Tussie Mussies and the Language of Flowers

Hello, Everyone!  I hope you are having beautiful summer weather like I am here in Massachusetts.  Before I begin to tell you about the project I worked on this week, I will admit to you that it has been an epic fail!  This has not been my best work but, because I really like the idea of this project so much, I am going to share it with you anyway :).

I set out to a farmer's market yesterday with the idea that I would buy some flowers and make up a few tussie mussies.  By definition a tussie mussie is a small bunch of flowers or herbs tied together in a bouquet.  I believe a further definition includes that fact that the Victorians used these small bouquets to convey messages or love or friendship.  The symbolic meaning of the flowers were supposed to send a message to the recipient.

After purchasing the flowers I realized that I had bought a book a while back that talks about the language of flowers and the meaning and symbolism behind them.  I thought it would be fun to look up the meaning of the flowers I had chosen and see what message they would send assembled together.  I hadn't looked up their meaning beforehand so, this was going to be interesting.



On a side note:  Isn't this little book just adorable?  I think I purchased it through Amazon but, I am not sure.  The title is:  Penhaligon's Scented Treasury of Verse and Prose, The Language of Flowers.



The pages and illustrations are really lovely.

The flowers I had chosen were burgundy carnations, blue delphinium and burgundy peonies along with some filler flowers.  I didn't know the names of the filler flowers so, I couldn't look up their meanings.

Through the book and some internet investigation, I learned that delphinium can symbolize an open heart and ardent attachment and convey a feeling of lightness and levity.

Deep red carnations represent deep love and affection.

And for the common peony the meanings can include romance, prosperity, good fortune, a happy marriage, riches, honor and compassion.  Some sources I found said bashfulness can even be a symbolic meaning for the peony.

So, all in all, my tussie mussies were going to be very loving and happy bouquets.

 So, you may be wondering where the "epic fail" comes in.  It comes in the shape and style of my little bouquets.  Tussie mussies really should be rounded and small.  By choosing delphinium, the whole shape of my bouquets were wrong.  They were more long and linear.

Not to mention, they really did not photograph well.  I was very frustrated yesterday afternoon while trying to get some good pictures :/

 However, after sleeping on it I thought I would tie a paper doily around the stems of my bouquets, tie them with the ribbon and see if that made them more photogenic.  I actually thought it did.  Cotton doilies were traditionally tied around tussie mussies in Victorian times.  I can see why.  They look much prettier that way!

Even though they photographed better, the tussies were still the wrong shape.

 It looks like I will have to try again with some different flowers in the future.  I shouldn't get delphinium again, even though I love them.  Delphinium are simply the wrong shape for a tussie mussie.  Roses, carnations, lisianthus and even marigolds would work much better.

In the end, I cried, "uncle", and dismantled my little bouquets and arranged the flowers in a vase.  I am not terribly happy with how the arrangement turned out but, I decided to bring them over to my niece to brighten her day.  She has had a rough week and flowers, no matter how they look, always brighten spirits.  Besides, the flowers are sending a message of love and affection and a feeling of lightness and levity.  My niece needed the lightness and levity after her week and I certainly have a feeling of love and affection for her.

Maybe it wasn't an epic fail, after all~

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