Flowers

Books and guides created during the Victorian period served as a decoder for those receiving and giving flowers. What you might today say in a text message or email could be sent without a single word, provided you knew the meaning of the flowers and their characteristics. The flower language books, however, were not all written by the same author or in the same time period, so it could have been that the giver and receiver each had a different interpretation of the gesture.

The history of flower giving continues to be written. In the United States it might have once seemed inappropriate for a woman to give flowers to a man. Today it no longer registers as out of the ordinary. Virtual flowers and Internet florists provide new ways to deliver virtual or real flowers anywhere in the world. Technological and scientific advances allow for year-round blooms of every type of flower. Though most people no longer know the old-fashioned meaning of many flowers, they still use flowers to convey sentiments to others.