Today is all about G flowers.
geranium
Like other plants that have many varieties, the Victorians often gave meanings to the different plants. The beautiful geranium has four different ones. The first three are:
- oak-leaf: true friendship. This could be because of the strength and longevity of the great oak tree.
- pencil-leaf: ingenuity. The pencil-leaf plant has delicate patterning in the veins.
- wild: steadfast piety. The wild geranium grows in harsh terrain and is a hardy plant.
The fourth type—the scarlet geranium—wasn’t given a noble meaning. Poor thing. It’s meaning is stupidity. Shocking, right? It’s a good thing that most people loved the showy red flowers and didn’t bother with that definition.
gerber daisy
Don’t you just love the gerber daisy? This flower meant cheerfulness.
Source: A Victorian Flower Dictionary: The Language of Flowers Companion by Mandy Kirkby. Ballantine Books, 2011.
Since I’m working on too many things at once (what else is new?) and I was late figuring out my list, I’ll be late adding images. Sorry. I want to be sure I get the right ones with the right copyright licensing. I know too many author friends who’ve been sued for copyright infringement for using images they thought were OK.
Join me tomorrow for flowers that start with H. 🙂