DESIGNING FROM WITHIN
The Language of Flowers — And What It Can Teach Us About Home

Spring is here, and I can feel it on my morning walks.
The other day I spotted the first blooms pushing up through the leaves in my neighborhood and then I was stopped in my tracks …. because there was a rose I recognized immediately and suddenly I wasn’t on my street anymore. I was ten years old with grass stains on my jeans, running around a garden and leaning in to take in the most extraordinary scent.
We called them lemonade roses. To our little untrained noses, they smelled like pink lemonade and roses all at once…sweet and alive and completely intoxicating. To me, even now, that scent smells like home. Like childhood.
I still have to lean down and take a whiff every single time. The Double Delight rose.
That little nostalgic moment got me thinking on something I find genuinely fascinating, the idea that flowers have always carried meaning. Not just beauty. Meaning. And that bringing them into our homes with a little intention can completely change how a space feels.

Flowers Have Always Been a Language

The Victorians had a whole system for this called floriography: the art of sending messages through flowers. Every bloom carried a specific meaning. A bouquet wasn’t just beautiful. It was a conversation. Feelings too delicate or daring to say out loud could be arranged into a posy and handed across a room.
The Victorians weren’t alone in this, cultures from ancient Persia to Japan to Greece have been assigning meaning to flowers for thousands of years. But honestly the Victorian version is so intriguing because it was practically a secret code, and hello .. the height of romance!
Now if you’ve made it this far you’re probably thinking ….okay Andrea, lovely history lesson, but what does this have to do with my home?”

I promise I’m getting to that! So, my moment with the roses , with the thinking about the language of flowers .. all brought me to thinking “what if we brought a little of that intention back into our spaces?” Not in a serious or ceremonial way (or a secret code way ) just pausing before you grab flowers at the market and asking what you actually want to bring into your space right now….

A Few of My Favorites :And What They Mean

My instinct with flowers is always the same. I look for color first , then scent . The meaning comes after. But knowing what a flower carries with it adds a layer that I find genuinely delightful! *Pun Intended

Double Delight Rose — Intense love, passion, unity, healing

Introduced in 1977 and named by popular vote because people couldn’t agree on whether the beauty or the scent was more extraordinary — so they called it both. Creamy white edged deep crimson, with one of the most extraordinary fragrances in the rose world. Also associated with releasing deep generational patterns. My forever favorite.

Peonies — Prosperity, good fortune, happy home

The Victorians called them a symbol of a happy marriage and good fortune. The Chinese called them the king of flowers and grew them in imperial gardens for centuries. Either way, a bowl of fresh peonies on a dining table is one of the happiest things you can put in a room. Full stop.

White Tulips — New beginnings, forgiveness, worthiness of love

Simple, fresh, and quietly hopeful. A single bunch of white tulips in a clear vase is one of my favorite things – clean lines, no fuss, and a feeling of possibility that is perfect for spring. Fun fact: at the height of Tulip Mania in 17th century Holland, a single rare bulb sold for the price of a house.

Lavender — Calm, devotion, serenity

I love lavender everything! the scent, the color, the way a bundle of it looks tied with twine on a nightstand. The Romans bathed in it, tucked it into their linens, and used it to calm soldiers before battle. In a room it is less decoration and more intention. There is a reason it has been used in spaces meant for rest for literally thousands of years.

Ranunculus — Charm, radiance, pure delight

If you have ever walked into a room with a full arrangement of ranunculus in bloom and felt your mood lift immediately ..that is not an accident. They are practically engineered to make people happy. Layered, ruffled, available in the most beautiful range of colors. I dare you to be in a bad mood near ranunculus.

California Poppy — Rest, recovery, imagination

Our state flower and another of my favorites. There is something about a poppy: that tissue-paper delicacy, that almost shocking color , that feels both wildly free and quietly grounding at the same time. Simple in the best possible way. A handful of poppies in a small vase is a whole mood.

Daisy — Innocence, joy, new beginnings

Underrated. Endlessly cheerful. The Victorians associated daisies with innocence and loyal love but honestly, I just think they make every room feel cheerful in the very best way. Don’t sleep on the simple ones.

An Honorable Dis-mention: The artificially dyed carnation. You know the one. Neon purple. Aggressively blue. A color that exists nowhere in nature and for good reason. Carnations are beautiful and they symbolize love and fascination plus they last forever in a vase. But if someone has gone and dyed one a color that requires a warning label, we are going to have to agree to disagree.

Want to learn more – this is a great book ! https://a.co/d/09Djdtun

Bringing Intention Into Your Home

I’m not suggesting you need a Victorian flower dictionary to go to the farmers market. But I do love the idea of pausing for a moment and asking “what do I want to feel in my home right now? What does this space need?”
Designer Tip : One of my favorite things to do is buy a dozen roses (or 2 dozen) and distribute them around the house in small groupings, two or three stems in a simple vase on the coffee table, one in the bathroom, a few on the kitchen counter, a couple on the dining table. Little moments of something living and beautiful in every room. It costs the same as one large arrangement and does so much more for how the whole home feels.
Place flowers where you begin and end your day. Let scent lead, we are so visual in how we design and scent is one of the most underused elements in a home. A fragrant flower does something that no paint color or fabric can.
And if a flower stops you in your tracks… if you find yourself reaching for it before you’ve even thought about it, trust that. It’s usually carrying something you need.

I still haven’t managed to grow the lemonade roses the way they grew in that garden. Some things belong to a particular place and a particular pair of hands.
But I understand now that what I keep reaching for isn’t just the flower. It’s what it carries. The warmth. The memory.
That is what the language of flowers has always been about. Not just beauty but meaning brought into a space with intention.
And that, to me, is where design begins.

Designing From Within is an ongoing series exploring the sensory, intuitive, and emotional layers of design — the things that make a home feel like yours.