Hanakotoba - The Japanese Language of Flowers

Lovell's Nursery in Medfield, MA.

Two years after I wrote my first novel, I was doing another editing run and came across a scene where Tauno brings flowers to Naomi's mother. I had written bouquet of flowers. I hadn't caught that before, but I asked, what kind of bouquet? Of course Tauno is the kind of guy that has to research what would make the most perfect gift.



I remember when I was young, my mother gossiping with her other Japanese lady friends about an American lady who had given yellow roses to a Japanese lady. They had to overlook the fact that this foreign lady wouldn't have known that was an insult. Yellow roses signify jealousy and ill-will.

Naomi's mother is from Japan, so Tauno and I would have to be clever about what to give her. In the spirit of cleverness, I thought to make that another quiz for Naomi and the ready. If Tauno brought a pot of mums, not even budding, Naomi would worry about what color he had chosen. Some colors would be bad omens, while others would be terribly embarrassing.

Tauno gives the pot of mums to Naomi's mother on Naomi's birthday, the end of June. Mums bloom in the fall. This gave me three months or so of teasing time.

When I began researching hanakotoba, I noticed discrepancies between different websites. Oh, no. What to do? I enlisted a Japanese friend who could read a Japanese website and went with that information.

This is what I gathered for mum colors, symbolism and the meaning as a gift.

White - Truth, honesty, yearn, grief, pure soul, lamentation.
White mums should never be given to someone who is ill. White mums are used at funerals and at graves, and is a bad omen for the sick, especially a potted plant that would "root" a disease.

Yellow - symbol of nobility, deep respect.
To give a yellow mum means: refusal of love, neglected love, unrequited love, slighted love, little love, frustration, torn love. (Wow, I'd hate to get a yellow mum.)

Purple or Violet - health, well-being, victory of love, love.
(One website misspelled violet as violent. Imagine getting one of those mums.)

Red - True love, passionate love.

Pink - First blush of love.

Peach - Sweet dreams.