Why Alleflory?
Allegory + Floral = Alleflory
This story, like so many good stories, begins with a little bloodshed. Or maybe a lot of bloodshed, because there’s a dead body dumped in the bushes, murdered by one of many rivals. His lover weeps inconsolably over his body, she too bleeding profusely having impaled herself on the thorns of a white rose in her futile rush to save him.
This ancient who-done-it is one of the many reasons we fork over too much money for a bouquet of roses every Valentine’s Day. Like most Greek myths, the story of Aphrodite and Adonis would have been just another bedtime story if it weren’t for the Victorians and their penchant for beating around the (rose) bush.
Gods behaving badly
The murder of Adonis by a wild boar, who maybe was Aphrodite’s old boyfriend Aries in disguise. A 1505 painting by Sebastian del Piombo.
Long before Taylor Swift ignited a passion for parsing out hidden meanings in her pre-release Instas, we had Lady Mary Wortley Montagu writing to her 19th century besties, hinting that not all flowers were created equal. They held hidden meanings to which only the most refined of lovers had access. Soon, the not-so-secret language of flowers was putting unspeakable words into reticent mouths. Words like love and passion and - gasp - virginity.
A garden bouquet of daisies became more than a nice hostess gift. The perky little flowers were fraught with a litany of meaning and those allegories could change based on culture, proximity and which particular author the flower-bearer had last read.
By the late 1800s, those meanings had been codified. The floral industry further defined the meaning of flowers, leaning heavily into availably and profit. Where there had once been a million ways to say I Love You with flowers, there was now basically one. A red rose. A flower that sprang from the earth as Aphrodite bled over the body of her dead boyfriend Adonis.
If the language of flowers begins anywhere, it begins with a rose.
It’s time to revive the Language of Flowers in all its depth and variety because we need it now more than ever. As a society, we’ve leaned into communicating through emojis. For better or worse, those little symbolic texts have replaced words when it comes to saying what we really mean. And for most of us, saying what we really means wasn’t exactly a strong suit because our vocabularies are becoming increasingly more limited. (Blame that on the internet too.)
“A bouquet is a mathematical equation of emotions.”
So here at Alleflory, we aim to bust through those limitations. Because a flower can mean so much more than love or hope or despair.
A bouquet is a mathematical equation of emotions. Having a fight with your significant other that ended in hurt feelings? Balance white poppies (sorrow) with honeysuckle (nostalgia) and a ubiquitous red rose (love) for a succinct message of “Let’s try again.” Leave out the rose and you’re hinting that it’s over.
So much easier than having The Talk. So much more personal than a 😢+🌺+❓
