The Language of Flowers

Valentine’s Day is not very high on my list of holidays. As you all know, Christmas is my big holiday and Halloween is my least favorite, so everything else falls in between. Valentine’s is not quite as low as Halloween, but my excitement level is not near as much as Christmas. So maybe it is around my feelings for Thanksgiving?!

The first year Lady Hiva and I were married she told me that she did not need anything for Valentine’s. Me, being one of those people that says things as I really mean—no hidden meaning—took it as face value. I did not get her anything. The next day I walked in to hear her telling her sister that I did not do ANYTHING for Valentine’s. There was a long conversation after that about how just because she says she does not want something means she may want it still but doesn’t want to say. HUH?!? So if you say you don’t want it, you really do want it? Needlessly to say, I was thoroughly confused. But I vowed to NEVER let that happen again.

A few years later I had arranged for some flowers to be delivered to her during her class. They were not delivered until three days later. Another EPIC FAIL!  Brrnmppp…

This year it was different. Lady Hiva and I both read a great book,THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. In the book it talks about the different flowers that are given to people and each have a meaning. The main character uses flowers to send “messages” to others. I decided that for my gift we were going to send messages to each other.

I told Lady we were going out—not telling her where—and we went to the flower wholesale market (Alexandria Public Wholesale Florist). The plan was to pick out flowers for each other to make bouquets and then we could find the meaning and make a message with those words. 

We both love flowers so we almost spent an hour wandering the place, watching the people frantically prepare flowers for the big holiday, sniffing, admiring and just soaking it all in. We were both in the 40 degree chiller for quite a while too.

What we Started with

We left with a box full of flowers, stopped and bought $5 dollar vases (that were 50% off) and spent another hour or two making flower arrangements. By the time we were done we had four HUGE bouquets! HAHA…I guess we bought a bit more than we needed, but the house smelled wonderful.

What we ended with!

My bouquet had these flowers in it:

Sunflower: False Riches

Ginestra: Intrinsic Worth

Tree Fern: Secrecy

Chrysanthemum (pompom): Truth

Statice (sea lavender): Remembrance

Cottonwood sticks: (they were just dead, supplied from the front yard)

Gerber Daisy: Cheerfulness

Lady’s bouquet had these flowers:

Orange Roses: Fascination

Snapdragons:  Presume

Golden Rods: Careful Encouragement

Chrysanthemum: Truth

The Extras!

As you can see, we ended up with some REALLY corny messages to each other! I did have a hard time fitting “false riches” in there though! I gave Lady her message with a bag of her favorite chocolates and she gave me mine with a story about cupid falling out of a tree but leaving behind his bow and quiver of arrows that had the clues to the message.

We had a great time…and at least it was a good Valentine’s memory this time!