Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

What is the language of flowers? During the Victorian era, a man would present a woman with a bouquet, and she would run home to try and decipher his meaning; honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, red roses for love.

Diffenbaugh takes that language and uses it as a tool for our heroine. At the center of this story is 9 year old Victoria Janes, a product of the foster care system in northern California. She never knew her mother or father and has already lived in 32 foster homes. Her social worker describes her as “Detached. Quick-tempered. Tight-lipped. Unrepentant.”

Now the 9 year old is being taken to live with Elizabeth, yet another foster mother. “This is your last chance,” she’s told. “Your very last chance.”

Elizabeth lives on a working vineyard, but she grew up on a flower farm. All the tricks that Victoria uses to try and alienate Elizabeth do not work – Elizabeth stays calm, even in the face of broken memorabilia and prickly pear spines placed in her shoes. She constantly tells Victoria, “I will love you, and I will keep you.” But Victoria is not a believer, and she is almost impossible to reach.

When Elizabeth sees that Victoria has a fascination with flowers, she decides to feed that. She takes Victoria to the huge San Francisco flower market, and while there points out her nephew, working at one of the stands. Elizabeth explains that they are estranged; that she and her sister have had a feud going on for many years and do not speak and she doesn’t know her nephew at all.

Elizabeth teaches the prickly child the Victorian language of flowers. While the language has gone by the wayside, Elizabeth grew up learning it and she passes it along to her very willing pupil. And Victoria finally learns a way to communicate.

Victoria gradually settles in with Elizabeth. School doesn’t work out, so Elizabeth home schools her. Eventually Victoria comes up with a crazy plan to somehow keep Elizabeth all to herself; a plan that only a child could think would work. Instead, she manages to push away the only adult who ever truly loved her.

Victoria ends up in a group home for the remainder of her childhood. At 18, she ages out of the foster care system, and she becomes homeless. “My hopes for the future were simple: I wanted to be alone, and to be surrounded by flowers.” The story weaves back and forth between Victoria’s nightmare of a childhood and her adult life as a florist.

After she is forced out of the group home, she ends up sleeping in the park, under some trees and bushes and is not unhappy. Having spent most of her life hungry, she has some food issues but manages by eating food left on restaurant tables.

One morning she shows up at the nearby Bloom flower shop, leaves in her hair from her park bed, but the owner, Renata, hires her anyway on a temporary, cash basis. She quickly learns the floral business. Renata soon realizes that Victoria is a gifted floral designer and lets her loose, and finds her a place to live.

Victoria helps build up the wedding business at Bloom. She interviews the brides-to-be about their fiancés and their relationships, picking flowers for their weddings that reflect personally on each couple based on the Victorian language. Eventually, she moves out on her own and starts her own wedding business.

But her personal life is still difficult. When she starts working for Bloom, she is at the flower market every week. Victoria sees a man who looks at her in a way that she doesn’t care for, so the next week she brings him rhododendron, which means “beware.” He later hands her a sprig of mistletoe, which we understand to mean as a way of getting a kiss, but the Victorian meaning is “I surmount all obstacles.” They continue communicating this way and eventually she realizes it is Grant, Elizabeth’s estranged nephew. But Victoria is extremely introverted, bordering on hostile. Can this young woman find love and happiness?

Diffenbaugh’s debut novel is enchanting. She is a mesmerizing storyteller. I read this in one night, I simply couldn’t put it down. One of the things I love most about The Language of Flowers is that it is that rarity in discussion books, an inspirational, uplifting story with a happy ending.

The original hardcover had a close up of a begonia on the cover, which means “caution.” The paperback cover (above) has a spray of camellias, which means “my destiny is in your hands.” The flower that I’m taking from this book is a single pink carnation, which means “I will never forget you.”

01/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.  Ballantine Books; Reprint edition (April 3, 2012). ISBN 978-0345525550. 352p.