~ Forum Post Version in case anyone has problems with lag: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/527930/?page=1#post-5420227 (no photos) ~ Welcome, SWCers and any unrelated curious parties, to @-Alocasia's Scratch edition of The Language of Flowers. ~ (Daily 6th November - DO NOT begin writing for this activity before 00:01am 6th November UTC!) In Victorian times, people sent messages to each other through secret code - aka flower arrangements! The flowers they used signified different things; for example, roses for love and friendship, crocuses for happiness, and marigolds for grief. Today’s daily is all about writing using the Victorian Language of Flowers. Our brilliant Alba has compiled this beautiful list of flowers: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/741579314/. In 400 words, write a piece with 2-5 flowers on the list (and incorporate their meanings into your work) to earn 300 points! Extra 100 points for sharing, and a virtual daisy for stating your favourite flower in the main cabin comments for Starr’s enjoyment. ~ The Victorians didn't really do straightfoward communication, given the strict social conventions of the time - but what they did do was floriography, which is the art of communicating messages through flower arrangements. You might dismiss such an idea as fanciful, but this is a practice that's been established over thousands of years and is part of the culture of many countries. The Victorian version of this language, however, is best known of all. Some meanings you may know already without even realising - roses for love, for example - but others are all but lost to time. This project seeks to put together as many flowers as possible to give you an idea of how varied and rich the messages they sent could be. That said, the Victorian Language of Flowers is far more intricate than I've gone into here - what hand you used to give and accept the flower could be meaningful, for example. So if you wish to find out more about this lost art I highly recommend you do your own research, especially from books of the time, because it's fascinating! I've loved putting this together and I hope you enjoy perusing the pages. Alba ~ Some trivia: - I drew all my flowers in their alphabetical order, apart from one which I did as an extra on the end. Bet you can't guess which one (teehee). They were also all done on the same green paper, but for some reason the colour only properly showed up on Amaranth - The font I used for the in-project title is Savoye LET - The page flip sound that plays when you click a letter was recorded with one of the pages I did my drawings on. - My photographs are taken from a garden, a farm, a beach, a lake, and two separate garden centres where I got looked at weird for taking pictures of the flowers. - There's seventy-eight flowers (and associated plants?) in this project in total. Don't worry, it doesn't take that long to go through them all! ~ Credits: Music: The Entertainer (Scott Joplin) for the following drawn elements: buttercup, bluebell, borage, forgetmenots, orangeblossom, lotus, night convolvus, magnolia, nasturtium, nightshade for the following photography: clover, dahlia, hyacinth, hydrangea, rhododendron, tansy, thistle for the following photography: daisies for the following photography: orchid Scratch, Canva and GIMP for graphics for all remaining photography and drawn elements. The Language of flowers - an alphabet of floral emblems, 1857 (T Nelson and Sons) The Language of Flowers, 1834 (Osborn and Buckingham) The Illustrated Language of Flowers, Mrs L. Burke, 1858 (G. Routledge and Co.) Google for verification of facts and sources Daily Team for all their help and support! ~ A note on authenticity: If you go off and do your own research right now, I guarantee you that you'll find different definitions for each flower. I found variation within the books I read - but my sources are from the suitable time period (if you'll excuse me the fact one of my books is from 1834, when Queen Victoria only ascended the throne in 1837), and I think it's natural that these definitions would organically change throughout the decades. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions! ~
