Language of flowers takes many forms at Rob's Florist

Language of flowers takes many forms at Rob's FloristFrom 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on Feb. 14, Andy Knowles and his team will race across Poplar Bluff to help people say “I love you.”

“We do a month of business in a 12-hour period,” said Knowles, owner of Rob’s Florist. Demand is so high that family and friends, some from out of state, converge on his shop to help out each year.

“We’ll have 35 people in here Friday driving deliveries, waiting on people, and helping getting orders out,” he said, quintuple the staff there every other day of the year.

Flowers are a well-established way to express love, sympathy, joy and more. But they can say much more — enter floriography, the language of flowers, a way of communicating cryptically through the symbolism of certain flowers and flower colors.

In an article for the University of Missouri Extension, state horticulturist David Trinklein said historians have traced floriography’s roots back to the Ottoman Empire. It soared in popularity during the Victorian period when demure behavior became the norm and public displays of affection were socially taboo. As a result, Victorians exchanged “talking bouquets” with coded messages. For example, a red carnation symbolized a declaration of love, but a yellow carnation expressed disappointment or rejection.

“Thus, a last-minute substitution by a florist because of a shortage of a certain color of flower could prove disastrous to a relationship, given the recipient is a student of floriography,” said Trinklein.

Knowles has yet to see a customer send a coded message in a bouquet, but traces of the symbolism remain in the popular flower market. As MU Extension noted, red flowers are often associated with passion, love and affection. Modern flower trends are increasingly governed by individual taste, however.

“Red roses are what everyone thinks of on Valentine’s, but about 50% of what we do will be mixed bouquets with all different assortments of flowers, everything from snapdragons to gerbera daisies and lilies,” explained Knowles. “Anymore, people send what the recipient likes.”

One customer recently ordered a bouquet made entirely of stargazer lilies, his wife’s favorite, Knowles added.

Knowles’ parents opened Rob’s Florist over 35 years ago, and the family has been “blessed by the Poplar Bluff community,” Knowles said. Some families have been customers for generations — couples who bought wedding flowers now have grandchildren getting prom bouquets. Knowles returns that loyalty in part by protecting customers from suppliers’ holiday price gouging.

“We don’t raise prices. What you pay in July, you’ll pay on Valentine’s,” he said.

He believes Rob’s Florist fills a unique need.

“We’re here to help people express life’s most important moments,” Knowles explained, both joyous and sad.

Trinklein put it thusly: “As a custom, a gift of flowers represents a way of expressing feelings of joy, sorrow, gratitude and grief when words alone simply don’t seem adequate. Like our ancestors, we continue to let flowers help us better connect with people and speak to others. Perhaps the appeal of flowers partially lies in their contradictions: delicate in form yet strong in sentiment; small in size but big in beauty; short in life yet long on effect.”

For a complete list of flower meanings, Trinklein suggests consulting a floral dictionary or other work devoted to the subject, such as Wikipedia’s list of plants with symbolism. The list includes the bird of paradise flower, Knowles’ favorite, and gives its meanings as, “Liberty, magnificence, good perspective, joyfulness; faithfulness.”

Linda Geist at the University of Missouri Extension contributed to this article.