1) Hint 1: They were called wind flowers by the Greeks because they grow on windy slopes.
Hint 2: Another derivation is from the Persian 'Naamen' which is the Persian for Adonis.
Hint 3: Venus fell in love with Adonis when he was born. She tried to protect him from harm but was forced to share him with Persephone by Zeus. One day, Adonis was hunting a wild boar and it turned around and killed him. Venus arrived in time to hold him in her arms as he died. Some say that this flower sprang from his blood or Venus's tears. It is a symbol of protective love.
Anemone.
Named after Louis Antoine de ----- who was commissioned by Louis XV to
circumnavigate the world and obtain any unclaimed territory. It was actually the botanist Philibert Commerson who discovered and named this flower in honor of his employer who invited him on the trip.
Bougainvillea.
Hint 1: Comes from the Greek words for ‘gold’ and ‘flower’.
Hint 2: It was very popular in China for 2500 years. A 4th century poet T'ao Yuna-Ming had a garden of these to which he preferred retiring to instead of accepting a high government post. It was considered as one of the four noble plants along with - the bamboo, orchid and plum.
Hint 3: In A.D. 400 Zen Buddhist monks took this flower to Japan where it became the symbol of the ruling dynasty – the Mikado. The symbol looked remarkably like the ‘Rising Sun’ but was in fact a 16-petalled ______.
Chrysanthemum.
Hint 1: These flowers are also called 'narcissi' and 'jonquil' which comes from 'rush' in Spanish.
Hint 2: A beautiful youth Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection and then drowned in it. According to Greek myth he was turned into this flower. All _____ are narcissi but not all narcissi are ________.
Hint 3: When Dorothy and her brother went on a walk she noted in her
diary that,
' Some rested their heads on these stones as on a pillow.
They tossed and reeled and danced and seemed
As if they verily laughed with the wind,
They looked as if gay and dancing.'
Several of Dorothy’s own poems or notes in her journal were included in various editions of her brother's poetical works. She published nothing during her lifetime, and spent the last twenty-five years struggling against physical and mental illness. E. de Sélincourt, who published her journals in 1933, has called her "probably the most distinguished of English writers who never wrote a line for the general public."
Daffodils. She was Dorothy Wordsworth, the English prose writer, the younger sister of poet William Wordsworth, famous for her diaries and 'recollections'.
Then comes from the Old French ‘ne m'oubliez mye’ which was the translation of the German ‘vergiss mich nicht’. The legend is that a German knight picked up a posy of them for his beloved and was strolling by the riverbank with her when he suddenly slipped into the river and died. His last words were, 'Vergis mich nicht!'.
Hint 2: The most commonly placed flower on Valentine cards.
Hint 3: More famously they grew in Lady Chatterly's pubic hair, where her game keeper lover planted them saying,
'That's ________ in the right place.'
Forget-me-not.
Hint 1: _________ was a beloved boy of Apollo. Once they were playing quoits
when he ran forward to catch the discus and died of an injury when it hit his head. Maybe Zephyr, the God of the Wind was jealous of him and had the wind make the disc hit him. A flower sprang from his head which was named after him.
Hint 2: In Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland informs Henry Tilney that she has just learnt to love the ________, but is naturally indifferent to flowers. To which Tilney replies, ' Now you love the ______, so much better. You have gained a new source of enjoyment, and it is well to have as many holds upon happiness as possible.'
Hyacinth.
Hint 1: Comes from the Latin to wash. It was used to make perfumes and soaps. The Greeks recommended that ' lay clothes in lavender'.
Hint 2: A ______________ marriage is a term coined to describe a marriage between a man and a woman, in which one or both parties are, or are assumed to be homosexual. Usually, but not always, both parties are assumed to be complicit in a public deception to hide their homosexuality.
Lavender.
Hint 1: Named after Dr. Joel Roberts ______, the US ambassador to the new
Republic of Mexico from 1825 – 1829. He was also an avid botanist and horticulturist and was responsible for introduction of various plants and trees in Mexico and the US. He was also one of the founders of the Smithsonian.
Hint 2: This is a popular winter flower since it grows when days are short and nights long.
Poinsettia
Hint 1: It was introduced to Europe by Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq who was the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire to Suleiman the Magnificent of Turkey. The ____ is the national flower of Iran and Turkey, and _____ motifs feature prominently in Persian and Turkish folk arts.
Hint 2: Its Name is a result of the latinization of the Arabic ‘dulband’. The European name for the flower is a misuse of the Persian word for turban, a mistake probably originating in the common Turkish custom of wearing these flowers in the folds of the turban.
Hint 3: Unofficially, the flower is also emblematic of a European country. For instance, in an annual gesture of gratitude to Canada for liberating the nation from the Nazis in World War II, a supply of ____ is sent to be planted in Canada's national capital in Ottawa.
Tulips. The European country is the Netherlands, of course!