Talk:Birthday flowers

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[edit] This list

While interesting, this article as it stands seems to be an indiscriminate list of information with only one line of actual content and only a single source. Unless the text of the article's expanded, it's very likely to be deleted. — iridescent (talk to me!) 18:28, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

It needs a lot more info, for sure. I think it's a work in progress (maybe there's a template to indicate that?), but should mention that all the info (intro sentence and list) is from just a single source, because it's a dubious source if that's all it says. For example, it may be the specific list was never a cultural tradition, and was simply the invention of a publisher as a way to sell an expensive 365-plate color-illustrated book. Even if a book or two say this specific list is a tradition, their credibility is questionable if there is no other independent corroboration. Here's a repost of a comment I posted in Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Plants#Birthday_flowers.3F:

Books.google returns a 1913 American book with a one-per-month birthday flowers list. A 1921 book of etiquette says to give the birthday flower, whichever it is, prominence at the party. Several "birthday flower" and "birthday flowers" results, sometimes referring to flowers given on birthdays, but often times to specific flower species for a given month or date. In this 1878 story a character says "the orange-blossom was her birthday flower; for fifty years I have never failed to gather her a bouquet of them on her birthday." (In references like that, it's not always said why a species is a person's birthday flower; maybe it went by date, month, or was somehow assigned/chosen in childhood). An 1883 ad for a British book called "Birthday Flowers: Their Language and Legends," with color illustrations for every day of the year, includes in its lengthy description: "This sumptuous and elegant Birthday Book is the first in which our floral treasures have been laid under really effective contribution." The earliest mention of the book is an 1875 ad; it seems tied in with the Victorian-era Language of Flowers. -Agyle 23:24, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

-Agyle 19:31, 30 September 2007 (UTC)