The Language of Flowers

DID YOU EVER WONDER WHY we mark various holidays with different plants or flowers? Why do shamrocks symbolize St. Patrick’s Day, lilies mean Easter or carnations represent Mother’s Day? The universal answer seems to be that different flowers have specific meanings. Roses symbolize romantic love. Snapdragons mean I’m sorry. And then there are the special plants we buy to celebrate special days during the year. By Lorraine Hunter

Shamrocks for St. Paddy's Day

The shamrock was a sacred plant in ancient Ireland symbolizing the rebirth of spring. By the 17th century it had come to represent emerging Irish nationalism and as the English began to seize Irish land and institute laws against the use of the Irish language and Catholicism, many people in Ireland began to wear the shamrock as a symbol of pride in their heritage.

Shamrock or seamróg is the Irish word for young clover. It is said that St. Patrick used the three-leaved clover to explain the concept of the holy trinity to the pagan Irish in the 5th Century. Since then, other plants have come to represent the shamrock including white clover (Trifolium repens), red clover (Trifolium pretense), wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) and false shamrock (Oxalis triangularis). Oxalis is commonly grown as a houseplant all over the world and is usually available in time for March 17.