Open Thread: Flower Codes

Hosted by an orange rose - which represents fascination!

I think my absolute favorite part of playing a Victorian-era roleplaying game was learning and playing around with the flower codes - hidden messages that could be communicated by the flowers you gave someone, the colors of the flowers, which hand you held them in, even the color of the ribbon wrapping the bouquet.  I would get derailed from whatever plot we were pursuing at the time to spend an hour figuring out which flowers I could send someone to get a particular message across!

For anyone who's interested, there's a huuuuge list of flowers and their meanings here.  And if you need a visual, I (for my own ease of reference) posted a bunch, with pictures, here.

I think my absolute favorite was the "sarcastic bouquet" - taken literally, it's the sort of thing one might send a lover you fear is falling out of love with you - feeling abandoned, asking for reassurance, pleading to see the recipient again.  Except that the person my character sent it to knew perfectly well that she had no romantic feelings for him, so what it ACTUALLY communicated was an incredibly sarcastic reminder that he'd been acting like an ass and she was owed a damn explanation.

Open thread! What do you think about the "language of flowers"?  What bouquets would you put together to send which messages?  What flowers (or meanings) ought to be added to the list?  Are there any other defunct or forgotten codes that you think it might be fun or interesting to revive?

~Kristycat

Monday Reminder!  While I have fun coming up with pretty pictures and/or interesting “prompt” questions for open threads, you aren’t limited to those!  These threads are open - go wild, talk about whatever moves you!  (Just remember that this is still a safe space, please!) 

And as always, please post new comments, rather than replying to other comments!