Neeli Reamer is The Roanoke Times' gardening columnist. Her column appears twice monthly in Extra.

Neeli Reamer

Recent columns

• Passalong plants can bring others joy
• Spring into action in planning your next garden
• Orchids seem intimidating at first, but many people can help you past that
• Column archive

About Neeli

Neeli Reamer is a Master Gardener who has a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communication and a master's degree in counseling, where she focused heavily on horticultural therapy techniques.

She believes gardening isn't about being perfect, it's about having fun.

The red roses you get or give on Valentine's Day symbolize passionate love.

But what do the carnations, ferns and other plants in the arrangement mean? What if the roses are white? Why did your significant other hand you the bouquet upside down?

If you lived in Britain during the Victorian era, you would probably know the answers.

The Victorian era coincided with Queen Victoria's 1837-1901 reign. For the wealthy and the newly formed middle class, it was a time of leisurely garden parties, croquet games on the lawn, lavish fashions and romance.

Victorians were wild about flowers. Plant explorers roamed the world and brought home horticultural treasures. Anything that was exotic, fragrant or even gaudy was welcome in the Victorian garden.

Victorian gardeners constructed glass greenhouses and rock gardens to show off their acquisitions. They were famous for planting carpet beds, raised gardens that were modeled after Persian rugs, using brightly colored annuals. Public gardens and green spaces also flourished.

Secret messages

The practice of sending messages through flowers took place in many ancient civilizations, but flower symbolism blossomed into an art form during the Victorian age.

The language of flowers, known as floriography, helped Victorian men and women skirt around the strict rules of courting.

They all learned to say it with flowers!

Rich Victorian ladies made sure their children were well versed in this high-class form of communication.

However, the language of flowers was not universal. Popular flower dictionaries such as "Le Langage des Fleurs" by Madame Charlotte de la Tour (1818) and Kate Greenaway's "Language of Flowers" (1884) differed on some plant meanings. Couples may have even invented their own secret floral codes. What was important was that everyone involved was on the same page.

Tussie mussie -- the talking bouquet

In medieval times, tussie mussies -- tiny, hand-held aromatic bouquets -- were carried near the nose to mask unpleasant odors.

The Victorians exchanged tussie mussies to express their feelings -- both good and bad.

Victorian tussie mussies contained symbolic flowers, foliage and herbs. Stems were often wrapped with ribbons and lace doilies or put in a small, silver cone-shaped holder.

The choice of plants in tussie mussies was significant, as was the manner of presentation. For example, if the tussie mussie was offered upside down by a suitor, it meant that the opposite meaning of the flowers was true. A declaration of love could become an insult with the flick of a wrist.

If a girl accepted the flowers with her right hand, she was indicating "yes." If she took the blossoms with her left hand, she silently said "no."

The language was complex. The number, size, colors, placement and scents of flowers, plus whether they were in bud or full bloom, all mattered.

Popular posies

The Victorian era is history, but the language of flowers is not extinct. Today, some people still observe floral meanings.

The rose is the undisputed flower of love.

According to the International Cut Flower Growers Association (www.rosesinc.org), red roses say, "I love you." White roses can mean several things: innocence and purity, "You're heavenly," reverence and humility, "I'm worthy of you," or secrecy and silence.

Red and white roses together indicate unity.

Withered white roses say, "You made no impression."

It's so much better to receive rosebuds, which proclaim, "You are young and beautiful!"

Pink roses signify grace and gentility. Yellow roses now stand for joy and gladness, but for Victorians, they meant jealousy, or a decrease of love and infidelity.

Pansies represented thoughts in the Victorian era. A bouquet of pansies tells somebody, "I'm thinking of you."

A red carnation says, "Alas, for my poor heart," a striped carnation means refusal, and a yellow carnation expresses disdain. Rosemary is for remembrance, while ferns suggest sincerity or fascination.

Beautiful flowers didn't always have beautiful meanings for Victorians. Foxgloves connote insincerity, geraniums symbolize melancholy, marigolds mean grief, sunflowers represent haughtiness and hyacinths show sorrow.

Valentine's Day is the perfect time to learn to speak the language of flowers with the one you love.

Tip of the Week

By now, we all know celebrity groundhog Punxsutawney Phil did not predict an early spring.

Boyd Walker of Glasgow writes that groundhogs can be seen searching for food year round, even on warm days during the winter. He says if you want to try to evict a groundhog in summer, you can put mothballs at the entrances of its burrow "but as soon as it rains they lose their effectiveness."

Do you have a garden related tip? Please e-mail me.