You don't have to be a botany expert to decipher what it means when somebody sends you a rose.Every year on Feb.14,millions of people exchange the flower to express their love —and an estimated 250 million roses were produced for Valentine's Day in 2018,according to the Society of American Florists. 

  But the rose's life as a symbol didn't begin with romance.In Victorian England, women's roles in society were limited by custom and norms.Withinthose strictures,learning the language of flowers —the notion that each and every flower has its own  meaning — was one activity deemed domestically appropriate for them.And for ladies in that situation, its communicative possibilities also held an appeal that other domestic arts lacked;“thepossibility that some women sought methods of covert communication andexpression  exists,”Mary Brooks wrote in Silent Needles,Speaking Flowers. 

  The early popularization of this practice is credited to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu,the wife of a British ambassador to Turkey in the 18th century.Enthralled by a Turkish version of flower language,Lady Montagu wrotea series of letters home to England in 1716.She described the Turkish tradition as a way of assigning meaning to objects in order to send secret love letters.Montagu's letters,published in 1763,wrote of her perceptions ofthis practice:“There is no color,no flower,no weed,no fruit,or herb that hasnot a verse belonging to it:and you may quarrel,criticize,or send letters of passion,friendship,or courtesy,or even of news,without ever inking your fingers,"she wrote.But the Lady was actually incorrect in her interpretation. In spite of Montagu's misunderstanding,word of the concept spread.Langage desFleurs, a dictionary for the language of flowers by Charlotte de Latour,waspublished in France in 1819,a century after Montagu's

discovery.Nine editionsof the English translation of the book,which alphabetically defined eachflower,were printed within three decades of its publication.De Latour'stranslated Language of Flowers covered most popular flowers we buy,sell andgive today,from the mistletoe's importance during Christmas to the musk rose'ssymbolization of “capricious beauty”.

   In de Latour's chapter on the rose,the flower is not only defined as meaning“love”,but the plant itself is romanticized.“Who that ever could sing has not sung the Rose!The poets have not exaggerated its beauty,or completed it spanegyric,"she wrote.Nature seems to have exhausted all her skill in the freshness,the beauty of form,the fragrance,the delicate color,and the gracefulness which she has bestowed upon the Rose.

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