What They Said In Flowers

Roses, like most flowers, are symbolic archetypes -- their meanings so imbedded in our consciousness that, like Victorian "dream books" there were guides to divine what a lover actually meant by a particular bouquet. Victorian lover communicated with a "language of flowers." people showed up at parties carrying or wearing certain buds or blooms that meant "Call me" or "Get lost, creep." sentiments could be exchanged without speaking, even across the street -- just like pagers do today.
vestiges of there meanings remain today. red roses mean true love, pink roses mean young love, white roses mean innocent love, or it`s modern equivalent ("I can wait till we`re married/ i`m really gay.")
as modern relationship become more transactional, the value equation of a dozen roses becomes, each Valentine`s Day, a barometer of love -- budding, wide open, drooping, or dead. No, the rose - o -meter never lies. why is that?