Meaning of Yellow Roses

by Elizabeth Crosthon

To say I love you, call your favorite florist and arrange for a delivery of red-colored flowers. When ordering your flower delivery consider the history and meaning behind the flowers you choose. Different flowers and colors all have an interesting history and a unique sentiment.

Ever since the time of Shakespeare, plants and flowers possessed special meanings. Ophelia talked about “rosemary for remembrance” and mentioned different flowers in one of her speeches. The modern significance of flowers originated in the socially proper and reserved Victorian era when people can not straight-forwardly express their emotions.

A bouquet of flowers could take the place of a love note or flirting in person, which would have been considered too forward. Very complicated guides to the meanings of individual flowers and colors of flowers were written and the arrival of a bouquet meant translating its meaning.

Rose bouquets have always been popular, and roses also star in mixed-flower arrangements. Red roses are well known to celebrate passionate love, and roses of other colors have their own meanings. White roses symbolize purity and are often seen at weddings. When different colors are combined, the meaning becomes even more complex.

Yellow roses weren’t available until the 18th century and before their discovery the only roses there were came in colors from white to red. At first, yellow roses were not thought of in a positive light and they were thought to represent fading love, envy or infidelity. But other yellow flowers were thought to represent sunlight and happiness. Today people send yellow roses as messages of friendship, celebration and joy.

Yellow roses have special meaning to Texans, because of the well-known song, “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” Though the “rose” in this popular old-time song is a beautiful woman, there was also a hybrid rose variety, called Harrison’s Yellow, that was developed around the time as the first recordings of the song. It’s possible that this new rose inspired the song. Whatever the case, Texans are still passionate about yellow roses today.

About the Author:

Leave a Reply