The Literary Gardener – February 2016

“Plants and flowers aren’t simply pretty things to look at. They also have the ability to arouse our senses. They can be incredibly exciting – and erotic.” ~Sonia Day, The Untamed Garden, 2011

February we celebrate Valentine’s Day, le jour de l’amour, so perhaps there’s no better time for gardeners to curl up with Sonia Day’s engaging book that is both racy and botanically enlightening. In it, the author wonders why, when the “plant world is drenched in sex,” that most modern-day gardeners ignore this fact, tucking away our gardens’ “dirty little secret under the plant catalogues on the front porch.” She encourages a sensual reawakening among today’s plant enthusiasts—to begin again, as previous cultures did, to celebrate the “wild, sexy side of Mother Nature.”

I could not agree more ardently. So, in the spirit of Sonia Day and in celebration of Valentine’s Day, I offer the following scintillating love stories about a few of our most familiar flowers.

Valentine’s Day honors Saint Valentinus, a Roman physician and Christian martyr who was executed around February 14, 270 A.D. The story goes that a bed of sweet violets grew beneath the doomed man’s cell window. Valentinus wrote a note to the jailor’s blind daughter by using purple ink made from the violets. When the girl opened the letter, miraculously she was able to see. In fact, through the Victorian period, violets were the most popular Valentine’s Day flower, often depicted on cards and sold in bouquets by street vendors.

Yet, it’s actually the crocus that is called the flower of St. Valentine. In this version of the story, before he was executed, Valentinus handed the jailor a note for his blind daughter, in which he had written, “From your Valentine” and inserted the flower of one of his healing herbs, saffron crocus. When the girl opened the note, her sight returned; thus, her first image was of a bright yellow flower contained within the folds of the very first valentine.

Okay, I admit, so far the stories haven’t been exactly wild and sexy. But, wait, there’s more to know about the saffron crocus…Supposedly, Cleopatra used saffron oil for amorous rubdowns with Mark Antony. Also, an ancient Roman love potion mixed wine and honey with saffron, rose and violet petals—and the dried flesh of a snake. And, 16th-century botanist, John Gerard claimed the saffron crocus was an aphrodisiac that “maketh a man merrie.” Things are certainly heating up now!

Speaking of hot, what about those tulips? Before stodgy Dutchmen got ahold of them and developed hybrids with rounder, more matronly, blooms, native tulips in Persia (now Iran) and Turkey were slimmer with petals that curved inward, like a tapered waist, and had pointed tips. Red tulips, in particular, symbolized passionate love, much like red roses do today. The red color of the blooms stood for a burning heart and, because the original species had black markings at the base of its petals, this signified a heart on fire smoldering into coal.

In France, the court of Louis XIV had a lot of fun with tulips. Ladies borrowed the Turks’ meaning for red tulips by tucking said flower in their cleavage to signal would-be lovers. In The Untamed Garden, Day tells us during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, men munched on tulip bulbs for their Viagra-like effects.

Of course, a discussion of Valentine’s Day flowers would not be complete without mention of roses. Indeed, according to the Society of American Florists, more than 110 million roses are purchased each year for just this one holiday, and about 63% of those roses are red. In her book, however, Day advises us to steer clear from unsexy imported hybrid tea roses with tightly furled buds “so stiff, so prissy, so utterly lifeless.” For a more romantic bouquet, she suggests offering a bunch of voluptuous heirloom roses instead, such as climbers, cabbages, or ramblers.

Keep in mind that the color of roses conveys different messages. The deepest red means beauty and passion, coral signifies desire, orange for fascination, and mixed yellow and orange roses indicate passionate thoughts. A single red rose in bloom says, “I love you,” the same as a dozen red roses, unopened.

This gardening season, let us continue to enjoy the sensory experiences our gardens provoke—a plethora of colors, fragrances, and tactile delights. In addition, let’s not overlook the sensual pleasures of our garden flowers. After all, as French dramatist Jean Giraudoux wrote, “The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.”