White rose
A white rose meant silence in Charlotte de La Tour's flower dictionary and its English version, after the story of Love giving a rose to the god of silence. Later books changed it: Kate Greenaway made it "I am worthy of you", and Henrietta Dumont headed her chapter "I would be single".
Meaning
La Tour's dictionary pairs the white rose with Silence. The god of Silence, she writes, was shown as a half-naked youth with a finger to his lips and a white rose in his other hand, which Love had given him to win his favour. The English version repeats the story and adds that the ancients carved a rose over the doors of their banqueting rooms, to warn guests not to repeat what was said inside. Henrietta Dumont's Floral Offering (Philadelphia, 1851) keeps "Silence" in the dictionary at the back, but her chapter on the white rose is headed "I would be single" and opens with a verse about the troubles of a married man. Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers (1884) gives "I am worthy of you". A bud or a withered flower changed the message again (see below). The dictionaries are a finished fashion rather than a living tradition, but the rose is still the Old Farmer's Almanac's first flower for June.
Origin and history
The story behind "silence" is older than the dictionaries. Richard Folkard's Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (1884) tells it as an ancient fable: Cupid gave a rose to Harpocrates, the god of silence, as a bribe not to give away the love affairs of Venus, and so the rose became a sign of secrecy. A rose hung over the table reminded guests that nothing said there was to be repeated, and the saying "under the rose" comes from the custom. Folkard adds that the Pretender's supporters took up the white rose as his emblem, since they had to help him "under the rose".
In England the white rose was also the badge of the House of York, and the red rose the badge of Lancaster, in the Wars of the Roses. Dumont and Folkard both tell it. Greenaway's list turns the York and Lancaster rose into "war". Folkard records another use: in the south of England a chaplet of white roses was carried before the coffin of an unmarried girl.
Buds and withered roses
The flower dictionaries gave a white rosebud a meaning of its own. La Tour's is "a heart that knows nothing of love", with the fable that before the breath of love animated the world all roses were white; the English version keeps it. Sarah Josepha Hale's Flora's Interpreter (Boston, 1832) says "too young to love", and Greenaway says "girlhood". A withered white rose was darker. Hale gives it "I am in despair", Greenaway "transient impressions", and Brent Elliott of the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library found a dried white rose standing for "death is preferable to dishonour".
A Catholic white rose
One English book gave the flowers religious meanings instead. The Catholic Language of Flowers, compiled in 1861 by the pupils of the convent at Gumley House, Isleworth, made the white rose "a holy death", Elliott records. The red rose and its meanings are on their own page.
See also
June birth flowers: rose and honeysuckle, Red rose, Yellow rose, Red rose, Yellow rose, Pink rose.
Sources
- Le Langage des fleurs (Charlotte de La Tour, 13th edition), Charlotte de La Tour, Le Langage des fleurs, treizième édition augmentée (Paris: Garnier frères, [1856]); first published 1819, Cornell University Library, via the Internet Archive, Dictionnaire, “Silence”, “Cœur qui ignore l’amour”
- The Language of Flowers: The Floral Offering, by Henrietta Dumont, 1851, H. C. Peck & Theo. Bliss, Philadelphia (Project Gutenberg edition), White Rose chapter; Dictionary of Flowers
- Language of Flowers, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, 1884, George Routledge and Sons (Project Gutenberg edition), Rose, White; Rose, White (withered); Rosebud, White
- Flora's Interpreter (Sarah Josepha Hale, 1832), Sarah Josepha Hale, Flora's Interpreter, or the American Book of Flowers and Sentiments (Boston: Marsh, Capen and Lyon, 1832), Boston Public Library, via the Internet Archive, Rose-bud, white; Rose, white (withered)
- Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (Richard Folkard, 1884), Richard Folkard, Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (London: Sampson Low, 1884), Project Gutenberg, Rose
- The Victorian Language of Flowers (Brent Elliott, 2013), Brent Elliott, "The Victorian language of flowers", Occasional Papers from the RHS Lindley Library 10: 3–94 (2013), Royal Horticultural Society, via the Internet Archive, pp. 38, 49
- Birth Flowers by Month: Discover Your Monthly Flower & Meaning, Catherine Boeckmann, updated 17 September 2026, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, June
- The Language of Flowers, with Illustrative Poetry, by Frederic Shoberl, seventh edition, 1840, Saunders & Otley, London (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library copy), Dictionary, “Silence”, “Heart unacquainted with Love”
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Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research