The Language of Flowers (2011) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Hazel Jones-Hastings: A bundle of eternal love
• Victoria Jones: Main character and former foster child with a love of flowers and their meanings. She basically evolves by the end of the story.
• Elizabeth Anderson: Vineyard owner and one of Victoria's guardians.
• Meredith Combs: Victoria's case worker until she turned 18.
• Grant: Elizabeth's nephew and successful flower farmer. Takes a liking to Victoria.
• Renata: Owner of Bloom and Victoria's first employer. Compassionate and caring
• Earl: Devout customer at Bloom, and Victoria's first ever customer who ultimately spread the rumor about her talent.
• Catherine: Elizabeth's estranged older sister, mother of Grant.
• Marlena: Victoria's apprentice who helps her run the business - a "product" of the foster system
• Natalya: Renata's sister and Victoria's housemate - member of a rock band
• Mother Ruby: Renata and Natalya's mother, who has supernatural maternal instincts. Midwife.
• Perla: Neighbor girl who is forced to befriend the young Victoria. Father is Carlos
• Bethany: A woman that comes to the flower shop to get bouquets specially made for her by Victoria. She is in the search for love and continues being a customer of Victoria's throughout the book. She is one character which we see up close really benefit from Victoria's talent with flowers.
• Annemarie Gerber: Sister of Bethany. Bethany brought her to the flower shop so Victoria could make special boquets for her also
• Carlos: Head forman at the vineyard and works for Elizabeth. Daughter Perla is the same age as Victoria
• Ms. Tapley: Ran a foster home. She intentially withheld food from Victoria
• Ray: Boyfriend of Bethany.
• Victoria Jones: Main character, an orphan who is shuffled through the child welfare system.
• The Alienist by Caleb Carr: Add a description of this character.
• Caroline
• Mark

Quotes edit see section history

• “"This is it, you know," she said. "Your life starts here. No one to blame but yourself from here on out."Meredith Combs, the social worker responsible for selecting the stream of adoptive families that gave me back, wanted to talk to me about blame.”

• “It was a strange feeling--the excitement of a secret combined with the satisfaction of being useful.”

  Victoria on assisting a customer <Earl> with the purchase of flower arrangement

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• If it was true that moss did not have roots, and maternal love could grow spontaneously, as if from nothing, perhaps I had been wrong to believe myself unfit to raise my daughter. Perhaps the unattached, the unwanted, the unloved, could grow to give love as lushly as anyone else.

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• “Do you really think you’re the only human being alive who is unforgivably flawed? Who’s been hurt almost to the point of breaking?”

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• Mistletoe. I surmount all obstacles.

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• It wasn’t as if the flowers themselves held within them the ability to bring an abstract definition into physical reality. Instead, it seemed that Earl, and then Bethany, walked home with a bouquet of flowers expecting change, and the very belief in the possibility instigated a transformation.

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• Over time, we would learn each other, and I would learn to love her like a mother loves a daughter, imperfectly and without roots.

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• “The flower you’re looking for is clearly the common thistle, which symbolizes misanthropy. Misanthropy means hatred or mistrust of humankind.”

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• “There’s rosemary; that’s for remembrance. I’m quoting Shakespeare; you’ll read him in high school. And there’s columbine, desertion; holly, foresight; lavender, mistrust.”

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• I had been loyal to nothing except the language of flowers. If I started lying about it, there would be nothing left in my life that was beautiful or true.

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• Columbine symbolized both desertion and folly; poppy, imagination and extravagance. The almond blossom, listed as indiscretion in Elizabeth’s dictionary, appeared in others as hope and occasionally thoughtlessness. The definitions were not only different, they were often contradictory. Even common thistle—the staple of my communication—appeared as misanthropy only when it wasnt defined as austerity.

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• “Rhododendron,” I said, placing the clipping on the plywood counter before him. The cluster of purple blossoms was not yet open, and the buds pointed in his direction, tightly coiled and toxic. Beware.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Flower Market in San Francisco
• San Francisco
• Gathering House
• Potrero Hill
• Wine country: unnamed. Probably Sonoma or Napa County because it was 3 hrs. round trip from where Victoria lived.
• Bloom: Florist business

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• coquetry: Flirtatious behavior or a flirtatious manner
• misanthropy: A dislike of humankind
• Mastitis: An infection of the breast. It usually only occurs in women who are breastfeeding their babies.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

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• Mother-Daughter Relationships: Relationships between Victoria & foster mother and other mother-daughter relationships
• Food/nourishment: Victoria is malnourished often throughout her life but food comes to mean something more than nourishment for the body. Food prepared by people who care about you is a form of love, of nourishment for the soul.
• Communication: Victoria learns to suppress the spoken expression of such emotions as grief, anger,and hate. It can be too dangerous. When she learns of the Language Of Flowers, Victoria uses it, first, to communicate dangerous emotions and later to express blossoming emotions such as hope, love, forgiveness.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Vanessa Diffenbaugh (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Belika Koumpareli (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813

Notes for Parents edit see section history

The main character is, by turns, homeless, a pyromaniac, unwilling to "go by the book" and incapable of attaching to others. Themes of isolation are heavily developed.Minimal, non-graphic sexual content, some language.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• National Public Radio: Interview with the author.

More Books Like This edit see section history