Through Taylor's albums, she's created an emotional landscape through symbols within her music, and flowers are no exception. Let's review the language of flowers and how the plants she's chosen might supplement the content of certain songs. There may be stretches in meaning, but it’s fun to dissect all the same.

The language of flowers

Many cultures across the world have assigned meaning to flowers and plants indigenous to their regions. During the Victorian era in English, bouquets with certain flowers were used to covertly communicate messages of love and affection.

For this work, I referenced the following:

Flowers and Their Meanings by Karen Azoulay, this had some good practical uses of the flowers
The Complete Language of Flowers by S. Theresa Dietz, this book was way more in-depth with more flower species and breadth of meaning… As a result, I had to trim down the list of meanings.
Wikipedia
If you’re a garden or flower enthusiast, please add your insights!

Note: I’m focusing only on the content of the music as we don’t really know anything about her personal life.

Cedar

Azoulay: Strength

Dietz: I live for you; strength; think of me

"Forgive me Peter, my lost fearless leader, in closets like cedar, preserved from when we were just kids." - Peter, The Tortured Poets Department

Because of their fragrant oils, cedar is used as an odor and moth repellent in closets. In this song, they’re used to preserve his memory, carefully stored in a closet, slowing decay as best as she can. Much of the song is about how she thought of him for a long time, living for him and hoping he’d make his way back for her… But that dream never materialized.

Carnation

Azoulay: Strong and pure love

Dietz: Admiration; bad luck; bonds of affection; dignity; disappointed; disdain; good fortune; good luck; love; misfortune; pure love; strength; true love;

"Carnations you had thought were roses, that's us." - Maroon, Midnights

Let me tell you, I had no idea carnations would be so loaded in meaning. From Dietz’s book, deep red carnations could mean affection, alas my poor heart, and affection. Unsurprisingly, carnations carry a lot of the emotional weight in Maroon. While carnations and roses communicate devoted love, carnations are also used as a funeral flower, to express condolences over a loved one who died.

These different contexts, representing a mismatch in expectations. To him, the carnations are a funny mishap, but to her, they may signify the sadder meanings of carnations, like bad luck, misfortune, and the slow death of their relationship.

Clover

Azoulay: Industry
Dietz: Domestic virtue; fertility; revenge
- Red clover: Industry; I promise; provident; revenge

"Clover blooms in the fields, spring breaks loose, the time is near, what would he do if he found us out?" - ivy, evermore

In ivy, the clover is a visual representation of spring, a time of rebirth and growth. Domestic virtue means the ability to keep a home. While Taylor explores the idea of being a good partner (wife) despite her loneliness in several of her songs, I’m not confident that’s why she chose clover here. Clovers get another mention in The Great War:

All that bloodshed, crimson clover, uh uh, sweet dream is over.

In addition to all the other meanings, red clover indicates revenge. However, she chooses the word crimson instead of red, suggesting blood stained the once green and dreamy landscape.

Daisy

Azoulay: Innocence
Dietz: Beauty and innocence; cheer; child-like playfulness; creativity; do you love me; gentleness; happy-go-lucky; innocence; loyal love; purity; strength

“I once was poison ivy, now I’m your daisy.” - Don’t Blame Me, reputation

Daisies are playful flowers that associated with youth and playfulness. In Don’t Blame Me, the transformation from an untouchable vine to an early spring flower in reputation suggests a rebirth through her lover.

Daisies are mentioned again in You’re On You’re Own, Kid, where she bids farewell to the wide-eyed and innocent version of herself. While other flowers can be used, daisy petals are the flowers commonly used with the game he-loves-me and he loves-me-not:

I see the great escape, so long Daisy May
I picked the petals, he loves me not

Evergreen

Azoulay: None
Dietz: There were a few plants that had evergreen in the name, but this mention is not a specific type of plant.

“How evergreen our group of friends, don’t think we’ll say that word again.” - champagne problems, evermore

Evergreen didn’t have a specific definition, but the term itself refers to plants that stay green regardless of season. it is persistent and enduring, a beautiful image for forever. From Azoulay's book, cypress and other evergreens were placed as a wreath on doors a death in the family. It's ironic that a wreath of evergreens announcing a death is also used to celebrate the holidays, alluded to in the next portion of champagne problems.

Ivy

Azoulay: Marriage
Dietz: Affection; endurance; fidelity; friendship; fidelity in marriage; happy love; marriage

"My house of stone, your ivy grows, and now I'm covered in you." - ivy, evermore

Taylor refers to herself as undesirable poison ivy in Don't Blame Me, an appropriate metaphor for her reputation at the time. However, this differs from the ivy she sings about in the eponymous song. Ivy is known to attach itself to surfaces and die when separated, making it a symbol of deep commitment and the perfect gift for newlyweds. It’s also considered an evergreen plant, as its color persists through the winter.

In ivy, the narrator grieves for a still living person during the snowy season. This ivy creeps in and revives her, rooting itself to her dream[land]. While the narrator is "promised" to another, she is consumed by the thoughts of her ivy. Her fidelity is to someone outside of the marriage, making its usage ironic. This quiet declaration leads to a war and the fight of their lives at the song’s climax. A war is also mentioned in ivy:

So yeah, it's a war
It's the goddamn fight of my life
And you started it
You started it

Lavender

Azoulay: Distrust
Dietz: Constancy, devotion, distrust, faith, faithful, humility, love, mistrust

“I just want to stay in this lavender haze." - Lavender Haze, Midnights

Since ancient days, lavender has been used to imbue a sense of calm and relaxation in any home, and was once a gift to newlyweds (Dietz). Taylor has specifically said that the inspiration to use the phrase "lavender haze" came from watching Mad Men. When she looked it up, it referred to desire to stay in the glow of love.

Despite these meanings, it was once used to mask the odor of decaying bodies, which is where the meanings of mistrust or distrust may have originated. It also is said that sniffing lavender may also give someone the ability to see ghosts.

While looking up "lavender haze", I wonder if Taylor stumbled upon its usage for corpses. The thought of laying with an unresponsive dead body as a metaphor for her decaying relationship is both funny and jarring, perhaps it was a sign that she felt death in her relationship. Here are the lyrics in lavender haze that could, hilariously, refer to that. This tortured poet does have a dark sense of humor:

Staring at the ceiling with you,
Oh, you don’t ever say too much
…
They’re bringing up my history
But you weren’t even listening

Morning glory

Azoulay: Affection
Dietz: Affection, attachment; death; humility; I attach myself; love in vain; night; obstinacy; repose; spontaneity; uncertainty

"There's no morning glory, it was war, it wasn't fair." - The Great War, Midnights

I love that the phrase "morning glory" is doing double duty here. On one hand, it could mean there wasn't any glory or honor after an all-out nighttime battle. With the flower meaning, it could also mean there wasn't any affection during this period. The Great War has a lot of flower mentions, more than other songs. There’s a beautiful juxtaposition in using delicate flowers to communicate the intensity of war.

Morning glories range in color from pink to lavender and blue. It's impossible to tell which hue Taylor thought of for this song. They could be blue, as she’s used it to describe the specific sadness of this lover in Afterglow. They also could purple, as she refers to the imperceptible by the human eye "ultraviolet morning light" in the same song. It’s also a callback to the lavender haze that opened the Midnights era.

Poppy

Azoulay: Remembrance, sleep, peace, death
Dietz: Avoidance of problems; consolation; eternal rest; fun-loving; good and evil; life and death; light and darkness; love; oblivion; remembrance

"We can plant a memory garden, say a solemn prayer, place a poppy in my hair." - The Great War, Midnights

From Azoulay, poppies are known to spring up on battle fields because they're able to survive the disruption in the soil's chemical balance. These same poppies are worn to commemorate Remembrance Day, the day that WWI (also known as The Great War) ended. Remembrance poppies are also a vivid red, which calls back to the bloodshed and crimson clover in the chorus. Despite the intensity of these visuals, the poppy in her hair is a gentle contrast to the violence in the song.

From Dietz, poppies also signify love and pleasure, appropriate for those making up after an intense fight. They also signify eternal rest, oblivion, and avoidance of problems… Perhaps it isn’t a coincidence that Taylor chose to reference poppies for remembrance while we also have Maroon, a song about the reddish hues of decay, on the same album.

Roses

Azoulay: Romance
Dietz: Beauty; carrier of secrets and understanding; love; magic; messenger of love; passion; ultimate beauty
Deep red: bashful; desire; i love you; love; passion; protection; respect; well done

"A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground, with no one around to tweet it." - the lakes, folklore

Red roses are most associated with romance, and we know how much Taylor loves both. Taylor often sings about roses as gifts from romantic partners, but they've grown in meaning for her through her life and work.

Roses are a symbol of love and beauty, but it's their decay that Taylor references most in her music. She's left them to die in Back to December, laments the loss of love with its wilting in Is it Over Now?, and ruminates over its symbolic death in Maroon. It's because of these romantic connotations that singing of their decay becomes much sadder.

In 1989, she refers to her life as a rose garden filled with thorns, luring men to join her and face their doom. This treacherous garden returns in Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince, as she runs away from the danger growing around her. In these instances, the intense scrutiny of her public life has created a hostile environment for her and her partners.

In Red, she notes that The Lucky One chose a rose garden over Madison Square in NYC, the first time that roses could be her personal symbol for a life outside of fame. We see this notion revisited in the lakes, where she mentions a rose growing outside the ever-hunting cameras. In the context of this song, she may consider her own life and love that rose, flourishing in a world hostile to her existence.

When it comes to her life, Taylor has grown to refer to herself as a rose. In Clara Bow, Taylor notes that she is the rose, picked from obscurity to be the new offering to the celebrity industry and stan culture. This same culture is one that she references in Slut! where she'll pay the price for pursuing love, and her partner won't. Love thorns all over this rose, leaving her love and life up for discussion.

Violet

Azoulay: Modestay

Dietz: Affection; faithfulness; fidelity; honesty; loyalty; modesty; thoughts; thoughtful recollection; virtue

"My knuckles were bruised like violets, sucker punching walls, cursed you as I sleep-talked." The Great War, Midnights

While Taylor may be referring to the purple bruise blooming, I’m not sure if it has a double meaning here. Later in the song she mentions that she was revisiting memories and weaponizing them in honest, but perhaps hurtful, ways. The use of violet on knuckles reinforces the narrative in Afterglow from Lover:

Fighting with a true love is boxing with no gloves
Chemistry 'til it blows up, 'til there's no us
Why'd I have to break what I love so much?

…

This ultraviolet morning light below
Tells me this love is worth the ﬁght, oh

Willow

Azoulay: Forsaken
Dietz: There were many entries for willow so I chose to focus on weeping willow: Melancholy; metaphysics; mourning; sadness; tenacity

“Life was a willow and it bent right to your will, they count me out time and time again.” willow, evermore

In this instance, Taylor refers to the tenacious nature of the tree. No matter how many branches you cut from a willow tree, it continues to flourish.

Taylor refers to willow 3 separate times within the song. The first mention refers to her lover sneaking in, building on the first verse where she, as the water, yields to him. She bends to his will and whims as he sneaks into her dreams and life, and she is happy to follow. The remaining instances are about her resilience against adversity. No matter how many times people discount her and her abilities, she always finds a way to grow and snap back.

From Dietz, weeping willows are also known as Babylon willows. The song cowboy like me is a melancholic reflection on how this deep love may not last forever… It also specifically references “hangs from [her] lips like the Gardens of Babylon”, a legendary space home to a multitude of plants, including willows.

Wisteria

Azoulay: None
Dietz
- American wisteria: love; poetry’ protection; welcome; youth
- Chinese wisteria: Let’s be friends; welcome fair stranger; your friendship is agreeable to me

“I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet ‘cause I haven’t moved in years.” the lakes, folklore

Wisteria was introduced to the UK, so it doesn’t have a clear meaning in the Victorian language of flowers. In Japan, it is a symbol of love, prosperity, and longevity, making it a popular gift for newlyweds. In China, it also symbolizes longevity and immortality.

It’s a beautiful sentiment at the end of folklore, the idea of being somewhere with a partner so permanently that they become part of the landscape. Many varieties of wisteria are a soft purple, just like Lavender Haze.

Flowers in The Tortured Poets Department

The flower and plant imagery comes to a screeching halt in Taylor’s latest album. Roses are used in The Bolter to refer to the glow of budding relationship and in Clara Bow for new starlets. Aside from that and the cedar, there is nothing. How Did It End? has a singular mention that carries the weight of these flowers’ disappearance:

He was the hothouse flower to my outdoorsman.

Taylor has referred to herself as a hunter, the archer, and now the outdoorsman. She’s a marksman, ready to aim and fire at her goals in love and life, and she never misses. In contrast, a hothouse flower is one grown in a greenhouse, only able to survive in a controlled environment. It’s sensitive to conditions of the outside world. Without careful tending, it will wither away. The partner it’s about doesn’t matter, as this small comparison says enough.

While this was a fun exercise, I don’t know if Taylor thought about the language of flowers while writing, or if she’ll ever return to it in her future work. But for a small time, something different bloomed in the gardens of her mind.

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