Cryptofloricon: Secret Messages and Hidden Meanings in Flowers
---Cryptofloricon: send secret messages with flowers
By Olivia Solon | Wired
Rose, rose, rose, chrysanthemum, carnation. A delicate bouquet of flowers that contains a secret message: "You’ll pay for that."
The receiver of such a bouquet might reply with a lily and two chrysanthemums: "Go and die in a hole."
These floral ciphers form the basis of Cryptofloricon, a project developed by Original Content London, that aims to turn the sending of flowers into a covert communication system. The project comprises of a website where one can order and decipher flowers as well as an accompanying book.Of course, we’ve ascribed meaning to flowers for centuries. A single rose symbolizes love; a lily, condolences. Cryptofloricon takes this to the next level, by combining five flowers -- the rose, lily, gerbera, chrysanthemum and carnation -- in different ways to offer up different messages to the intended recipient.
Senders can pick messages from a range of categories -- including love, sorrow, attraction, warning, anger or forgiveness -- and drill down into dozens of expressions that they may want to communicate with flowers.
[...]
Read the full article at: wired.co.uk
Floriography is the practice of communicating messages via bouquets and floral arrangements. Roughly translated from the Latin (flora and graphein) as "flower writing," floriography flourished during the Victorian era as a way of quietly sending coded messages of passion at a time when public displays of affection were frowned upon. Using this secret language, lovers could communicate via a Tussie-Mussie or nosegay - a small and round bouquet given as a gift and often worn by the recipient but also carrying a secret message.
The origins of floriography aren’t clear, partly because flowers have held various symbolic meanings throughout history. Much of the Victorian meanings behind flowers and their arrangements - which carried over into modern Floriography - dates back to 17th century Turkey under the Ottoman empire.
Like a poet, painter or artisan, the floriagrapher spoke through his or her art, imbuing each bouquet, corsage and floral arrangement with brimming passion, messages of hope and strength, hidden melancholy or any number of symbols. The savvy recipient would immediately be able to read or decode the intended message and perhaps reply with their own.
Some symbolic meanings behind our modern bouquets are pretty apparent. Everyone knows that 18 long stemmed red roses are a sign of passion, for instance. But most folks may not know that 12 deluxe pink roses would commonly symbolizes a thank you or show appreciation.
Source
The significance assigned to specific flowers in Western Culture varied — nearly every flower had multiple associations, listed in the hundreds of floral dictionaries — but a consensus of meaning for common blooms has emerged. Often, definitions derive from the appearance or behavior of the plant itself. For example, the mimosa, or sensitive plant, represents chastity. This is because the leaves of the mimosa close at night, or when touched. Likewise, the deep red rose and its thorns have been used to symbolize both the blood of Christ and the intensity of romantic love, while the rose’s five petals are thought to illustrate the five crucifixion wounds of Christ. Pink roses imply a lesser affection, white roses suggest virtue and chastity, and yellow roses stand for friendship or devotion. The black rose (actually a very dark shade of red, purple, or maroon) has a long association with dark magic.
Source
In ancient China, a gentleman is referred to as a man of great virtue. In the world of flowers, plum blossom, orchids, bamboo and chrysanthemum are known as the Four Gentlemen, also called the four Noble Ones or Four Friends. It was believed that their natural characteristicss had something in common with human virtues. Therefore, they have always been featured in ancient paintings and works to express the virtues of loftiness, righteousness, modesty and purity.
As early as the Song Dynasty (960–1279), they were used in Chinese painting. Later, they were also adopted by the artists in Japan, Korea, etc. As they bloom in different seasons (the plum blossom blooms in spring, the orchid in summer, the chrysanthemum in autumn, and the bamboo in winter), they are also used to depict the unfolding of the seasons through out the year.
Source
More:
The Rose (Sub Rosa) Symbolism for Socialist International in the 2014 New Year Times Square Ball Ritual
