) from Lecouteux, in his and Graham’s Dictionary of Gypsy Mythology: Charms, Rites, and Magical Traditions of the Roma (2018), we find a tradition of magical blue flowers. Two are identified.
One called the vunete luludyi grows over treasure on the night of Pentecost, producing a bluish light (presumably a faerie fire) that can be seen at some distance. One who sees such a flower should not pluck it or dig it up but patiently wait for it to retreat into the ground, then dig at the spot to acquire treasure.
They call the other blue flower the “flower of happiness,” which grows over a mother's grave. The flower is invisible to all, but the woman’s son and it is, in fact, her reincarnation, appearing to the son to guide him to happiness and a good fate.
Flower Arrangement
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| Woodcut ukiyo-e print by Eishi of a lady practicing ikebana |
Like with gardens, the arrangement of flowers, from the choice of flowers to their positioning relative to each other, flower arrangements are excellent devices for direct and environmental communication and a vector of magic in your stories.
Before we discuss more particular methods of flower arranging, it would be helpful to communicate the cultural significance of this practice through a brief survey of its history.
History of Flower Arrangement
Egypt
Flower arranging has a long history, dating back to 2,500 BC in ancient Egypt. Egyptians placed cut flowers in vases and employed stylized arrangements in everything from funerary services to simple table settings. Illustrations of these arrangements have survived in paint and are carved in stone, indicating their ubiquity in Egyptian life.
These arrangements are believed to have been selected for religious and symbolic significance (though this compiler suspects that aesthetic considerations took priority). Plants sacred to Isis were often bundled together, such as water lily, delphinium, narcissus, palm, papyrus, and rose.
As with many other everyday items, flowers were entombed in great numbers at burial sites, and the garlands worn by the attendees were left at the grave. These garlands came in blue scilla, poppy-flowered anemone, and Iris sibiric.
Ancient Greece and Rome
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| 2nd Century A.D., excavated near Antioch |
The Greeks favored garlands and wreaths over vase arrangements. They also tossed flower petals on floors and beds.
Like the Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans favored certain plants over others. They leaned into acorns, oak leaves, laurel, ivy, and parsley. Later, they favored rose, hyacinth, honeysuckle, violet, and lily. Other flowers were also valued for their shape, color, and form.
During times of great wealth, the Greeks and Romans lavished their rites, banquets, and festivals with flower petals. According to some accounts, petals from some banquets continuously rained from the ceiling and rose petals lay a foot deep on the floor. The fragrance was said to be suffocating.
Ancient China
The history of Chinese flower arrangement goes back to the 3rd century BC, during the Han dynasty.
In the traditions of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism dating back to the 7th century AD, practitioners of these systems made offerings of flower arrangements and painted, carved, and embroidered depictions of these arrangements. Buddhist teaching forbade taking life, so the religious were careful not to kill the plant when taking cuttings.
Like in the Western traditions, the symbolic meaning of these plants was carefully considered when making these arrangements.
Europe
The art of flower arranging arrived (or returned) to Europe ~1000 AD, where it was incredibly popular in churches and monasteries. This popularity among men of the cloth may have to do with the dual function of decoration and food these arrangements served. This practice also exploded at this time because of the introduction of new plants, brought back by returning crusaders.
Byzantine Empire (500-1453)
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| A Byzantine floral arrangement |
Between the 6th and 15th centuries, the most popular floral arrangements in the Byzantine Empire focused on cone-shaped designs that could be placed in chalices and urns. These designs were further embellished with fruit. The flowers favored in these arrangements were daisies, lilies, cypress, carnations, and pine. They also incorporated ribbons, leaves, and tiny flowers to embellish garlands further.
Latin Middle Ages (AD 476–1400)
Monks from this era were well-known for maintaining gardens of herbs and wildflowers, primarily for medicinal purposes. These were regarded as pharmacologically effective for the spiritual qualities imparted to them by God. Their use extended into the monastic rites.
As time progressed into the latter end of the Gothic period the flowers took a more dominant role, their representation expanding to the media of altar pictures, manuscripts, and paintings.
Renaissance (1400–1600)
During this period, as the wealth and sophistication of European culture grew, so did the popularity of flower arranging, where specialized containers made of marble, bronze, and Venetian glass were made solely for this function. This was also when tropical fruits started to be incorporated, as much a display of wealth from global trade to provide a strong contrast.
French arrangements (1600–1814)
French Baroque emphasized fragility. Asymmetrical C-crescents and S-shapes were popular. During the Imperial period, this gave way to simple lines and triangular arrangements emphasizing strong color contrast. The favored presentation was to place the arrangements in urns full of richly colored flowers.
Arranging and maintaining these arrangements could be a full-time job, as was the case for Jean-Baptiste de la Quintinie, who served as King Louis XIV’s royal gardener at Versailles.
Georgian arrangements (1714–1760)
This was the period when carrying nosegays and tussie-mussies was most popular. Supposedly, this was to mask body odor, as bathing was believed to be unhealthy at this time. Designs were formal and symmetrical, arranged tightly with a large number of flowers. Later, informal designs proliferated in the belief that they warded off disease.
Victorian arrangements (1820–1901)
Despite the wildly informal, asymmetrical styles popular during this period, attempts were made to codify rules for proper flower arrangement. Flower arranging was a professional endeavor at this time, and such services were more broadly available to the public.
After all that, we can move on to arrangement formats that might be useful to the writer.
Boutonniere
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| A white dendro orchid boutonniere |
A boutonniere is a single flower worn on the lapel of a suit or jacket. It is distinct from a corsage by its placement, as this is typically masculine wear placed near the collar. Traditionally, the boutonniere is pushed through a buttonhole, and a loop behind the lapel holds the stem in place.
History
Meaning “buttonhole flower,” the 16th-century origins of the fashion were apotropaic (as in the case of the wedding bouquet). They were thought to ward off bad luck, evil spirits, and disease caused by miasmas.
In the 18th century, the practice was primarily a fashion statement. In the 19th century, it was particularly popular with followers of the Romantic movement. They were an essential accessory for the fashionable man. In the 20th century, its use decreased as it was increasingly considered an affectation of the cultural elite: good breeding, sophistication, and elegance. The new art media of cinema heavily influenced this development.
Common Flowers
The carnation is the most common boutonniere, with a scale of formality in color, with white and clove red being at the top of that formality scale. Other colors are chosen to coordinate with the outfit. White gardenia is also popular because of its scent and appearance.
The University of Oxford has a curious tradition in which students wear carnations during exams, with the color indicating which exam the student is taking (first, intermediate, and final).
Significance for Writers
The boutonniere as a fashion statement has access to the linguistics of flower symbolism, being a public statement to the world about the character by the character. They want to project it to the world (assuming they chose the flower themselves).
Alternately, the story and its characters are more iconographic. In that case, the boutonniere is not a choice by the character but an element of character design, conveying something about the character well beyond their control and an excellent device for foreshadowing.
The boutonniere could also be a political statement if the flower is the emblem of a claimant or party in whatever political system or power structure is relevant to your story.
Finally, as flowers can serve as magical reagents, any of the above can be true while also serving as the material focus or fuel for magical action. This could be a ward against disease, a medicinal display for convenience or fashion, or even a weapon masked by custom and tradition.
Corsage
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| A common wrist corsage |
Corsages are small floral arrangements worn on a woman’s dress or wrist, traditionally gifted to the wearer by a suitor.
Though it is most heavily associated with formal school dances in the US today, some cultures still employ them at other formal events. It is not uncommon for them to be worn by the mothers and grandmothers of the bride or groom at weddings.
History
The tradition of wearing arrangements of pinned flowers at weddings as an apotropaic stretched from Ancient Greece to 17th century Europe before developing into accessories for other special occasions.
The word “corsage” comes from the French, meaning “bouquet of the girdle or bodice,” and is about where the flowers were typically pinned during weddings and funerals.
By the 19th century, the corsage was a well-established fixture of Western formal courtship. In this tradition, the suitor would gift his date’s parents a bouquet as an overture for their blessing before selecting a single flower from the arrangement and attaching it to his date’s clothing (usually on the front shoulder). However, dress styles changed, making this placement impractical, so the traditional date corsage moved to the wrist.
Significance for Writers
This device has all the same properties as the boutonniere, save that it is most typically identified with women. Custom grants it the further significance of handedness (which we invite writers to exploit to hell and back).
Nosegays, Posies, and Tussie-Mussies
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| A common shape for nosegays |
A nosegay, posy, or tussie-mussie, is a small flower bouquet typically given as a gift and worn about the head or bodice, wrapped in a doily or other sort of “posy holder.”
History
The term “nosegay” has its origins in 15th-century Middle English. Then, the term gay meant “ornament,” thus meaning “an ornament appealing to the nose.”
Another popular name, tussie-mussie, originates in the reign of Queen Victoria when such bouquets became a popular fashion accessory. Having a formalized language of flowers during this period, the bouquets became a formal system for the wearer to signal sentiments. During this time, metal posy holders were also popular (especially silver) and were expected at white weddings.
Victorian Language
Based on our (limited) sources, the nosegay is a symbol of gallantry, and the tussie-mussie is a symbol of “fragrance remembered.” This poses a problem, as they’re the same device.
To make sense of these distinctions, we find ourselves interpreting the nosegay gifted to a suitor by the object of his affections as a statement of her appraisal of his character and her expectations of him (to behave gallantly).
The tussie-mussie as a message of “fragrance remembered” is an intimate expression of “thinking of you.” The suitor gifts a tussie-mussie with flowers composing the particular scent from a significant meeting between them, perhaps their first meeting.
To modern observers, sending someone the message “I remember how you smell” might seem…a bit creepy. However, when floral fashion is formalized (even if the arrangements aren’t), it’s part of the acceptable language of courtship. It signifies that the suitor was paying attention to the woman. In light of this, it takes on the character of conscientiousness rather than something vulgar.
Significance for Writers
The nosegay has all the benefits of boutonnieres and corsages. Still, it is looser in arrangement, has broader potential combinations of flowers, and has the advantage of posy holders, the most prized of which are made of silver. The posy holder is a permanent accessory, which makes it a potential amulet. Further, the popularity of silver as a material for this carries its own symbolic and magical significance.
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| A Victorian silver nosegay holder, c.1850 |
Further, this opens the posy holder to material substitution, with dramatic shifts in potential magical charge. A posy holder made of stag horn bearing mild-scented flowers could mask the presence of a hunter, or one made of copper (the metal of Venus) and bearing sun-facing flowers like heliotrope could be used to detect a suitor who may be wealthy and influential in the future!
Sachet
Also Called: Ascent Bag, Dream Pillow, Fragrant Bag, Hop Pillow, Perfume Cushion, Plague Bag, Pomander, Potli Bag, Potpourri Sachet, Sachet Bag, Scent Bag, Scented Cushion, Scented Sachet, Smelling Cushion, Spiced Sachet, Sweet Bag, Xiangbao
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| A lavender dream pillow |
Sachets are small bags holding materials intended to interact with the atmosphere around them. Desiccating materials are placed in sachets, which are then thrown into containers that need to be kept dry.
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| These qualify as sachets, apparently |
Historically, sachets have tended to be small, scented cloth bags filled with herbs, potpourri, or other aromatic ingredients, such as resins. A sachet may be used as an aromatic device, a vehicle for medicinals, or an apotropaic. In magical practice, the sachet qualifies as a phylactery, which is a bag, box, or other container holding mystical materials in the generic. (This is opposed to the particular leather box accessory containing scripture of Jewish practice, from which the device derives its name.)
The term “sachet” has also been used as a synonym for the paper, foil, or plastic used to package doses of medication, such as one dose of a sleeping powder.
Sachets are typically wrapped in a cloth 4x4 inches and bound into a ball about an inch across, though some can be as large as small pillows. The cloth may also be embroidered, decorated with beads and buttons, or made from a fancy cloth.
History
The use of sachets for comfort, health, and magical protection is ubiquitous across human cultures. In China’s Warring States period, such devices were used to absorb sweat, repel insects, and ward off supernatural evils. This fashion accessory continued for both sexes until the Tang and Song Dynasties when they fell out of favor with men. The gift of a sachet became a love token during the Qing dynasty.
Sachets were called “plague bags” in medieval Europe. They were filled with sweet powders, flower petals, roots, spices, and resins, with supplemental materials provided from the wearer’s garden. Sachets were preferentially worn about the neck or dangled from the waist to protect against worms (spirits of disease) and miasmas.
In the late 15th century, Queen Isabella was known to perfume herself with a sachet of dried rose, carnation petals, the root of the orris and calumus, and powdered coriander seed (among other ingredients).
Clothing
In modern times, such potpourri bags are used to scent garments left in dressers (especially with undergarments), closets, cupboards, and luggage. They’re also put in cars, closets, dryers, and inside and on children’s stuffed animals, the backs of chairs, and doorknobs.
These sachets serve to make the clothes smell nice and keep out pests, as many of the selected plants are repellent to moths, worms, and other vermin.
Cooking
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| A spice potli bag |
Sometimes “spice sachets” full of spices like allspice, cinnamon, etc., can be made into potholders so that when the hot metal of a pot or pan is grabbed, it produces a sweet smell.
In Indian cuisine, spices are packaged in sachets called “potli bags,” which makes separating the spices from the food after cooking easier.
Dream Pillows
In the 19th century, a hop-based sachet called a “Pulvinar Humuli” was used as a sleep aid, and famous users included King George III. Sleep-aid sachets are still in use today, typically with hops, lavender, chamomile, valerian, and skullcap, which have soporific and sedative qualities. These are called “hop pillows” or “dream pillows.”
The 1696 booklet Little Dodoen gives us this sachet formula:
“Take dry rose leaves keep them in a glass which will keep them sweet and then take powder of mints, powder of cloves in a grosse powder. Put the same to the Rose leaves then put all these together in a bag and take that to bed with you and it will cause you to sleep, and it is good to smell unto at other times.”
These sachets were hung in the bedroom, about, or under the pillow.
Significance for Writers
The sachet is a powerful apotropaic device in the writer’s toolkit, warding away pests, disease, and evil spirits. As an aromatic, it’s also a vehicle for charms and enchantment. Its constituent ingredients' symbolic and magical associations are expressed explicitly as a perfume. It can be worn discreetly or openly; each option opens up different possibilities, in addition to where it is worn on the body.
Further, the sachet's material, the cloth, is its own canvas for magical action. Bearing beads, buttons, embroidery, and other embellishments can have mystical significance. Perhaps the sachet cloth serves as a magician’s pentagram (the instrument of Earth). What if a man seeking vengeance cuts a sachet cloth from the wedding dress of his murdered wife? A druid could magnify the pest-repellent qualities of a sachet by adorning the bag with sapphire beads, elevating it to a ward against giant spiders!
This is more on the esoteric side, but I could not end this without pointing out a happy accident. One name for the sachet is pomander, a near homonym for Poemander (also Poimandros/Poimandres), the tutelary spirit to Hermes Trismegistus in the Corpus Hermetica. This ties the dream pillow to occult enlightenment, meaning it should be in the toolbox of every fantasy writer!
Conclusion
We hope this article serves as a functional framework for exploring plants and flowers generally, flower arrangements, and flower accessories as useful devices in fantasy writing. From here, we move on to the other significant forms of vegetation before diving into the particularities of species. To that end, we will explore the subject through modern taxonomy, making it as easy for the contemporary audience to navigate.
* * * * * * *
See Also:
Prestigious Plants
Prestigious Plants - Introduction
Trees [Pending]
Moss and Lichen [Pending]
Herbal Medicine [Pending]
Resin, Incense, Balsam, and Lacquer [Pending]
Plants (By Cladistics) [Pending]
Fungi [Pending]
* * * * * * *
Sources:
-Drury, N. (2004). The Dictionary of the Esoteric: 3000 Entries on the Mystical and Occult Traditions. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers.
-Drury, N. (2005). The Watkins Dictionary of Magic: 3000 entries on the magical traditions. Watkins.
-Greenaway, Kate. Language of Flowers. George Routleage and Sons.
-Lecouteux, Claude, and Jon E. Graham. Dictionary of Gypsy Mythology: Charms, Rites, and Magical Traditions of the Roma. Inner Traditions, 2018.
-Tresidder, J. (2008). The Watkins Dictionary of Symbols. Watkins.
( https://blog.flowersacrossmelbourne.com.au/the-comprehensive-history-of-flower-arranging/ )
( http://ogham.lyberty.com/otable.html )
( http://ogham.lyberty.com/ogmean.html )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boutonni%C3%A8re )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsage )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_flower_arrangement )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosegay )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogham )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachet )
