Did you know each different rose color has a meaning? In fact, most plants — not just roses — do. Floriography (the language of flowers) has been around for thousands of years, but its popularity soared in the Victorian Era along with corsets, fainting couches, and the telephone. Since we were somehow even worse about sharing our feelings back then, these “talking bouquets” were a coded way of letting someone know how you really felt.
You’d think they all mean, I like you enough to buy you flowers! But, no. Yellow roses mean “I just want to be friends.” So that you don’t send the wrong message this Valentine’s Day, here are the meanings behind the most common rose colors.
8 Popular Rose Color Meanings
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Red Roses
Red Roses mean love, passion, and lust. Best given with ill-fitting lingerie.
Why red roses symbolizes love is unknown, but one of the theories is that it’s because, before his beheading on Valentine’s Day, St. Valentine wrote his love a note and gave her a red rose.
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Light Pink Roses
Light pink roses symbolize admiration and joy.
The pink rose has been found in fossils that are 40 million years old. Suffice it to say, it’s one plant that’s stood the test of time. Just like your blooming new relationship.
If you don’t want to scare your new love away on your first Valentine’s Day, opt for pink. It says all the right words so that you don’t have to. Like, our relationship is going to last for 40 million years!
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Dark Pink Roses
Dark pink roses mean deep gratitude and joy. They used to be grown in the gardens of ancient China.
Are they the perfect color for the “Thanks for last night ;)” flowers that people send in movies? Maybe. But do I also buy these for myself because every woman should be deeply grateful for herself? 😉
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White Roses
White roses mean marriage, death, innocence, virginity, and royalty.
Over the centuries, the white rose has been used to represent the House of York, the Virgin Mary, and it was often linked to Elizabeth I of England in a nod to her chastity. So if you want a very chaste Valentine’s Day while calling your significant other “your queen,” this is the rose for you. Mixed messages are everyone’s favorite.
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Yellow Roses
Giving yellow roses means you value someone’s friendship.
Yellow roses originated in the Middle East and southwest Asia and date all the way back to the 18th century. Which is close to the last time we had a proper date.
Their warm, happy color does denotes friendship, but it doesn’t have any kind of romantic meaning, and if your significant other believes rose color meanings, do not buy them yellow roses.
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Orange Roses
Orange roses mean thank you and gratitude. But, less gratitude than pink roses. Sort of like, thank you, but I’ll probably forget what you did by tomorrow.
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Peach Roses
Giving peach roses means you want to send them a sincere, thoughtful, thank you.
Peach roses are cheery and don’t send any sort of aggressive message that could be misconstrued. These are the rose color that you can send to a coworker as a “get well soon” or a “thanks for all your great work” and they probably won’t report you to HR.
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Blue Roses
Blue roses mean immortality and love at first sight. And that your beloved secretly loves Nightcrawler.
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It sure was interesting to know that red roses symbolize love and passion while pink roses symbolize admiration. My brother is planning to propose to his girlfriend of 7 years. He wants her to feel how much he loves him so he can make sure that his girlfriend will say yes to him. Since he’s planning to give her a bouquet of roses, I will share this with him.
It’s very hard to go wrong with red or pink… though I’m sure she’ll say yes no matter the color. 🙂 (Though do make sure to tell him no yellow. Never yellow.)
It was nice to know that you pink roses symbolize admiration and red roses can signify love and passion. I will share this with my brother because he’s planning to buy a bouquet that he can give to his school crush. He said that he wants to send the right message so he can easily check if he should continue pursuing her. Thanks for sharing this.
i don’t know what color to give for valentine’s day to my friend. is it okay to?cuz i’m a girl and he’s a boy.and usually the boys get flowers for the girls.