The Wisdom of Plants

by Randi Lee Anderson

You have very likely heard of the “Language of Flowers,” also known as floriography, a system of symbolic meanings through which flowers could be used to communicate messages. The practice became especially popular in the 19th century, when Victorians (particularly those in love) would send one another coded messages through carefully chosen bouquets. Various guides were published to help decipher this floral language, some of which have been digitized and may be read today online.

The Wisdom of Plants takes inspiration from this tradition while imagining a different kind of floral communication. Rather than asking only what a flower has meant to people, I ask what wisdom the plant itself might offer us.

For these paintings, I have looked at both the cultural meanings humans have attached to the plants and the qualities of the living organism itself, that is, its traits and habits. From these, I have distilled a short message of wisdom presented alongside each painting in the style of an aphorism.

To give examples, the wisdom accompanying the zinnia draws directly from its traditional Victorian meaning; the edelweiss is informed by more recent cultural associations; and the message of the night-fragrant orchid comes from the plant's own behavior. Together, the paintings invite us to consider plants not only as objects of beauty or symbols onto which we project our meanings, but also as living beings with their own stories and perhaps, if we pay attention, something to teach us.