The almighty rose can easily be dubbed as the queen of flowers. It’s one of the most popular plants to give but it’s also an easy way out of the flower shopping hassle around St. Valentine’s Day. However, there is different types of flowers for Valentine’s day or any other cheerful celebration.
Especially if you take into consideration the fact that various flowers, depending on their colour or people’s culture, carry a different hidden meaning. Let’s put moods and tastes on the side, while we speak about the most popular flowers for St. Valentine’s and their meaning.
This is a flower that says it feels like heaven to be with you and that’s a sentiment you’d like to convey to your Valentine’s date. Indeed, white lily has long been connected with religion and deities. Apart from its natural charm and intricate beauty, the flower will take you to cloud 9 in a spoof.
Carnations have been cultivated for over 2 000 years and it’s no wonder that they are a subject to many discussions, regarding their symbolism and hidden meaning. While their name origin is shrouded in Greek and Roman history, carnations are connected with incarnation and royalty.
Today you can find carnations in an extensive variety of colours and each one of them is associated with a unique meaning. Dark red carnations show a deep love and affection for someone, white ones symbolise luck, while paler reds will say that your Valentine admires you.
With intricate beauty, the iris comes in more than 200 different colour variations. Conveniently, its name comes from the Greek word for “rainbow”. It’s widespread around the globe and it’s both commercially and domestically grown. The iris also happens to be perpetuated as the national symbol of France, as the
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Join us for an exclusive conversation with Gardeners’ World TV presenter, Frances Tophill, recorded at BBC Gardeners’ World Live in June 2023. Hosted by presenter and broadcaster, Nicki Chapman, the audience listened in as Frances discussed what it’s been like taking on a new garden of her own. You can buy tickets for the next live show, BBC Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair here.
Header image: Suited up to simulate the conditions of working outside on Mars. Jonathan Clarke (the author, left) with visiting engineer Michael Curtis-Rouse, from UK Space Agency (right). Jonathan Clarke personal collection, Author provided.
In a typical year, I do my garden planning before Christmas. But last year wasn’t normal, and normality (whatever that means) has yet to return. I thought I’d thought about it, but it turns out – not so much.
One of the stories that I read as a child that has stayed with me is The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. For a long time I had a copy on my bookshelf, but when I had the urge to read it last week I discovered that was no longer the case. Fortunately it’s easy enough to find a free copy, particularly as it’s part of the new range of free Amazon Kindle Classics, which you can read via the free Amazon Kindle app – you don’t need an actual Kindle.
2017 is the 100th anniversary of the start of the Cottingley fairies story, a hoax which entrances the UK to this day. Cousins Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright faked photos of fairies at the bottom of the garden, intended to be a practical joke on their grown-ups. When Elsie’s mother showed the photos to the local Theosophical Society, she set in motion a chain of events that led Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to declare the photographs to be authentic. He wrote an article on fairy life for The Strand magazine in November 1920, and fairy fever gripped the nation. Conan Doyle later wrote a book on the subject, The Coming of the Fairies – The Cottingley Incident.
What kind of traveller are you? Do you prefer to lie in a hammock slung between two palm trees, reading the latest blockbuster novel? Or would I find you soaking up the local culture along with the sun? I’m more of the latter, and it helps to know a smattering of the local language if you go off the beaten track!
Q: I’m thinking of buying a polytunnel to extend the growing season, but while many of my gardening friends think it’s a great idea, others have warned me off it, saying that they’re a lot of work to look after. Any advice would be welcome. PK, Co Kildare