The Tarleton State University campus is undeniably a beautiful place to be. It is filled with open land and beautifully maintained surroundings. Mighty oak and pecan trees adorn the campus, creating a homely environment for students living and studying. In addition to everything else, we have many gorgeous flowers to top it all off. However, few students are aware that every flower they observe has a subtle symbolic importance.

To start, the dorms, such as Integrity and Legends, have daffodils surrounding them. These flowers symbolize hope and rebirth. They represent a new beginning and perseverance since they are resilient flowers that have survived the winter storms. Their intense and vivid yellow coloring is also said to symbolize positivity.  

Near the Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center, there is a beautiful garden full of a vast number of flowers. The most common ones are roses, and there are countless meanings associated with each of the various rose colors. Red roses are traditionally associated with love and passion while yellow flowers are generally acknowledged as a symbol of friendship. While red tends to represent love and yellow represents friendship, orange roses are the connection between the two and represent the love within the friendship.

Along with the roses, there are also sunflowers. These flowers signify devotion, faithfulness, and loyalty. However, cultural interpretations of sunflowers may differ. For example, 1sunflowers are symbolic of life, fortune, and vigor in China. Sunflowers produced seeds, color, and other resources, therefore to Native American communities they symbolize harvest, bounty, and supply.

This Victorian “Language of flowers” allowed people to express feelings that would otherwise be difficult to express directly by using different flowers and floral arrangements to send coded messages. Flowers are still used today to express feelings and sentiments. In actuality, there are no set guidelines on what flower to give for what occasion. Rather, each event is represented by the emotion and idea behind it. So next time you take a walk around campus, think of these symbols and really think about what they mean to you.