Away before me to sweet beds of flowers:
Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers. (Twelfth Night 1.1)
A couple of weeks ago I posted about our newly opened ‘Say it with Flowers’ exhibition at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. Since then it has been visited by ‘lovers’ of every kind who have left their notes to their special ones, with touching tributes including “To my Katie who loves Shakespeare almost as much as I love her.” and “You are a smelly dog. But you’re my smelly dog”.
To coincide with this celebration of flowers and romance, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has been hosting an online forum and inviting everybody to share their thoughts. Last week the discussions were led by professional florist, Lynda Owen, whose insight into ‘saying it with flowers’ included posts about wedding flowers, and the history of flower giving. This week and next we are handing the chair over to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, who are looking at historical and medical uses for a range of flowers, and creating a herbal blog that you can add your own comments and ideas to.
