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IF YOU WANT TO SHOW…feeling after feeling
FRIENDSHIP
Ah friendship! Flowers showing it are: lily of the valley and wistaria. The last one symbolizes sweetness and helpfulness and so it is suitable for a friend. Freesia, symbol of platonic love, can also be offered in friendship, as well as white acacia.
ADMIRATION
If you want to communicate esteem and admiration, the most suitable flowers are: camellia and lotus. Camellia has become a celebrity among flowers because it was the favourite flower of Margherita, the main character of Alexandre Dumas's novel, THE CAMELLIAS LADY. Somebody gives this flower the negative meaning of coldness and detachment. In reality, its steady and perfect corolla, as well as colour varieties, make of it an elegant flower with a romantic side. Lotus, or water-lily, is also popular thanks to the classic yoga position and to the graceful perfection it symbolizes.
LOVE
Nobody can deny the association between love and red roses. At least once in life, each woman should receive a bunch of them. But there are also many other flowers with which you can show this feeling, like pink carnation for mutual love, yellow iris for fervour and passion, hibiscus for physical passion and heliotrope for sensual pleasure. Perfect love is symbolized by tulip; the sultan of THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS let fall a red one in front of a woman to let her understand she was the selected one. According to a popular legend, on the contrary, odalisques threw them to send messages to lost lovers. The oldest legend tells the flower was born from the blood drops of a young man who had killed himself because of a love disappointment. In any case tulip is a flower talking about love. Today its meaning refers to balanced and perfect relations.
BEAUTY
Arum lily and orchid are the flowers which best show admiration for a person's beauty. The first one, for its pure and simple lines, is perfect for a woman with a sober and elegant beauty, while the second one is suitable for a lady having a mysterious charme, a formal and fine elegance, very sensual. Odette, in Proust's SEARCHING THE LOST TIME, wore a little bunch of orchids in her hair and in the neckline.
MISTRUST
If you want to show mistrust, the most suitable flowers are: cyclamen and lavender. In the third century B.C. cyclamen was used to stimulate love and sensuality (like hot pepper!!): people thought it had therapeutical properties against snake poison; so people had given it a magical power, able to send evil spell off and to have an influence on love affairs. The cyclamen essence is considered a lucky charm. What's more, its meaning has changed to suit better the fact that, in reality, it's it who contains poison, in its roots. Lavender has been used for ages to perfume underwear. It was once scattered on the floor to keep mothes and insects away. According to a popular tradition, snakes love laying under bushes of lavender; that's why people started to mistrust this plant which now indicates this feeling.
FAITHFULNESS
Myosotis or forget-me-not symbolizes faithfulness as well as white carnation. An austrian legend and an islamic one, both talk about the link between this flower and eternal love. People offering it declare the lasting pledge of their own feelings.
HAPPINESS
If Asian lovers offer a cornflower it's because they want to show their hope to get happiness by their partner. This flower represents delicacy and happiness coming from the first love. Once, if a girl wore a cornflower it meant she was disposed to marriage. If a young man put a cornflower in his pocket he was in love and if the flower didn't fade, it was the sign he would get married; if it faded, he had to find another girlfriend. So the name of "bachelor's bud".
STRENGHT
The strenght of mind is considered a typically feminine virtue. A man wanting to give a present to a woman having this quality can offer gladioli which mean respect and so deference for her strenght of mind or also mimosa: on the 8th March it's a duty, while on the other days it's a kind thought. Mimosa is in fact a delicate plant, but it also hides a surprising vitality and strenght. Even gentian, a splendid flower blooming among hostilities, is a symbol of it, as well as holly.
YOUTH
According to the language of flowers, primule represents youth because it's one of the first flowers blooming after winter; for many people it symbolizes spring and so the hope of renewal that this season brings with it. It's a little coloured flower and a discreet and kind gift.
GRATEFULNESS
Dahlia is a flower representing gratitude and it's a suitable gift when you want to thank somebody. Imported by Mexic, after many attempts people succeded in making flowers bloom in Europe too and so it became Giuseppina Bonaparte's favourite flower, who was full of admiration for Napoleon.
INDIFFERENCE
During Middle Age girls wanting to refuse a suitor wore a snapdragon in their hair and that's why in some regions it was called "flower of vagery". So its meaning: I don't care about you. The German name of this flower is "the lion's throat" and the French one "muflier" which means "muzzle". These names have two main reasons: the first one concerns the flower aspect: if you press it, in fact, it opens like a mouth; the second one refers to the shape of the capsules containing seeds, open with two symmetrical holes reminding of a muzzle. Unfortunately indifference is a very popular feeling and an attitude people often assume; normally showing different feelings is better, so the meaning of snapdragon can be safely ignored. Today we aren't used to keep flowers in the hair, just during some walks in the countryside or on the mountain; neverthless, snapdragons are curious for their corolla, similar to a muzzle; very coloured, alone or with some other flowers they can be a nice gift. A bunch of tuberoses can show indifference too. Even hydrangea, symbol of coldness, is a good way to show your own sentimental distance.
INFIDELITY
Infidelity is manifest if you present some myrtle in flower. The consequent jealousy is represented by different flowers: datura, symbol of hypocrisy, pot marigold, indicating sorrow and jealousy, and yellow hyacinth. So, if a man offers a bunch of these flowers with the bow on the left, he admits to be unfaithful, while if the bow is on the right, he will accuse the receiver to be faithless. Today it's very difficult to send flowers with these meanings so people receiving these flowers can enjoy them without worrying.
MODESTY
The symbol of modesty, or better, of discretion and innocence is sweet violet; this meaning derives from the fact that it's a little flower blooming among grass. It's a pleasant gift because it doesn't bind the receiver; since the ancient times this little flower has been celebrated from poets and writers; it has been openly cited by Shakespeare in Hamlet and in Winter's Tale. Sweet violet is loved for its powered scent and it's the symbol of two cities: Athens, where it was considered Zeus's flower and Parma, where people produce a scent with the same name. Sweet violet has also a beneficial power and lovers use it to calm some strained situations.
SOMETHING NEW IS COMING
If you offer a bunch of coloured irises, you say that something new is coming. According to Greek Mythology, Iris was the intermediary between gods and men, while the path she walked from Olympus to Earth was a rainbow. There's also a more recent story linking iris to news. Louis VII of France, after having won a battle, chose this flower as the symbol of his family, because the field he had fought on was full of it. So the people called it FLEUR DE LOUIS (Louis's flower), but because of contracted pronunciation it became FLEUR DE LYS, "lily flower". The same confusion is also made in Italy: the botanic name of Florence lily, in fact, is IRIS FLORENTINA.
FORGIVENESS
Peony is the flower you should offer when you want to ask for forgiveness, or solve a difficult and sentimentally complicated situation. This flower represents shyness, shame and reserve; according to the legend, Peonia was a nymph who was turned into a flower because she had offended her own honour. Finally, the flower took the nymph's ashamed blush. Even olive tree is a clear symbol of reconciliation, as well as deep red hyacinth.
PURITY
Flowers symbolizing purity are: white lily and daisy. White lily is the flower you often find in saints pictures, for example St. Antony, St. Joseph and St. Agnes. A legend tells that Mary chose her husband just because she had noticed him holding a lily among the crowd: this could explain why Joseph is often portrayed with a stick on which white lilies are blooming.
Daisy symbolizes purity so peace, freshness, simplicity, calm and lasting love. It also has some prophetical powers: by plucking its petals off, in fact, lovers expect knowing if they are loved. According to an ancient English tradition, if a child picked a bunch of daisies with her eyes closed, the number of flowers indicated the number of years before her wedding.
MEMORY
Pansy is the traslation of the French word "thought". So it's clear that's the flower you should offer if you want to be remembered. In A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, this flower is considered a love-potion which makes Titania, the fairies' queen, fall in love with a donkey. The most romantic name of this flower is "peace of the heart": in fact people thought that holding a pansy, they could keep their girlfriend's love. It represents not only memory, but also the power of loving thought.
SILENCE
The symbol of silence is the perfect white rose representing mistery and wisdom. In the ancient times the god of silence was represented by a young man with a forefinger on his mouth and a white rose in the other hand. The rose petals are superimposed concentrically and they gather around a central bud that never opens completely: a little and delicate casket you will never break open. So the silent meaning of this flower.
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