A few weeks ago we e-met Miquila Alejandre, founder of The Bloom Equation, whose mission is to make a more connected, fun world using the lost language of flowers. We loved this concept and were inspired by the DIY and learning elements it embodied—so we set out to learn a little bit more about it.
Miquila! Tell us a little bit more about The Bloom Equation…
The Bloom Equation creates fun and personal connection using the lost language of flowers. We want people to be able to use the lost language of flowers to communicate ANY message they want. In fact, we’ve even created an eBooklet that people can use to start using this lost language to design their own puzzle bouquets
[Photo by Maurice Seaty]
Why do you think the language of flowers is “lost” and how do you actually define the language of flowers?
Although my life is inundated with it now, when I first learned of the language of flowers several years ago—as far as I could tell—it was lost to the world. No one I met had heard of it.
Through research I learned it had been popular in the latter half of the 1700s and 1800s, to give and get bouquets and wearable flower accessories based on ascribed flower meanings. These meanings—published in language of flower dictionaries—came from many sources, including Medieval medicinal use or the plant’s resemblance to something human (for instance, a meaning of pomegranates in the language of flowers is “fertility”).
It was very fashionable, and as fashions tend to do, died out. Most people know that red roses suggest “love” and yellow roses “friendship,” but no one really seemed to give flower meanings a thought otherwise. The idea that most flora holds a meaning hadn’t occurred to most people in over a century.
Since I didn’t know anyone who had known about the language of flowers prior to my ravings, I felt like I had the only map to a buried treasure that was meant to be shared with the world. So I set out to bring it back.
[Photo by Ellie Wildhagen of Ellen Wildhagen Photography]
I figured the best way to do this was make a site to house a list I was compiling of every language of flower definition I could find. Until this list, there was no guiding source people could turn to to decode a flower’s meaning. For instance, some sources list Acacia as “secret love” and some as “platonic love,” a discrepancy that had the potential for disaster. The list eventually grew into the most comprehensive flower language database in existence. It is searchable by flora name, meaning and theme.
The database opened up a lot of fun, creative ways to communicate beyond bouquets, but The Bloom Equation was little more than a distant dream and a mostly unknown website until, in May 2015, I took the Passion Co.’s business workshop and was inspired to pursue The Bloom Equation full time.
[Photo by Blake Andrews of SLOtography.com]
What can people learn from the lost language of flowers? What do you most hope people will get out of learning about The Bloom Equation?
It is my hope that The Bloom Equation will give a generation inundated by electronic forms of communication a more connected, fun way to interact. I hope that, by having been provided with a way to use the lost language of flowers in their everyday lives, they’ll reconnect with their inner child—the one who adored decoding secret messages and being out in nature. I believe this re-connection to themselves and the people they interact with will make for a more fun, connected world on the whole.
Live in the SF Bay Area? Check out Miquila’s DIY Flower Crown class that was just added to Dabble!
[Feature photo by Blake Andrews of SLOtography.com]