The Language of Flowers

Product Information

During its peak in the United States, the language of flowers attracted the attention of popular writers and editors. Sarah Josepha Hale, longtime editor of the Ladies' Magazine and co-editor of Godey's Lady's Book, edited Flora's Interpreter in 1832; it continued in print through the 1860s. Catharine H. Waterman Esling wrote a long poem titled "The Language of Flowers", which first appeared in 1839 in her own language of flowers book, Flora's Lexicon; it continued in print through the 1860s. Lucy Hooper, an editor, novelist, poet, and playwright, included several of her flower poems in The Lady's Book of Flowers and Poetry, first published in 1841. Frances Sargent Osgood, a poet and friend of Edgar Allan Poe, first published The Poetry of Flowers and Flowers of Poetry in 1841, and it continued in print through the 1860s. I need to stress that I actually have thought maybe it's me, maybe I have just not enough stomach lining and empathy for the broken mind of someone with a devastating childhood. The author information at the end of the book mentions that Vanessa Diffenbaugh has personal first-hand experience with raising foster kids. Apparently she gave home to one or more. After reading the book I do not question that at all. But when I compare my reading experience of The Language of Flowers to that of other stories featuring difficult or hard-to-like main characters, I am sure that a truely skillful author can make me feel and ache and root for any protagonist, no matter how strange or evil. I have just finished reading Froi of the Exiles (yes, it is Fantasy, I know). Fact is, when I was reading the volume preceeding it, I would have never guessed Melina Marchetta would get me to like him. Now I love him fiercely. Maybe his personal growth is fantastical, unrealistic, but maybe it is simply magic. The kind of magic only the best authors can evoke in a reader's mind. This child, this self-admitted odd-bod, Victoria has been in the foster system since birth. Ask her who her parents are and she will say the Foster System. At age ten, she has been in thirty-nine different foster homes. She is used to, at a moment's notice, being removed or rejected by her foster parents. She travels light, everything she owns is in a small canvas bag which includes her Dictionary of Flowers. The story is told in two sequences of time; when she is ten, going to a new foster home, and when she is eighteen, upon her emancipation from the state foster system. She uses meaning of flowers to convey what she thinks and feels. Over the course of the novel, Victoria creates her own dictionary of flowers using paste cards, definitions, dried flowers and illustrations. My abridged version of Victoria's dictionary as follows: The author has quite a few errors in grammar (where was the editing?) and overuses some verbs. I was very tired of characters being "startled" for instance. I also felt that the use of foreshadowing was done with a very heavy hand. I didn't need to be clobbered over the head with it. A subtle hint would have been enough.

I present you with a trilliam to represent modest beauty. I was prepared for this book to lose me completely because of high-brow, literaryness, and get too tangled up in a vine-like metaphor. But it didn't. It's a very subtle and quiet book and it's wonderful. This is such a beautiful and very sweet story!. It tells about a lone bumblebee named Beatrice who was adopted by the flowers at the meadow where they let drink from their nectars, let her sleep on their leaves and even taught them their own unique and special languages, 'the languages of the flowers! that consist of uttering some positive and nice words to them which in turn helps them grow and bloom beautifully!. I know some readers have to 'like' or care about the characters to enjoy a book. I don't: loved 'Gone Girl' for instance which I don't think had one likeable character in it. But the main character in this never felt fully fleshed out to me, I couldn't quite believe in her.Vanessa: With a debut novel, readers are often curious about what aspects of the book are based on the author’s own life; Mother Ruby and Victoria’s home birth are two of the aspects of the book that feel the most personal. My first child was born at home, and I had a phenomenal midwife. She had been delivering babies for almost three decades when I met her, and her intuition—her ability to know exactly what to do and say to support a healthy delivery—was astounding. There’s a line in my book where Mother Ruby says: “You’re the only one that can get this baby out.” This is something my midwife said to me during my labor, and it was a turning point in my delivery. There are so few moments in life like this: when you’re faced with a challenge that you, and you alone, have the ability to solve. But giving birth, especially at home, far from the accou- trements of modern medicine, is one of them. In that moment I understood that it was just me and my body, and I knew I had to get it done. When it came to writing Victoria’s birth scene, this moment felt right not just for the birth but as a turning point for her charac- ter. There were so many things she was trying to avoid, and, finally, here was one thing she had no choice but to face. Then, when she saw that she was capable of the task before her, it changed something inside her in a very permanent way. Vanessa: I absolutely believe they can, and there is new research that offers proof it is possible. For many years, severe attachment disor- ders were thought of almost like a life sentence. Study after study il- lustrated that early relationships between caregivers and infants actually shape the circuits of the brain and lay the foundation for later developmental outcomes—from academic performance and in- terpersonal skills to physical and mental health. But new research out of the Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University shows that the brain retains its ability to change far into life. Learn- ing to securely attach at any time in one’s life—to a caregiver (as Vic- toria does with Elizabeth) or even to a partner (as Victoria does with Grant)—has the ability to “rewire” circuits in the brain. This is hope- ful research for those like Victoria, who are determined to overcome the trauma they have experienced and learn to love themselves and others. I've always believed that giving flowers meant something . I knew that red roses meant love and somewhere along the line I learned that Baby's Breath , almost always in a bride's bouquet signified everlasting love . However, that was the extent of my knowledge of the meaning of flowers , originating in the Victorian era - until I read this book . Do flowers speak to us in this way ? I really don't know but it's nice to think so and the author has creatively wrapped this language around this story. I was surprised by this book. It was so much different from what I expected and well worth the read. Of course I never believed in floriography since it resembled the human impulse to box everything up without consideration of the unfairness of the action. For instance, how cruel can it be to attribute 'Hate' to the cactus plant? Or 'Deceit' and 'Materialism' to the sunflower? I have been involved in botany throughout my adult life and revel in the beauty and magic of all plants. Floriography in all its splendor was never part of it and won't be in the future. I simply regard it as a waste of time. Simply put, a book that i would recommend to anyone in need of a dose of some gentle and sweet story to boost their day!.

The New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin praised the descriptive language, saying "There is sensuality to Ms. Diffenbaugh’s descriptions of flowers and food." [2] The novel interlaces the main plot of an 18 year old Victoria, with snippets of her past in the foster system. [5] Reception [ edit ] The Language of Flowers is a mesmerizing, unforgettable hopeful story that beautifully weaves the past and present while exploring abandonment, love and finding what triggers a person to open up to others. In the past, we see Victoria’s self-destructive ways as she grows up in foster homes. Now through her connections to flowers, she starts to open up by speaking the language of flowers to help people find some joy through flowers. Flowers start to connect Victoria to others as she tries to learn to trust herself. For years my message-laden flowers had been faithfully ignored, an aspect of my communication style that gave me comfort. Passion, connection, disagreement, or rejection: None of these was possible in a language that did not elicit a response. But the single sprig of mistletoe, if the give did indeed understand its meaning, changed everything."

Kate: Mother Ruby plays a small but important role in the novel, and I found her absolutely enchanting. Tell me about your inspira- tion for her, and why she is important to the story. The Meaning Of Flowers was a present from my Father to Mother on their golden wedding anniversary. Instead of buying her a brooch or bracelet, he hit upon the happy plan of writing and illustrating a little book for her, which has now been resurrected from some forgotten drawer and published in this newer edition." The first week after her daughter’s birth goes surprisingly well for Victoria. What makes Victoria feel unable to care for her child after that week ends? And what allows her to ultimately rejoin her family? The storyline weaves skillfully between the heavy burden of Victoria’s childhood—her time with Elizabeth, the foster mother who taught her the language of flowers and also wounded her more deeply than Victoria can bear to remember—and the gauntlet of her present relationship with Grant, a flower vendor who’s irrevocably linked to the darkest secret of her past. At its core, The Language of Flowers is a meditation on redemption, and on how even the most profoundly damaged might learn to forgive and be forgiven. By opening up Victoria’s very difficult inner world to us, Vanessa Diff- enbaugh shows us a corner of experience hidden to most, with an astonishing degree of insight and compassion. So hold on, and keep the tissue box nearby. This is a book you won’t soon forget.

We all know what red roses symbolise, but how about other flowers? White lilies, perhaps, or French marigolds? You might beware of giving your loved one a bunch of lavender, for instance, as it symbolises distrust. And a wallflower has nothing to do with being excluded, or shyness, as you might expect. It is a symbol of "fidelity in adversity". At the end of the novel, Victoria learns that moss grows with- out roots. What does this mean, and why is it such a revelation for her? This book had a great dreamy almost magical realism feel about it. And magical realism is my favourite kind of realism. I love the characters, even when I hated them, and the writing was just glorious without being too... wait for it.... *cough* flowery. For me, the story would have been better told in third person. I think some distance between Victoria’s mean thought process and the reader would have helped. I didn’t much like being in this misanthropic head and I didn’t get any idea of anyone else’s motivation for caring for her. Why did Renata hire her? Yes, she’s a magical flower genius, but why would she want this girl around, glaring at her customers? Yes, lots of glaring. The elegantly worded The Language of Flowers made me invest quite a lot during the first chapters, but gambled all my affection away later on. I will try to explain how this unceremonious drop around the middle of the story came to pass after introducing Victoria to you.

Need Help?

Too much folding! “He folded himself into a chair. She folded her feet beneath her. He folded over in exhaustion placing his head on the table. She folded over in pain. She folded herself underneath the bush.” For eight years I dreamed of fire. Trees ignited as I passed them, oceans burned. The sugary smoke settled in my hair as I slept, the scent like a cloud left on my pillow as I rose. Even so, the moment my mattress started to burn, I bolted awake. The sharp, chemical smell was nothing like the hazy syrup of my dreams; the two were as different as Indian and Carolina jasmine, separation and attachment. They could not be confused. I also loved the message and the moral of the story that is the importance of encouraging others with nice and positive words in other to help others to grow and bloom beautifully, even to those that may look strange and different to you, which also teaches the concept of kindness. Jobes, Gertrude (1962). Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols. New York: The Scarecrow Press. Though the flowers within the novel largely function as symbols for Victoria, expressing emotional meaning, [4] the novel also includes a large amount of information about the biology of flowers. New York Times Reviewer Janet Maslin described this information as sometimes becoming overly pedantic, saying "the pointed use of flower definitions in conversation begins to pale as a gambit." [2] Conversely, NPR called this motif "organic," growing from the first scene in a flower marketplace. [4] Style [ edit ]