"A flower's fragrance declares to all
the world that it is fertile, available, and desirable, its sex organs oozing
with nectar. Its smell reminds us in vestigial ways of fertility, vigor,
life-force, all the optimism, expectancy, and passionate bloom of youth.
We inhale its ardent aroma and, no matter what our ages, we feel young and
nubile in a world aflame with desire."
- Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses,
1990, p. 13.
"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck."
- Emma Goldman.
" I
do not think I have ever seen anything more beautiful than the bluebell
I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our Lord by it."
- Gerald Manley Hopkins.
"Where flowers bloom
so does hope."
- Lady Bird Johnson,
Public Roads: Where Flowers Bloom.
"When
bright flowers bloom
Parchment crumbles, my words fade
The pen has dropped ..."
- Morpheus
"Flowers are love's truest language."
- Park Benjamin.
"To
pick a flower is so much more satisfying than just observing it, or
photographing it ... So in later years, I have grown in my garden as many
flowers as possible for children to pick."
- Anne Scott-James.
"I
will be the gladdest thing under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one."
- Edna St. Vincent Millay.
"Belladonna: In Italian, a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison."
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.
"There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful
than the risk it took to blossom."
- Anais Nin.
"Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty."
- Shakespeare, Winters Tale, Act IV, Sc. 3, Line 118
"It
is at the edge of a petal that love waits."
- William Carlos Williams.
But
they none of them create the psychological conditions in which I first saw, or
desired to see, the flower."
- G. K. Chesterton.
"In the dooryard fronting an old
farm-house near the white-wash'd
palings,
Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich
green,
with many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I
love,
With every leaf a miracle - and from this bush in the dooryard,
With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig with its flower I break."
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1865.
"What a desolate place would
be a world without a flower! It would be a face without a smile, a feast
without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and are not our
starts the flowers of the heaven."
- A.J. Balfour.
"Forsythia is pure joy. There is not an ounce, not a glimmer of
sadness or even knowledge in forsythia. Pure, undiluted, untouched joy."
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
"With a few flowers in my garden, half a
dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy."
- Lope de Vega.
"As well as any bloom upon a flower
"In
my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is
also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the
flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful."
"The flower is the poetry of
reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life."
"Hyacinth was a beautiful youth loved by both the god Apollo and the West Wind,
Zephyr. Apollo and Hyacinth took turns at throwing the discus. Hyacinth ran to
catch it to impress Apollo, but he was struck by the discus as it fell to the
ground, and died. A twist in the tale makes the wind god Zephyrus
responsible for the death of Hyacinth. The youth's beauty caused a feud
between Zephyrus and Apollo. Jealous that Hyacinth preferred the radiant archery
god Apollo, Zephyrus blew Apollo's discus off course, so as to injure and kill
Hyacinth. Apollo did not allow Hades to claim Hyacinth. Instead, Apollo made a
flower, the hyacinth, from Hyacinth's spilled blood." "The
rose has thorns only for those who would gather it." "But
ne'er the rose without the thorn." "Some
people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that
thorns have roses."
"When you take a flower in
your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give
that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they
have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see
"At dawn I asked the lotus,
"Flowers bring to a liberall
and gentlemanly minde the remembrance of honestie, comelinesse and all kindes of
virtues."
I like the dust on the nettles, never lost
Except to prove the sweetness of a shower."
- Edward Thomas, 1878-1917.
- Abram L. Urban.
- Jean Giraudoux.
- Hyacinth
- Chinese proverb.
- Robert Herrick.
- Alphonse Karr, 1808-1890.
it whether they want to or not."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
'What is the meaning of life?'
Slowly she opened her hand
with nothing in it."
- Debra Woolard Bender,
Paper Lanterns.
-
"Break
open
A cherry tree
And there are no flowers,
But the spring breeze
Brings forth myriad blossoms."
- Ikkyu Sojun, 1394-1481.
"Who
would have thought it possible that a tiny little flower could preoccupy a
person so completely that there simply wasn't room for any other thought."
- Sophie Scholl.
"Fair gift of Friendship! and her ever bright
And faultless image! welcome now thou art,
In thy pure loveliness--thy robes of white,
Speaking a moral to the feeling heart;
Unscattered by heats--by wintry blasts unmoved--
Thy strength thus tested--and thy charms improved."
- Anna Peyre Dinnies, To a White Chrysanthemum
"And
't is my faith, that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes."
- William Wordsworth.
"The garden should be adorned with
roses and lilies, the turnsole, violets, and mandrake; there you should have
parsley, cost, fennel, southern-wood, coriander, sage, savory, hyssop, mint,
rue, dittany, smallage, pellitory, lettuces, garden-cress, and peonies.
There should also be beds planted with onions, leeks, garlic, pumpkins and
shallots. The cucumber growing in its lap, the drowsy poppy, the daffodil
and brank-ursine ennoble a garden. Nor are there wanting, if occasion
further thee, pottage-herbs: beets, herb-mercury, orache, sorrel and mallows,
anise, mustard, white pepper and wormwood do good service to the gardener."
- Alexander of Neckham, Of the Nature of Things, 1187.
"The rose is called the queen of flowers,
Surrounded by her sisters fair,
A lovely throng of beauties rare,
She holds her court 'mid summer bowers,
'Neath smiling skies of sunny blue,
Gayly they bloom the summer through
Brightening all the golden hours. "
- Hattie L. Knapp
"Silently a flower blooms,
In silence it falls away;
Yet here now, at this moment, at this place,
The world of the flower, the whole of
the world is blooming.
This is the talk of the flower, the truth
of the blossom:
The glory of eternal life is fully shining here."
- Zenkei Shibayama.
"Flowers construct the most charming geometries: circles like the sun, ovals,
cones, curlicues and a variety of triangular eccentricities, which when viewed
with the eye of a magnifying glass seem a Lilliputian frieze of psychedelic
silhouettes."
- Duane Michals, The Vanishing Act.
"Simply trust:
Do not the petals flutter down,
Just like this?"
- Issa.
"The only Zen
you'll find flowering in the garden is the Zen you bring there each day.
Graveyards and landscape gardens, coffins and flowers - fitting friends.
Enamored of these flowers, certainly - butterflies, bees and me.
Fruits, nuts, grains ... sex and food. Flowers ... sex
and beauty.
Flowers do not grow on the map of your garden.
A flower needs roots; beauty of society of minds.
Even the fruitless will sometimes flower."
- Michael P. Garofalo,
Pulling Onions.
Months and Seasons
Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Verses, Lore, Myths, Holidays
Celebrations, Folklore, Reading, Links, Quotations
Information, Weather, Gardening Chores
"Lowly, with a broken neck,
The crocus lays her cheek to mire."
- George Meredith.
"O fateful flower beside the rill—
The Daffodil, the daffodil!"
- Jean Ingelow, Persephone
"Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?
Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,
with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?"
- Mary Oliver, Peonies
"The chrysanthemum, also known as the "Autumn Flower", is
one of the four "honourable plants". The others are plum, orchid and bamboo
which are symbols of nobility. In most ancient essays and poems, writers use the
terms "jade bone, icy body, pearl petal and red heart" to describe the flower.
For on cold autumn days, when all other flowers were fading away, only the
chrysanthemum was able to flourish in the cold winds. The combination of beauty
with strong character made an ideal personality in the eyes of romantic Chinese
scholars."
-
Chrysanthemum - Flower of Honor
"In the 1600's, a language of flowers
developed in Constantinople and in the poetry of Persia. Charles II introduced the Persian poetry to Europe, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu brought the flower language from Turkey to England in 1716. It spread to France and became a handbook of 800 floral messages known as the
Book Le Language des Fleurs. Lovers exchanged messages as they gave each other selected flowers or bouquets. A full red rose meant beauty. Red and white mean unity. Crocus said "abuse not", while a white rosebud warns that one is too young for love. Yellow roses were for jealousy, yellow iris for passion, filbert for reconciliation and ivy for marriage."
- Valentine's Day
Love Traditions.
"The nature
of This Flower is to bloom."
- Alice Walker.
Next Page: Flowers - Quotes for Gardeners, Part IV
The Spirit of Gardening
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Over 3,800 Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Quips, One-Liners, Clichés, Quotes, and
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Last Updated: March 6, 2011