The Chelsea Flower Show opens tomorrow at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and for five days something like 157,000 people will pass through the gates to look at flowers that have been coaxed, timed, and manipulated over months to peak at this precise moment. It is, if you think about it in the wrong light, a slightly unhinged thing to do with a flower. It is also, in the right light, an act of genuine devotion — the horticultural equivalent of a love letter written in a language only the recipient is meant to understand.

Which brings me, in a way that I hope will become clear, to jewellery.

For a stretch of roughly a century between the 1820s and the First World War, flowers in Britain and much of Europe carried a precise coded vocabulary. The forget-me-not meant true love. The pansy (from pensée, the French for thought) meant I am thinking of you. Ivy meant fidelity. A daisy offered to someone meant they were considered innocent. The violet said modesty; the rosemary said remembrance; the lily of the valley said the sender hoped for the return of happiness. These meanings were not folk memory. They were published, circulated, and discussed. Charlotte de Latour's Le Language des Fleurs, first published in Paris in 1819, went through dozens of editions in French and English over the following decades. Victorian women gave each other tussy-mussies (small, dense nosegays carried in the hand or pinned to a dress) as a form of communication that their social context made explicit speech difficult to replace.

The jewellery industry noticed.

In Brief: Victorian jewellers encoded Charlotte de Latour's 1819 flower vocabulary into rings and brooches: forget-me-nots for remembrance, pansies for "I am thinking of you", REGARD acrostic rings for love. Good pieces sell from £150; REGARD rings with original stones fetch £600–£2,500, and knowing the code makes them worth owning.

What the forget-me-not meant

The forget-me-not is the most common flower in Victorian sentimental jewellery, and the most straightforward to read: it means what it says. A forget-me-not ring given at parting (a voyage, a move, a death) carried a message of its own, separate from the object's monetary value. These were not expensive pieces in many cases. Gold-set forget-me-nots with turquoise enamel petals and a diamond centre (the most common Victorian interpretation) could be produced cheaply enough that they appear in the wills of women who owned very little other jewellery. They were the keepsakes.

Prince Albert gave Queen Victoria a forget-me-not brooch. She wore it during their marriage and, after his death in 1861, continued to wear it intermittently for the remaining forty years of her life as a piece of mourning, the same object redirected from love token to keepsake by the same event. The flowers that had been a message between living people became, in that register, something else: the same vocabulary, redirected.

The forget-me-not's persistence in jewellery (it remained common through Edwardian period and reappears in late twentieth-century sentimental pieces) is partly because the flower is visually simple: five petals, a yellow centre, a small scale that translates naturally to enamel work in gold. It is also persistent because the message is genuinely useful. Most of what people want to say to each other, on significant occasions, reduces to some version of: don't forget me.

The pansy and the daisy

The pansy is the more interesting case, partly because the meaning requires knowledge of French to unlock. A Victorian woman who received a pansy brooch from a man she was not supposed to be corresponding with would understand it in a way that her mother, examining the same piece, might not. Pensée (thought) said I am thinking of you in a deniable register. The flower looked innocent. The message was not.

Pansy brooches in gold and enamel (purple and yellow petals being the most common palette) appear frequently in estate sales and auction catalogues from the mid-Victorian period through the Edwardian. They are sometimes described, in estate records, simply as "floral brooch." The recipients knew what they were.

The daisy operated differently. Daisy motifs in jewellery (ring settings with a central diamond surrounded by smaller stones in a ring, mimicking the flower's structure) were often called "daisy settings" or "marginot settings" in contemporary jewellery catalogues. By the late nineteenth century, the daisy ring was so common that it had become structural rather than symbolic; the meaning had faded into the form. The daisy setting is still in production. Van Cleef & Arpels' Frivole collection (their widely owned daisy-petal motif in yellow gold, white gold, and diamond) is a direct descendant of the Victorian daisy setting, though the house uses the fleur as a formal design element rather than a message. Whether the original meaning survives into the modern piece depends on who is giving it, and who knows enough to receive it.

Acrostic jewellery

The most elaborate expression of flower-and-gem language was not flowers at all but acrostics: jewellery where the initial letter of each stone spells a word. The technique was popular between roughly 1800 and 1870, and is specifically associated with Georgian and early Victorian rings and brooches.

The most common spelling is REGARD: Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, Diamond. The stones are set in a row across a ring or brooch, and to anyone who doesn't know the code, they look like a colourful five-stone piece. To the person who gave it and the person who received it, the ring says I regard you — the nineteenth-century word for love, or at least serious affection, in a relationship not yet at the stage where love could be said aloud.

Other common acrostics: DEAREST (Diamond, Emerald, Amethyst, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Topaz), LOVE (Lapis, Opal, Verdite/Vermeil, Emerald: the fourth letter was flexible and caused some creative stone selection), and AMI (Amethyst, Moonstone, Iolite, the French for friend, sometimes given between women). The construction required the giver to know enough about gemstones to source the right stones in the right sequence and to commission a setting that presented them in the correct order. It was not a casual gift.

Acrostic pieces are significantly harder to find than floral pieces, partly because the meaning was not always recorded with the object and partly because many of them were broken up and reset in later generations who didn't know what they had. A five-stone ring with an unusual combination of stones (a garnet beside an emerald beside a ruby, in a row) might be an acrostic and might be a coincidence. When the combination is REGARD, it is not a coincidence. The stones for that particular sequence appear together too often in surviving period pieces to be random.

Art Nouveau and the aestheticisation of flowers

By 1890, the coded language of flowers in jewellery was already starting to loosen. Art Nouveau (the movement that ran from roughly 1890 to 1910 and is associated in jewellery with René Lalique, Georges Fouquet, Lucien Gaillard, and Henri Vever) took flowers as its primary visual vocabulary but stripped the symbolism away entirely. An Art Nouveau iris brooch by Lalique means nothing about the iris specifically. It means: this maker looked at an iris and decided that the way light moves through its petals at a particular angle is interesting enough to warrant gold and enamel and plique-à-jour work.

This is a different relationship to flowers than the Victorian one, and in some ways a more honest one. Victorian floral jewellery asked the flower to carry a message. Art Nouveau asked the flower to be itself, in metal.

The practical consequence of this shift is that Art Nouveau floral pieces are visually extraordinary and entirely legible to a modern eye — the forms still work, while Victorian floral pieces require some context to read correctly. The forget-me-not brooch in the estate sale means nothing without knowing who gave it and on what occasion. The Lalique orchid corsage means exactly what it looks like: someone looked at an orchid for a very long time.

Modern floral jewellery and what to buy

The major houses working in floral motifs today are not, for the most part, working in the coded tradition. Van Cleef & Arpels' Frivole collection uses the daisy form as a graphic element; their Bouton d'Or uses the buttercup. Cartier's camellia brooch (a recurring motif across their history, closely associated with Wallis Simpson, who owned several) uses the flower as a house signature rather than a message. Tiffany's lily pad and daisy motifs sit in a similar register.

What these pieces have in common is that the flower is formal rather than sentimental. They are bought for reasons of design and brand association rather than meaning. This is not a criticism. It is simply a different kind of relationship to the object.

The place where the coded tradition survives, somewhat accidentally, is the antique and estate market. Victorian forget-me-not rings and brooches are widely available at auction and through estate dealers for between £150 and £1,500 depending on the quality of the enamel work and the weight of the gold. Pansy brooches in good condition (purple enamel intact, centre stone present) run £200 to £800 at most auction houses. REGARD rings are rarer and more expensive; a good example in yellow gold with its stones all original will sell for £600 to £2,500 at Christie's South Kensington or Woolley & Wallis. They are not well known outside collector circles, which means the prices are still reasonable relative to their historical and artistic interest.

An acrostic ring is one of the more satisfying things to own in fine jewellery, I think, because it requires knowing something to appreciate it. Most jewellery is appreciated visually, immediately, by anyone standing close enough. An acrostic ring requires the receiver to have been told what it means, by the person who gave it, which makes the giving more specific and the object more personal than almost anything else you can wear on your hand.

Lily of the valley, incidentally — the flower said to mean the return of happiness, was the favourite flower of Queen Alexandra, who wore it constantly and had it embroidered throughout Marlborough House. Cartier made her several pieces in the motif. It is also, as of this week, blooming in the gardens at Chelsea.

What to look for

If you are buying Victorian floral jewellery, the things to check: the condition of the enamel (chipping along the edges reduces value significantly; completely intact enamel in original colour is rare and worth paying for), the presence of the original centre stone (many nineteenth-century pieces have had stones replaced or removed), and whether the piece is gold or gold-filled (test with a jeweller; gold-filled pieces are less durable and significantly less valuable). Hallmarks on British pieces will indicate assay office and date of manufacture: the London assay mark is a leopard's head; the Birmingham mark is an anchor.

For acrostic rings specifically: verify the stone sequence with someone who knows what they're looking at. The sequence should be consistent and the stones should be period-appropriate. Post-1900 synthetic stones in a ring that's supposed to be 1850s REGARD are a common issue.

The Chelsea Flower Show runs until Saturday 23 May. Chelsea in Bloom (a free festival that runs alongside it across roughly a hundred shops in the area) runs from today through to the same date. Both are worth attending. If you find yourself in an antique shop on the King's Road afterwards, and you see a small brooch with purple and yellow enamel petals in a gold setting, it is probably not just a pretty flower.

Frequently asked questions

What is floriography and when was it practised in Britain?

Floriography is the Victorian practice of assigning coded meanings to specific flowers. The language was popularised in Europe through Charlotte de Latour's Le Language des Fleurs, first published in Paris in 1819, and widely circulated in British and European society through the nineteenth century. Flowers were used to send messages through bouquets (tussy-mussies) and the same symbolism was encoded into jewellery.

What does a forget-me-not brooch mean?

In the Victorian language of flowers, the forget-me-not represents true love and remembrance. Forget-me-not brooches and rings were commonly given at partings (before a voyage, at a death) as a keepsake. Prince Albert gave Queen Victoria a forget-me-not brooch; she wore it throughout her mourning after his death in 1861.

What is acrostic jewellery and what does a REGARD ring spell?

Acrostic jewellery uses gemstones whose initial letters, read in sequence, spell a word. The most common example is the REGARD ring: Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, Diamond. Acrostic pieces were popular from approximately 1800 to 1870 and are most often found as rings and brooches. The stones appear to be a decorative combination; the meaning is only legible to someone who knows the code.

What does a pansy brooch mean in Victorian jewellery?

The pansy derives its coded meaning from the French word pensée (thought). In Victorian floriography, giving or wearing a pansy brooch meant I am thinking of you. The meaning required knowledge of French to decode, making it a suitable vehicle for correspondence between people who were not supposed to be corresponding openly.

What is the Van Cleef & Arpels Frivole collection and how much does it cost?

Van Cleef & Arpels' Frivole collection uses a daisy-petal motif: a central diamond or gemstone surrounded by petal-set diamonds in yellow gold, white gold, or rose gold. The collection is one of the house's most widely owned contemporary designs and is a direct visual descendant of the Victorian daisy setting, though worn primarily as a design piece rather than a sentimental one.

Where can I buy Victorian floral jewellery in London?

Victorian floral jewellery (including forget-me-not rings and brooches, pansy pieces, and occasional acrostic rings) is available through specialist antique jewellery dealers, Christie's South Kensington, Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury, and the antique dealers of Portobello Road and the King's Road in London. Prices for good enamel pieces in gold start at around £150 and run to approximately £2,500 for fine acrostic rings with original stones.

Sources: Charlotte de Latour, Le Language des Fleurs (1819); Diana Scarisbrick, Jewellery in Britain 1066–1837 (Michael Russell, 1994); Geoffrey Munn, Castellani and Giuliano: Revivalist Jewellers of the 19th Century (Trefoil, 1984); Royal Collection Trust documentation on Queen Victoria's forget-me-not jewellery; Van Cleef & Arpels official materials on the Frivole collection; RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 official programme.