Have you ever read The Language of Flowers (by Vanessa Diffenbaugh)? It is a sweet novel that will appeal to anyone who has ideas about living a charming life as a florist but who also loves a good story. The author cleverly weaves flower combination meanings through the story – I recommend it.
As Valentine’s Day approaches, and in the spirit of The Language of Flowers book, I think it is fun to think of messages that can be sent with flowers. Maybe not traditional messages, but ones with a bit more nuance. Sending flowers, in general, always means that you care – and usually, that care is based on love. But what if you want to say something other than ‘I love you?’
Sending nuanced messages through flowers was a trend among Victorians, but I tend to feel inclined towards more modern messages—something that would make your average priggish late-1800s lady flush.
Here are some of my ideas… do you have any combos of your own?
Modern Flower Combination Meanings – 4 Floral Combinations to Say What You Really Mean
How to Say Let’s Elope with Flowers
Lilacs symbolize the innocence of young love and spider flowers (cleome) ask the reader of your flower message to elope. So the overall message of this pretty purple combination is “I love you – Let’s elope!”
Note: I have never seen cleome in a flower shop so you will probably have to source this bloom directly from someone’s garden. They are easy to grow but they are also very thorny and I’ll be honest, I’ve never had any great love of them becasue of their obnoxious pointy bits. I tried to make friends with cleome by adding them to some plantings but still, they sort of rub me the wrong way (pun intended -Ha!).
Also, I can’t figure out why Cleome symbolizes running off to get married really fast. It seems such an odd choice. Do you have any theories?
How to ask someone to have a baby with you – with flowers
This is a fun one – but it will take a little work and good timing to source this flower combination.
Holly is not so hard to find – even outside of the holiday season, this evergreen shrub can provide leafy green cuttings for this arrangement. Holly symbolizes domestic happiness. Orange blossoms – which really only come around between January and June are a symbol of hope for fertility. Put the two together, and the message of a Holly and Orange Blossoms (a pretty combo IMO) is “Let’s shack up and have a baby”.
If you time your flower harvest just right, you might be able to get holly with their seasonal red berries and orange blossoms together making this bouquet a bit more interesting – but I suspect this window is only going to be achievable in the early months of the year (if you don’t have too many birds gobbling up the holly berries).
How to Send a Seriously Ominous Warning Message with Flowers
To properly scare someone who knows how to read the meaning of flowers – send them a bouquet of oleander with one yellow daffodil in the middle.
I love the drama of this one. To the uninitiated, the other combinations here might just seem like interesting bouquets – but this one, with its sea of oleander blossoms, punctuated dramatically with just one yellow narcissus, is clearly saying something.
To decipher this message – Oleander flowers symbolize a general warning but when combined with the Daffodil – which conveys a message of misfortune, the combination together says “watch out, you are about to have some bad things happen to you”.
What I think is interesting about this one is that you can send it as concerned observer who can see a rough road ahead – or you can send it as a threat.
How to be a playful secret admirer with Victorian flower messaging
Pink hyacinths send a message of playfulness, and when combined with other flowers, they sort of add a twinkle in the eye of the message sender.
Yellow Chrysanthemums tell the receiver that they have a secret admirer. So, the combination of Pink Hyacinths with Yellow mums will show that you admire someone, but that you want to playfully keep it secret.
If you are feeling lazy you could also just send a bunch of gardenias – they symbolize that you think someone is lovely – but secretly. But I think the addition of the hyacinths is worth the extra effort – its like saying it with a wink and a smile.
How to make your own coded flower messages
I’d love to hear your ideas for coded flower messages (leave them in the comments, and I’ll add your ideas to the post).
Here is a good guide to get you started. In this post from the Old Farmers almanac you will find a hefty list of flowers and the their meanings as well as a guide to color meanings – that way can layer in even more nuanced and clear meanings to your flower combination meanings.
More Posts about design and flowers
Photos by Abigail Lynn , Pacific Wanderer 태평양 과객, Matthew Perkins, Annie Spratt, Aaron Barnaby, Aaron Burden, Alice NG, Callum Skelton
LOVE THIS!!! I really think people need to step away from the typical giving of roses …. I do love roses, but give me some wildflowers and I find it so much more special. I have never thought about the meaning of flowers and found the info so interesting! Love it! Might have to look up my favourite flowers and see what they mean 🙂 And will look up your recommended book too as it sounds like a delightful read.
I love this and I love going that step beyond just grabbing a bunch of flowers from the local supermarket, but really thinking about what message you want to convey. Thanks for sharing.