4 Quotes by Kasia Boddy

Floral stoics still make a virtue of embracing each season in turn. Like Berowne in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, they insist that at Christmas they 'no more desire a rose / Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth; / But like of each thing that in season grows.

Of course the rose has plenty of other associations beyond the realm of love and sex. It has served as a royal emblem and national flower. It represents Christian charity, the brevity of life, and hopes for happiness, a time when everything will come up roses. Secular and spiritual roses are often intertwined....

The writer Charlotte Smith, who suffered from chronic rheumatism and depression, passionately believed that plants could 'soothe' a 'wounded mind.

Floral interaction was particularly recommended as providing solace for widows, invalids, and homesick presidents. Paying attention to a plant, Rousseau said 'relaxes, amuses, and distracts the mind, and lifts the feeling of pain.