Lighten Up a Sad Anniversary

This will sound like a commercial for…buying your mom flowers, I guess. But I bought my mom flowers. It wasn’t her birthday, or Mother’s Day. But it WAS the first anniversary of her mother’s (my grandma’s) passing. I once heard from a funeral director that “anniversary” days are hard on people who have lost someone. Like, you lose somebody, and you have 9 months or so to process it, and then suddenly it’s their birthday and all those feelings pop up again. So, I saw that this particular anniversary was rolling around, and I decided to call the florist. I wanted to help take her mind off of what she’s lost, and remind her what she still has. Trust me, it was a little gesture that meant a lot.

Leave it to the Professionals

My mother in law had a bright idea. She was going to start doing flower arrangements with the help of this drying device she saw on a TV infomercial. She had a nice little flower patch outside, and she was generally crafty, so it seemed like the thing to do. The problem was the drying device. It was the size of a big crock pot, and it had these shelves inside. She would arrange the flowers and greenery on these shelves, and then turn the thing on and walk away for several hours. But it seemed she was only ever about 33% successful. For every batch of flowers she tried to dry, the middle shelves seemed to work fine, the top shelves never dried at all, and the bottom third dried into dust! Eventually she ran out of flowers. Personally, I think drying apple slices to make a nice Christmas wreath or something is one thing, but flowers may be too delicate for the amateur to do. I would leave it to the professionals!

But plants soon began protecting these copies to deal with drying out and other abuse which is even more likely on land than in the sea. The protection became the seed…but not, yet, flowers. Early seed-bearing plants include the ginkgo, conifers (like pines and fir trees). The earliest fossil of a flowering plant, Archaefructus liaoningensis, is dated about 125 million years old.  Several groups of extinct gymnosperms, particularly seed ferns, have been proposed as the ancestors of flowering plants but there is no continuous fossil evidence showing exactly how flowers evolved.

The apparently sudden appearance of relatively modern flowers in the fossil record posed such a problem for the theory of evolution that it was called an “abominable mystery” by Charles Darwin. Recently discovered angiosperm fossils such as Archaefructus, along with further discoveries of fossil gymnosperms, suggest how angiosperm characteristics may have been acquired in a series of steps

A four-leaf clover is a symbol of good luck, and a five-leaf clover is a symbol of bad luck.

A blue rose means mystery. Traditionally blue roses are white roses dyed blue. There are no naturally blue roses, because roses can’t produce a chemical called delphinidin, which what makes some flowers blue.

Not all of the language of flowers expresses unspoken niceties. An orange lily meant hatred. Bindweed meant busybody. Buttercups symbolized childishness. Purple carnations meant antipathy and yellow carnations meant disdain or rejection.

The language of flowers is called floriography. The first flower dictionary was published in 1819 by Mme. Charlotte de la Tour, titled Language des Fleurs.

Victorian guides on floral meaning were often contradictory and if a couple wasn’t using the same reference the wrong meaning could be assigned to a message.

The use of flowers to convey messages is an ancient practice. Flower and plant symbology fill both Greek and Roman mythology.

Chloris is the Greek Goddess of Flowers. She was married to Zephyrus, God of the West Wind.

Flora was the Roman Goddess of Springtime and Flowers; she was one of many Roman fertility goddesses. Her festival called the Floralia, was held in late April or early May, which was marked by dancing, drinking and of course flowers.

Egyptian inscriptions mention flower messages, and pictures depict garlands, collars and hair ornaments made of flowers. King Tutankhamun’s coffin was draped with carefully arranged flower garlands and bouquets. The ancient Egyptian perfumers imported flowers from as far away as India and trade secrets were well guarded.

Fill a sink or other suitably sized container with fresh, warm water. The temperature should only be about as hot as a relaxing bath. Water that is too hot will shock your flowers and could kill them. Just remember that if it feels nice to you, it will feel great to them!

Remove your wilted flowers from their vase or floral foam and fully submerge them in the water. While your flowers are submerged, re-groom the stems using a sharp knife to create a diagonal cut at least an inch from the end of the stem. Use our flower grooming tips to make sure your flowers are in the best shape possible.

Let your flowers soak for 5 minutes to an hour. During this time, you might want to review our flower care tips to ensure your blooms have everything they need for a long life.

Check your flowers for firmness. Once they’re adequately hydrated, return them to a properly prepared vase or their flower foam and enjoy their beauty.