Gardening with Gael - The language of flowers

DOGWOOD: Used in Victorian times to signify affection.

I have just finished reading a great book called The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. The heroine, whose tortuous childhood left her flawed and unable to relate to other people, finds the ability to communicate using the language and meaning of flowers and plants. There is an appendix in the back of the book with the meanings she used. 

The idea of sending a message through flowers has slowly disappeared since its heyday during the Victorian era. Red roses signifying love on Valentine’s Day is about today’s limit. The book, however, has made me aware of the significance of various flowers and I find myself looking them up. In the book, the heroine Victoria, is taught to take great care in the identification of the plants and their differences. This careful observation is important when identifying any plant.

In Halifax, knowing my obsession with plants, Maureen took me to the Halifax Public Gardens, a beautiful area of trees, shrubs and flowers, described as one of the finest examples of Victorian gardens in  North America. A valuable resource of heritage plants, the gardens were recognised as a National Historic Site in 1984. As we wandered past the lake I noticed an unfamiliar lovely pink flowering shrub. There was nothing to identify it and even the young gardener we approached had no idea. I took careful photos from all angles with the idea of researching it when I arrived home, or, once in front of a computer.

The shrub was of medium height and covered with four petalled flowers. Typing in ‘pink flowers with four petals’ good old Google came up with pictures just like the ones I had taken. The petals are in fact bracts which protect the tiny centre flowers. Dogwood or cornus come from North America and Asia. They are extremely hard wood deciduous trees with a variety of uses including arrows, bows, walking canes, golf ‘woods’ and some tool handles.

Are they available here? Yes they are. My friend Jan is very familiar with them in Auckland gardens. My worry is that it is not cold enough this far north for them to flower but she assures me she has seen them flowering and that they would be a great addition to the deciduous area I have been planting. Not only pink, they also come in shades of red and also white.

Their meaning? In the language of flowers the meaning of the dogwood is endurance. Other references include the meaning ‘love undiminished by adversity’. That seems reason enough to plant one. A Google reference states: “In the Victorian Era, flowers or sprigs of dogwoods were presented to unmarried women by male suitors to signify affection. The returning of the flower conveyed indifference on the part of the woman: however if she kept it, it became a sign of mutual interest.” I guess with the absence of dogwoods locally, would-be suitors will just have to stick with texting.