In the last two weeks I have picked flowers for so many occasions. It has caused my mind to wander about the gift of flowers. I can think of no other gift that is appropriate for congratulations, and commiserations, to celebrate and to encourage. We use them in weddings and funerals. They are given to celebrate birth and to sympathise in death. Flowers say "I love you", "I'm sorry" and "Thankyou". They say "Welcome Home" and "Goodbye". I find it quite amazing!
A friend recently passed on a book called "The Language of Flowers" by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. It was a great read! It is based on the Victorian idea of expressing thoughts and feelings through the gift of flowers. The Victorians had a very sophisticated flower language. I want to do some more exploring in this area now - I've been inspired! At the back of the book was a paraphrased list of flowers and the meanings assigned to them through this floral language. Of course, I was keen to look up Protea, and was really surprised by its meaning.
Proteas mean courage.
I rather like their meaning!
Hi from South Africa, I am a fairly new protea grower in the Garden Route of South Africa. Stumbled on your blog and really like it a lot
ReplyDeleteHi! So glad you like it! We've been growing for 4 years, and I just love it. We bought a property that had some established plants, but have done a fair bit of new planting too. I have done a lot of research into what varieties to grow. Most of the ones I really like aren't easily available in Australia. You must have such an amazing variety to choose from. Lucky you!
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