Flowers

Blossoms, Flowering Trees and Shrubs, Wildflowers, Annuals
Quotations, Poems, Lore, Facts, Verses, History, Sayings, Quotes, Poetry
Flower Quotes - Part IV

"Science, or para-science, tells us that geraniums bloom better if they are spoken to.  But a kind word every now and then is really quite enough.  Too much attention, like too much feeding, and weeding and hoeing, inhibits and embarrasses them."
-  Victoria Glendinning.

"Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty."
-  Shakespeare, Winters Tale, Act IV, Sc. 3, Line 118

"How could such sweet and wholesome hours
Be reckoned but with herbs and flowers?"
-  Andrew Marvel.

"There is material enough in a single flower for the ornament of a score of cathedrals."
-  John Ruskin. 

"and the gray Sunflower poised against the sunset, 
crackly bleak and dusty with the smut and smog 
and smoke of olden locomotives in its eye-- 
corolla of bleary spikes pushed down and broken like 
a battered crown, seeds fallen out of its face, 
soon-to-be-toothless mouth of sunny air, sun- 
rays obliterated on its hairy head like a dried 
wire spiderweb, 
leaves stuck out like arms out of the stem, gestures 
from the sawdust root, broke pieces of plaster 
fallen out of the black twigs, a dead fly in its ear, 
Unholy battered old thing you were, my sunflower O 
my soul, I loved you then!
-  Allen Ginsberg, Sunflower Sutra.

"The love of flowers is really the best teacher of how to grow and understand them."
-  Max Schling.

"The largest single flower is the Rafflesia or "corpse flower". They are generally 3 feet in diameter with the record being 42 inches.  No species of wild plant produces a flower or blossom that is absolutely black, and so far, none has been developed artificially."
-  Plants and Botany Trivia. 

"In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.”
-  Alfred Lord Tennyson

"I have a garden of my own,
Shining with flowers of every hue;
I loved it dearly while alone,
But I shall love it more with your:
And there the golden bees shall come,
In summer time at the break of morn,
And wake us with their busy hum
Around the Siha's fragrant thorn."
-  Thomas Moore, The Casket, 1835.

"O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy,
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy."
-  William Blake. 

"What a pity flowers can utter no sound!—A singing rose, a whispering violet, a murmuring honeysuckle ... oh, what a rare and exquisite miracle would these be!" 
-  Henry Ward Beecher.

"Correct handling of flowers refines the personality."
-  Bokuyo Takeda. 

"In this world
we walk on the roof of hell
gazing at flowers."
-  Issa.  

"As I work among my flowers, I find myself talking to them, reasoning and remonstrating with them, and adoring them as if they were human beings.  Much laughter I provoke among my friends by so doing, but that is of no consequence.  We are on such good terms, my flowers and I."
-  Celia Thaxter,  1835-1894. 

"Memories are forget-me-nots gathered along life's way, 
Pressed close to the human heart into a perennial bouquet."   
-  Clara Smith Reber.

"Although every flower may possess, secondarily, its own specific symbolism, for all that, flowers generally are symbols of the passive principle.  The calix of a flower, like the chalice, is the receptacle of heavenly instrumentality, among the symbols of which dew and rain should be mentioned.  Furthermore, the way flowers grow up out of earth and water symbolizes manifestation rising out of these passive elements. ...  The allegorical use of flowers is endless."
-  Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, 1969. 

"There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted."
-  Henri Matisse. 

"While Rikko, a high government official of the T'ang dynasty, had a talk with his Zen master, Nansen, the official quoted a saying of Sojo, a noted monk-scholar of an earlier dynasty: "Heaven and earth and I are of the same root.  The ten-thousand things and I are of the one substance."  Then, he said, "Is not this a most remarkable statement?  Nansen called the attention of the visitor to the flowering plant in the garden and said, "People of the world look at these flowers as if they were in a dream."". 

"Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day - like writing a poem or saying a prayer."
-  Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

"Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul."
-  Luther Burbank.

"The delicate droop of the petals standing out in relief, is like the eyelid of a child."
-  Auguste Rodin.

"Just as the peony represents richness and grace, the chrysanthemum, which blooms in the cold days of late autumn and early winter, represents nobility and elegance.  The flower comes in several varieties but originally the chrysanthemum was just a small yellow flower that has been dated back to 5000 BC. After generations of cultivation, the number of varieties grew rapidly. In the Chrysanthemum Book of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), 35 varieties were noted but by the time of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the number had risen to 136. In Li Shizhen's famous book, "Ben Cao Gang Mu", finished in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), more than 900 varieties of chrysanthemum were listed. Today more than 3,000 varieties are blooming in China."
-  Chrysanthemum Flowers

"The Kingdom of Flowering Plants holds a special compassion for human travail.  Because of this, the essences of flowers support us with a special compassion through our earthbound transformation.  Flower essences contain the vibratory qualities of the flowers, and are made by infusing the flower into spring water under sun or moon light."
-  Flowers of the Soul. 

"Too late its beauty, lonely thing,
The season's shine is spent,
Nothing remains for it but shivering
In tempests turbulent.
Had it a reason for delay,
Dreaming in witlessness
That for a bloom so delicately gay
Winter would stay its stress?"
-  Thomas Hardy, The Last Chrysanthemum

"The daffodil is our doorside queen;
She pushes upward the sword already,
To spot with sunshine the early green."
-  Bryant, An Invitation to the Country

"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.