The meaning of an Orchid: Love, Refinement, Beautiful lady and Many children
The meaning of an Orchid: Love
Because of its graceful beauty and refusal to grow anywhere but in a natural environment, and their need for especial care, there is no surprise that the orchid has become a sign of love and affection.
The exotic and beautiful orchid is rare and difficult to find. If you receive one as a gift, it is highly unlikely that the giver means that they want to be just friends.
The general rule, taken from the Victorian era, to understanding the language of flowers is that the harder a flower is to find, the more affection and love it means.
The meaning of an Orchid: Refinement
The orchid also means ‘refinement’ - Not only do you need to have a refined sagacity for flowers in order to nurture and grow an orchid, but the orchid is also exceptionally uncomplicated to crossbreed.
Orchid hybrids have been created on an almost daily basis and gardeners are still at it. This is the result of a constant impulse to try to further refine the orchid in order to create the single most beautiful flower in the world.
The meaning of an Orchid: Beautiful lady
The style and fashion of the Victorian era gave rise to this meaning of the orchid as the ‘beautiful lady’. The popularity of the orchid and the fashion of dressing up as an orchid during this time was ‘tout le rage’, and the parallel between the women’s dresses of the time and the structured beauty of orchid are easy to see.
The meaning of an Orchid: Many children
The orchid is also the Chinese symbol of fertility. There are a vast amount of different species of orchid and the Chinese believed that the orchid had a lot of different kinds of children, hence the meaning ‘many children’.