I Hear The Language Of Flowers

Flaming Katy:

http://www.taoherbfarm.com/herbs/images/flaming_katy.JPG

It looks so nice sitting on my windowsill!

http://plantnet.rbgsyd.gov.au/PlantNet/cycad/timages/Encephalartos_manikensis_2.jpg

(It looks a bit like a mentalist pineapple. Funny, I was just talking about pineapples on my blog.)

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wow! that's pretty amazing!

I must say, though, I am extremely pleased with the Flaming Katy, so you did very well indeed!

Lily (general) - Keeps unwanted visitors away
Lily (calia) - Beauty
Lily (day) - Coquetry
Lily (eucharis) - Maiden charms
Lily (orange) - Hatred
Lily (tiger) - Wealth; pride
Lily (white) - Virginity; purity; majesty; it's heavenly to be with you
Lily (yellow) - I'm walking on air; false and gay
Lily of the valley - sweetness; return to happiness; humility

I should know what a coquet is (apart from a valley in Northumberland), but I can't remember.

...possibly life-changing?

Anyway - no-one has ever sent, or given me flowers.

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what's me? Mentalist pineapples or knowing flirts?

I have never knowingly coquetted! If I flirt, I mean it!

I think being coquettish is very deliberate flirting, though, just of a semi-ironic type.

(although if you say you don't I'll believe you!)

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I think being coquettish is very deliberate flirting, though, just of a semi-ironic type.

Honestly, I don't think I do. Unless people mistake my very deliberate sex talk for flirting. If I flirt with people, it generally means I'm attracted to them. I don't flirt for fun, I just don't see the point.

they were on that flier with Pipas on the Flier Art thread the other week. named after the pale saints' song, no doubt.

aren't lilies generally a funeral flower?

I associate Lillies with Easter. But I suppose, in a way, Easter is kind of a funeral (or at least Good Friday is) anyway.

Lotus
http://www.tropicalisland.de/SIN%20Singapore%20Botanic%20Gardens%20lotus%20flowers%20buds%20and%20fruits.jpg

vs.

Orchid
http://www.tropicalisland.de/SIN%20Singapore%20Orchid%20Garden%20orchids.jpg

(Both from the Singapore Botanical Gardens, which my grandfather had something or other to do with! What do botanists do at botanical gardens, anyways? Botanate? Curate?)

Does "the language of flowers" originate from Baudelaire? It's used in translations of 'Elevation' anyhow, the first poem in Fleurs Du Mal.

Anyhow, we got some lovely dahlias the other day. Not the poncey fluffy sort, but nice spiky ones in really deep bold colours, all vibrant and sexual.

Not nuts about lilies, that pollen is just too overpowering for me!

Monk's Hood
http://www.saraphina.com/moseyfr/090199/090199-Monk

I don't know. Or perhaps they are a complete Victorian invention, like Scottish Country Dancing and other "picturesque" and "historical" stuff. If it didn't exist, they'd make it up.

I couldn't find any Dahlia pictures small enough to post, but my god, they're lovely...

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=dahlias&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

It was all inspired by this originally, I guess:

http://www.cocteautwins.com/images/sleeve_lullabies.jpg

http://independentartistscompany.com/Uploads/Language_of_Flowers_-_flowers1.jpg

That's not the book I'm familiar with. Will search for it. It was all watercolours - I think someone made it for their wife or something like that. It was a very charming story.

Blows my theory out of the bathtub anyhow! Damn, I wish I had more time today to read up on this...

In the meantime, I'm liking Statice round the house at moment - cheap and cheerful:
http://www.splendidflowers.com/images/BigP/Other/Statice.jpg

(this is the problem with having Botanists in the family. I can recognise hundreds of flowers on sight, but never know what they're called as I've only ever heard the Latin names and can't remember those for the life of me.)

I very nearly bought some Fire Flowers (they were flaming indeed!) for my godmum last weekend in Herne Hill, but I still had a lot of walking to do before I went home, and didn't want them to get crushed. And then forgot to go back for them before I got the bus home.

http://www.dyna-gro.com/images/grow-pics-01.jpg

They are not a member of the violet family (they're probably not even Afrifcan, either) but I love their fuzzy leaves. Maybe I should try growing them again.

I've given up on my roses ever flowering, after the constant blackfly problem. But my current project is trying to grow fuscshia (sp?) from seed. ("Take cuttings, Anderson, you might as well through the seeds overboard" said Sir Joseph Banks) I nicked the fruit from a particularly pretty bush in Herne Hill, so who knows if they'll ever sprout, but still, I can try.

He talked of it being used by "The Ancients" which would point to its being the European one, Thymelaeaceae Daphne cneorum:

ihttp://androsace.com/data/large/The%20European%20Alps/Thymelaeaceae/Daphne%20cneorum.jpeg

Though given he was supposedly sailing with Sir Joseph Banks (presumably under Captain Cook) it's much more likely to have been the Hawaiian Garland Flower Hedychium coronarium

http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Zingiberaceae/Hedychium_coronarium.jpg

(This, strangely, bothers me more than Golding's conflation of Poop Deck and Quarterdeck.)

http://www.nal.usda.gov/curtis/images/708.jpg

http://www.gardenandflowerimages.com/images/Arch%20with%20Nasturtiums%20208042.jpg

(We have wild ones in our garden and they are getting to a bit of a nuisance, as they are choking out other plants. But I can't bring myself to cut them back as they are so pretty.)

ihttp://www.affichescinema.com/insc_d/day_triffids.jpg

But yes, I suppose they ARE morning glories. That's exactly what mine look like Kate, except more so, and more horizontal because they haven't got enough to climb up.

(I was trying to find a picture of the man-eating plants from Dr. Who - crenoids? - but all I could find were actual proper crinoids, which are not that scary unless you are a piece of algae.)

Archel, I'm jealous - those are beautiful. Ours are white - some gorgeous purple ones climbed over the hedge next door but my housemate's wife (I should just start calling her HMW from now on) either clipped them or pushed them back over the fence. Grrrr.

http://www.ciphotography.com/Gallery%20Images/Morning%20Glory%20%28NC%29.jpg

http://davidszondy.com/future/Dystopias/triffid01.gif

(actually, I don't know if you can eat the seeds raw)

(Wait, no, that's morning glories.)

http://www.antheia.net/

http://butterflygardens.com/photolog/files/img_4235f7a3465b7.jpg

The "Powderpuff Plant".

i love that kind of thing, symbolism, etc etc. it mostly goes unnoticed seemingly.

>>they were on that flier with Pipas on the Flier Art thread the >>other week. named after the pale saints' song, no doubt.

I immediately thought of this band when I saw this thread! They're OK, they sound more like the Popguns than Pale Saints though I think.

it's true, boys usually don't get it, right? but most girls, too!

Sigh. I will be like Captain Anderson, a garland flower, and stick to fertilising myself.

http://www.panteek.com/curtis03/thumbs/c708.jpg

Ah, Captain Anderson, if only you could stick your pointy-nosed stamen in my pistil...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/totheendsoftheearth/images/450x187/episode1.jpg

I have been and some of it is amazing.

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/graphics/taxonomy/plants/spermatophyta/angiosperms/dicotyledonae/aristolochiaceae/Wild%20Ginger/DBF%20970501%20Wild%20Ginger%201.jpg

Wild ginger, apparently.

I like to eat it, but I wouldn't like to meet it!

You deserve some stigma for that comment ;-)

Oh! I just remembered anovva flower I love: the bird of paradise flower.

http://www.rikjorj.com/parabird.jpg

They totally do look like birds heads! They must grow well in Melbourne's climate (which is odd, arent they tropical?) cos quite a lot of gardens in my suburb seem to have them.

I always wondered what type of flower that was on the back of Lullabies! Thank you, Trayce!

Botanising is what people do when they wander round looking at plants.

Interestingly, that garland flower is a kind of ginger.

I hardly ever get flowers, but I got a potted chysanthemum last week. Unfortunately I am crap at potplants: it is easier to set them free in the garden outside.

ihttp://www.kavanahomes.com/images/PROTEAS.JPG

I am glad that this thread is making others happy. I need to spend more time on it looking at the flowers.

This weekend I rescued a tea rose bush from Safeway for 79p! It was reduced because all of its buds had fallen off - it was in way too small a pot, like those poor herbs that always die when you get them home. So I repotted it and fed it and it seems to be perking up now.

And! My roses (despite the weird chalky leaf disease that one seems to have developped. Where is Captain Anderson to dust its leaves with flowers of sulphur?) have actually budded! I may have roses yet!

Maybe this one will work:

http://www.bryerpatch.com/news/africa2000/flowers/protea1.jpg

http://www.bryerpatch.com/news/africa2000/flowers/protea2.jpg