Saying it with flowers

    Mr. C. knows my taste in flowers and wouldn't buy me red roses for Valentine's Day; he chose these scented narcissi instead. According to Anna Pavord, he's got it right - here's part of what she says on the subject of Valentine's offerings in The Curious Gardener:

"I'd trust a man who gave me daffodils. Hackneyed, say some, but I don't think so. Daffodils fit the bill, seasonally, and in love as in life, you like to feel you are getting the right things at the right time. [...] There's hope in daffodils. That's a dangerously fragile commodity at the best of times, but now is the season to indulge it."

       Apart from roses, the other flowers most commonly given at this time of year are carnations, chrysanthemums, lilies and tulips, and each one - in Anna Pavord's (mischievously expressed) view - says something about the character of the giver and the nature of the relationship. If you'd like to know what that is I'd be happy to tell you - but dare you risk finding out?! 

Comments

[Dark Puss]

Dark Puss doesn't give anyone flowers for Valentine's Day - what does she say about that? Indeed Dark Puss' female companions hardly ever get flowers - only on the most special of occasions. I quite fancy giving tulips if they are in season, and seasonal flowers in general.

[Cornflower]

AP doesn't say anything about not giving flowers at all (forsooth!), but if you were to give tulips, DP, you'd win her approbation:
"As far as I am concerned, these are the best, indeed, the only flowers to send or receive on Valentine's Day. Wild, irrepressible, unpredictable, strange, subtle, generous, elegant, tulips are everything you would wish for in a lover... 'When a young man presents a tulip to his mistress,' wrote Sir John Chardin (Travels in Persia, 1686), 'he gives her to understand by the general red colour of the flower, that he is on fire with her beauty, and by the black base, that his heart is burned to coal.' "
Of course, Anna Pavord did write The Tulip ...

[Dark Puss]

Wow! Dark Puss is twirling his whiskers at Wild, irrepressible, unpredictable, strange, subtle, generous, elegant.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

[Nancy]

I was going for tulips first, then chrysanthemums (for gifts) - but I do happen to like carnations - they are so old fashioned and remind me of my childhood. My mother was not a gardener of any sort but she did keep carnations. In my mind as a child, they were the 'coffee flowers' because her care of them only extended to opening the back door and tossing out the coffee grounds on them. They thrived. :-)

[oxslip]

I like garden pinks, but am not keen on Dutch spray carnations or Kenyan roses without scent, chrysanthemums are for dressing graves and lilies for funerals in my head - so I'd like to know what she says about any or all of those please.
Top marks to Mr C, Daffs and tulips at this time of year are the happiest thing to receive, hope they are British though I suspect difficult to get anything local to Edinburgh in Feb

[Cornflower]

Nancy, I shall remember that tip if ever I grow carnations.

[Dark Puss]

Oh Oxlip! Daffs? Oh no I do do hate that word. Sorry, DP

[Cornflower]

AP describes a visit to Ecuador to see commercial rose-growing, and it sounds quite terrible!
As to buying roses for Valentine's Day, it's "a lover who feels safest as one of the herd and for whom imagination will never be a strong point" who'd do that, she says. "Acceptable but unexceptional", though she gives marks for yellow ones rather than red.
She's quite scathing about carnations, and as to chrysanthemums, yes, harvest festivals and funerals. "Anyone who hands over chrysanthemums on 14th. Feb. must be suspected of a huge gap in understanding what is an appropriate response to life's little circumstances. This is a lover who later on... will give you new insoles for your wellington boots when you dream of Jimmy Choo's showstopping sandals".
Lilies "will come from people who care very much about their appearance...If your Valentine insists on cutting off the stamens, on the grounds that the pollen will stain the Armani suit, then get free of the relationship as soon as you can. Just think how such a suitor would hog the bathroom."
Dare we ever buy a flower again for fear of what it might say about us?

[Dark Puss]

Dark Puss' coal-black heart is now aflame at the thought of what giving scarlet-red tulips to the women in his life will say about him!!

[Dancing Beastie]

I always wish that peonies were in season on Valentine's Day. Not that I'd get any anyway (sniff). Meanwhile I do love tulips. I love the way they start all stiff and straight-laced, then grow voluptuous and dramatic with age. (TMI?!)