The History of Language of Flower

The “Language of Flower” is the symbolic meaning of the flowers. “Selam”, the Oriental language of Flowers was introduced into Europe by Charles II King of Sweden after five years of exile in Turkey,1714, and his courtiers began the promoting the Flower Language around the Western World, France, Holland.
In 1718, Lady Mary Wortly Montagu, wife of the ambassador to the port of Constantinople became fascinated with the coded messages used by Turkish harems and introduced the symbolic language to the UK. However, the first published use of the phrase “Language of Flowers” did not occur until 1809. When Queen Victoria ascended to the throne in 1837, she became so enamored by the Language of Flowers that she spread the tradition around the entire British Empire. It is said that she actually, “spoke in Language of Flowers phrases when describing the affairs of her daughter’s heart.” Tussie-Mussies became the order of the day! Young women studied botany and “florigraphy”. And more than 400 flowers language dictionaries flooded the market. Then it was widely used in European,and then over the world.
The use of the language was not just confined to certain flowers but also color, size, quality, placement,quantity,scent,presentation and arrangement,furthermore accepting a flower with the right hand would mean “yes” yet using the left hand would mean “no”.
Love is a tricky thing and but flowers can help express certain feelings. The yellow rose means ‘friendship’ in Japan and is a great gift for friends on Valentine’s Day or birthdays. It’s also very useful when someone has a crush on you and you want to let them down easy. It means the same thing in America, so it’s a nice way of saying “Let’s just be friends.”

Different Meanings for Different Flowers

Yellow tulips can stand for one-sided love and dark blue or purple tulips show mourning for the deceased. Red tulips represent trust, pity, or pride. White carnations mean ‘engagement to be married,’ but other carnations can mean negative things like ‘refusal,’ ‘disdain,’ or even ‘disappointment’ (which I somewhat understand as I am usually disappointed if I get carnations, the cheapest flower around).
Other flowers that represent facets of love are often drawn in the background of manga. Daisies mean ‘faithful’, forget-me-nots mean ‘everlasting or true love’, and lavender means ‘you are always in my heart.’ For some reason in hanakotoba the cactus flower means ‘lust.’ Mistletoe means ‘single and looking’ so it’s no wonder people kiss under it at Christmas time.
It’s said that people serious about love give a primrose in Japan, which means ‘desperately in love.’ If your crush has no clue about your feelings, or maybe doesn’t think you are serious about them, this is the flower to use. It’s also a good one to send if you’ve asked someone out and they haven’t answered you yet.
Lotus flowers mean “far from a loved one.”, so they aren’t given as gifts. In ancient times women used to cultivate them in their yards when their lover was away to let potential suitors know that they were unavailable.

Meaning for Rose

Since the ancient times, rose has been the flower that stands for beauty and love. In greek mythology, the rose is also associated with Aphrodite, the Goddess of love. This was also true in ancient Egypt where roses were offered as gifts to the Goddess Isis.
Today, the color, the number of rose have different meanings.

There are so many kinds of flowers, and express our feeling through the beautiful flowers. So knowing the meanings is is helpful to aspire manga-ka through choosing appropriate flowers to draw into their backgrounds.