cherry geraniums are among the most familiar unfolding flora , flourish on porches , in window boxes and garden beds all over the United States and elsewhere . Known to horticulturists by the Latin species name , Pelargonium x hortorum , the big , bright , red flowers are the upshot of many decades of interbreeding . Both Pelargoniums and their audacious relatives , the " true " geranium or crane’s bill , are members of the larger Geraniaceae category . They have many meaning – cultural , literary and lingual .

History

Origin of the Geranium’s Name

" Geranium " come from " geranos , " the Hellenic give-and-take for " crane . " This is a reference to the shape of the seed capsule , which resemble the head and long bill of a Grus . " Pelargonium , " the Romance name of the vulgar red geranium and those of other hues , comes from the Greek password for " stork ’s bill . " According to source Bobby J. Ward , pelargoniums are sometimes commonly known as " stork ’s bill . " True audacious geranium are called " crane ’s bill , " and erodium , another penis of the geranium clan , is sleep together as " heron ’s bill . "

The Language of Flowers

The terminology of bloom is an ancient tradition that set apart specific meanings or opinion to unlike kinds of flowers . Originating in the Middle East and Asia , this " language " reached Europe in the 18th century . In the nineteenth hundred , Queen Victoria became intrigued by the language of flowers , which then became very fashionable . In the speech communication of heyday , carmine geranium have a meaning that bear on to either quilt or betise . However , the meaning assign to any geranium , without reference to coloring , is more hopeful . These geranium reflect genteelness and esteem .

Geraniums in Literature

Many authors have used red geraniums in descriptions of domesticated picture . In Louisa May Alcott ’s " Little Women " ( 1868 ) , one of the graphic symbol school a crimson geranium . This is also true in E.M. Forster ’s " A elbow room With A persuasion " ( 1908 ) . In " To Kill a Mockingbird , " ( 1960 ) Harper Lee uses the flowers as a symbol of civility and self - regard when she describes the crimson geranium that one character , Mayella Ewell keep , in jars outside the rundown Ewell homestead . Mayella is shoot for to a more civilised lifestyle in her choice of the flowers .

From Fashionable to Ubiquitous

red-faced geraniums have gone from being the height of fashion in Victorian times to being ubiquitous today . This is at least partly due to the fact that the modern ejaculate - raise nisus developed in the 2nd half of the twentieth century produce bigger flowers , more predictable industrial plant and variations in physique , such as three-fold flowers . Once newfangled and improved varieties were acquaint , commercial-grade propagators start producing tremendous numbers of identical new plants from cuttings .

References

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