The language of flowers

[fajrdrako]

Because of acampbell's latest dodecal at svdodecals about the language of flowers, I looked the subject up - it's one I quite enjoy. I am fascinated by languages and symbolic languages, regardless of form - any kind of semiotics, from the visual connotations of comics and manga to the symbols that identify saints and all such manner of languages, symbols, images and codes.

Of course I looked up all the flowers that acampbell had Lex giving Clark, so I know exactly what Lex was saying to him. Heh. Romantic, snarky bugger.

I looked up the snapdragon, because of my recent quiz result as to what kind of flower I ought to be. (I keep wondering if it fits,a nd if so, how: 'not very pretty, but goofy'?) In the symbolic language of flowers, snapdragon signifies "total indifference". There may be things I am indifferent to, but I can't think what!

Is there any textual linkage of Aragorn son of Arathorn with pines? It's the plant that signifies Hope. But of course Tolkien never emulated anyone else's linguistic/symbolic patterns if he could help it.

Martha Kent's plant should be the potentilla, which signifies "maternal love". I don't know the flower, but it looks like this:



Clark Kent should be the Water Lily - "pure of heart".

Lex: perhaps hollyhocks, for "ambition". Or, with that seductive mouth, mistletoe - "kiss me". Or amaryllis for "pride". Funny there isn't a flower that symbolizes "ambiguously gay sexy bald rich young guys".

Jonathan can be lavender - no, I'm not hinting at any hidden orientation issues, but it means "distrust" and I think Jonathan distrusts everyone except Martha.

Lionel can be narcissus (which means, obviously, "self") or the apple: "temptation", heh - this brings us back to Lex, the apple not falling far from the tree, and the apple of sweet temptation at the farmer's market in Metamorphosis. Or the dahlia, for "pomp".

Chloe is trickier; I'd pick her as bittersweet:




... which means "truth", and Chloe's main passion is to find and reveal the truth. Or we could assign her "bouquet of withered flowers" for "rejected love".

Pete Ross: ivy for friendship, or hyacinth for games and sports.

Notice how carefully I have avoided mentioning the flowers specifically in acampbell's dodecal.

One of the interesting things about my online research into the matter: I kept encountering conflicting symbolic attributions on different flower dictionaries. I also found several sites that began by saying something like: "using flowers to symbolize meaning started with the Victorian age...." and I can't help thinking: Have these people never seen (or read) Hamlet? Don't they know about Roman laurel leaves or Biblical palm leaves?

The Victorians may have enjoyed playing with the language of flowers, but they certainly didn't start the trend.