Creations: The Language of Garden Flowers

UU World: The Magazine of the Unitarian Universalist Association, Mar/Apr 2003

A RED ROSE MEANS LOVE-BUT DID YOU KNOW THAT a lady's slipper (Cypripedium calceolus) means capricious beauty, or that cardamine (Cardamine hirsute) can convey "paternal error"? Many Victorians did, because they collected books on botanical symbolism and sent subtle or pointed messages when they exchanged flowers. (The books also supplied metaphors aplenty for their poetry and prose.)

Illustrator and calligrapher Susan Loy has revived the Victorian fascination with the symbolism of flowers. "The Language of Garden Flowers" is one of four elaborately detailed watercolor illustrations in her first book, Flowers, the Angels' Alphabet: The Language and Poetry of Flowers (CSL Press, 2001; $31.95). The book also includes twenty-four illustrations of individual flowers with brief essays about their symbolism, but extensive indexes and tables identify 1,400 flowers and their associated sentiments, making this an unusually beautiful reference book. Loy calls it "an American floral dictionary."

One of ten "Outstanding Book of the Year" award winners at the 2002 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Flowers, the Angels' Alphabet also received two awards from the Publishers Marketing Association for editorial and design excellence.

Loy is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Roanoke,Virginia. Her work is available online at www.literarycalligraphy.com.