Non-Traditional Flowers For Valentine’s Day
Surprise Your Beloved with Flowers
Of course roses are classic and traditional tokens of love for Valentine’s Day but you may be in the mood for something a little unexpected and less traditional. This is where other gorgeous flowers—such as tulips and orchids—come in. You’ll find that they’re just as romantic and are a unique choice. So, go ahead and surprise your valentine!
“Tulips were a tray of jewels.” –E.M. Forster, Howard’s End
- Tulips: One cannot spell or utter their name without including “lip”…which connotes images of kisses and lovers waiting for their valentines with baited breath. Chelsea Flowers offers the To Dye For bouquet comprised of colorful mixed tulips. This rainbow of blossoms is exactly what he or she will be looking for this snowy February. Did you know that tulips symbolize “perfect” or “deep love”?
- Orchids are, undoubtedly, one of the most sensual and fascinating flowers on the planet. Georgia O’Keeffe spent her career detailing flowers of all sorts in her magnificent paintings and “An Orchid” (1941) clearly represents female beauty in an abstract way.
“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 it whether they want to or not.”
–Georgia O’Keeffe
Chelsea Flowers offers a wide array of orchids –from single Phalaenopsis to Cymbidium, single to double stem—to choose from. Orchids are highly coveted for their exotic yet delicate beauty and represent “love, luxury, beauty and strength.”
- Asian Bleeding-Hearts (Lamprocapnos spectabilis), actually a member of the poppy family, are irresistibly romantic as they look like hearts delicately dangling from a stem. In pink and red hues, these blossoms immediately catch the eye and can be noticed in gardens in the spring. They are a perennial plant so they come back each year and spread nicely and, although they look dainty, they are actually pretty resilient.
- Baby’s Breath plants (Gypsophila) are anything but filler flowers. There’s nothing more elegant than tiny white, cloud-like blossoms (on their own or in a bouquet). Note the late great Cicely Tyson wearing baby’s breath in her hair.
- The Chinese Lantern plant is truly one of nature’s most extraordinary and intrinsically romantic flowers for, when they dry, they appear to be heart-shaped cages sheltering a red berry. The French name for the plant is “amour en cage” or “love in a cage.”
- Violets: With their heart-shaped leaves, violets were once the go-to flower for Valentine’s Day (rather than roses). It has been said that, way back in 269 A.D, St. Valentine made ink from crushed violet petals and wrote letters in his jail cell (that were then delivered by a dove). Violet flowers (both leaves and blossoms) are edible and used to make the perfect purple dye (for cocktails, etc.).
For more information on bouquets that can be purchased from Chelsea Flowers, consult the website here.
https://chelseaflowers.co.uk/product/to-dye-for-2/
https://chelseaflowers.co.uk/product-category/more-gifts/orchids/
To learn more about the flowers mentioned in this blog, check out the links listed below:
https://www.bloomandwild.com/the-meaning-and-symbolism-of-tulip-flowers
https://naturalorchids.com/blog/the-meaning-and-symbolism-of-orchid/#:~:text=The%20most%20highly%20coveted%20of,baby%20would%20be%20a%20boy.
https://beyondthewindowbox.wordpress.com/2020/02/17/amour-en-cage/
https://www.foragebotanicals.co.uk/forage-botanicals/violets-for-valentines
https://www.fdlreporter.com/story/life/2017/02/13/bleeding-hearts-dainty-but-hardy/97871020/
http://sweetflagherbs.com/writing/2019/4/30/violets-st-valentines-ink
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