The Meaning of Flowers for Personalised Bouquets

Floral gifts are one of the most universal and oldest of gifts and is often used to show affection or love, but flowers as well as their colours have many meanings which can be used to convey a message. This means the sender can really say it with flowers. But what is the real meaning of flowers?

Arranging a Striking Bouquet

The sender may consider arranging a personalised bouquet, which cannot be emulated by a prearranged bouquet. But firstly, the colours of the flowers can say a lot as well as create a focal point. A stunning floral arrangement can be achieved by splashes of complimentary colours like red and blue or violet and yellow, and setting them against neutrals and sombre colours. Dark foliage will create tonal contrast against the bright flower heads, whereas pale foliage will provide tonal harmony.

The Meaning of Flowers

A little research into what flowers and their colours mean could add an extra dimension to sending flowers. Roses are obviously a symbol of love, but even different roses have different meanings. A budding red rose symbolises purity and youth. A deep red rose, can signify shame or war, as it was the crest of the House of Lancaster during the War of the Roses.

Yellow roses, due to its colour, symbolises jealous love or hopeless love. Tulips, like roses, have similar meanings according to its colour, but a speckled tulip tells the recipient that the sender thinks they have lovely eyes.

The Best Flowers for a Bouquet

Lilies were once a popular choice of flowers for weddings, for its symbol for beauty, but are now more

associated with death, for its prominence in funerals. Geraniums, particularly the ivy geranium are used widely in weddings, but different varieties have slightly different messages. The pink variety signifies favour, the silver leafed geraniums is a symbol of memories to be treasured.

Another popular choice for weddings and buttonholes, the carnation has different significances according to its colour. The red variety signifies woe, the yellow of scorn, but the pink variety tells of hope and a love never to be forgotten.

What Flowers Mean

Other flowers have a multitude of meanings which can be used to convey or modify a message within a gift bouquet. The violet is a symbol for modesty, the peony of bashfulness, the poinsettia of joy, jasmine of eloquence, heather of good luck, iris of good taste, jonquil of desire, and holly of best wishes.

Personalised Flower Gifts

But the choice of a bouquet arrangement will be dictated by what is in season. Springtime will spoil the sender on the variety of flowers to choose from, such as bulbs, snowdrops, violets and blossoms. Summertime provides a variety of perennials and bedding flowers. Autumn is a good time for St John’s Wort, jasmines, poinsettias, berries and a variety of evergreens for backdrop. Presenting a single flower as a gift can equally be poignant. A crystallised flower may be considered, as it is a novel decoration for a gift presentation box.

View my user friendly gift shop that lists all gifts in categories in sterling and dollars

Reference: Traditional Gifts by Vinny Lee (Conran Octopus: 1993)

Oil Painting: Asters and Fruit on a Table by Henri Fantin Latour (1868)