Yellow rose
The flower dictionaries made the yellow rose a flower of infidelity or jealousy. Charlotte de La Tour gave "infidelity", Henrietta Dumont "jealousy", Kate Greenaway "decrease of love, jealousy", and Sarah Josepha Hale, on her own, "let us forget".
Meaning
La Tour explained her choice. Yellow, she wrote, is the colour of the unfaithful, and the yellow rose seems to be their flower: a rose without scent that water tires and sun burns, which will only flower well if its buds are bent to the ground and held there by force. The English version of her book translates it as "Infidelity" and says yellow is the colour "of false as well as of jealous people". Henrietta Dumont's Floral Offering (Philadelphia, 1851) heads its chapter "Yellow rose: jealousy" and tells a story from the German poet Pfeffel: a white rosebud envied her sister's blush, and Flora, losing patience, breathed on her and gave her the colour of jealousy. Dumont's own dictionary at the back of the book still says "Infidelity". Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers (1884) combines them as "decrease of love; jealousy". Sarah Josepha Hale's Flora's Interpreter (Boston, 1832) goes another way: her yellow rose, a native of Italy that smells of pineapple, says "let us forget". These books are a finished fashion, not a living tradition; the rose's place today is as the Old Farmer's Almanac's first flower for June.
Origin and history
The yellow rose's bad name comes from the colour, and the dictionaries treat yellow the same way in other flowers. La Tour's yellow carnation stands for disdain, and the English version calls the yellow pink "Disdain" too. In Greenaway's list the yellow Carnation is "disdain", the yellow Chrysanthemum "slighted love", the yellow Lily "falsehood" and the yellow Tulip "hopeless love".
Infidelity or jealousy
The books split between two readings. La Tour and her English version give infidelity; Dumont's chapter and Greenaway give jealousy; Dumont's dictionary sides with La Tour, so her one book gives both. Hale's "let us forget" belongs to no one else. Greenaway's printed list, as transcribed by Project Gutenberg, even reads "Jealously". The red and white roses have their own pages: Red rose, White rose.
See also
Red rose, White rose, Carnation, Chrysanthemum, Red rose, White 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, “Infidélité”, “Dédain”
- The Language of Flowers: The Floral Offering, by Henrietta Dumont, 1851, H. C. Peck & Theo. Bliss, Philadelphia (Project Gutenberg edition), Yellow Rose chapter; Dictionary of Flowers
- 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, yellow
- Language of Flowers, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, 1884, George Routledge and Sons (Project Gutenberg edition), Rose, Yellow; yellow flowers
- 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, “Infidelity”, “Disdain”
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research