Floriography, by Gina Margolies — Flora

Welcome Spring (finally)  Spring has, finally, sprung here at Birthday Blossoms HQ. After an unusually cold and snowy winter which outstayed its welcome, New York City has greeted warmer temperatures with open arms. The annual explosion of flowers and greenery in the parks that dot the cityscape, the trees that line the streets, and the flower boxes that adorn brownstone windows has commenced.  In honor of the long-awaited spring weather, I did what I do every spring. I pulled up an image of Primavera, the painting by Sandro Botticelli, on my computer screen at work. (The real thing resides at the...

May’s Birthday Blossom is the lovely lily of the valley, seen in the photo on a silk scarf. There are so many things to love about lily of the valley – the sweet white petals, the quiet beauty, the promise of summer to come. Our favorite lily of the valley fun fact is that in the Victorian era, when flowers spoke their own language, lily of the valley carried the message, “You have made my life complete.” What a lovely sentiment from May’s Birthday Blossom.

If one were in search of a tool to ascertain the time, flowers likely would not come to mind. Clocks, watches, and smartphones are obvious, but flowers? Yes, flowers, thanks to Carl Linnaeus. Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist. He is generally known for formalizing the modern system of naming organisms, called binomial nomenclature. In his spare time, Linnaeus compiled a list of flowers that open and close their petals at a particular hour of the day. It is by this list that we may reckon the hours in flower time, using the aptly named Flora's Clock.

When it comes to nature deities, Flora holds the number one spot on our list. You may know Flora as the Roman goddess of flowering plants, sister of Fauna, the goddess of animals and wildlife. It likely won’t come as a surprise that Spring is Flora’s season and her divine attributes are fertility, sexuality, and blossoming.   Flora’s name comes from the Latin floris meaning, naturally enough, flower. She had two temples in Rome, one near the Circus Maximus and another on the slopes of Quirinale, one of the famous seven hills of Rome. The temple on the Circus Maximus...