Nadia Kelly recently was the guest speaker at the Claussville Garden Club meeting.

She told club members a wide variety of information on flowers and their significance is available on the Internet.

"Tussie Mussies: The Victorian Art of Expressing Yourself in the Language of Flowers," by Geraldine Adamich Laufer, is one book Kelly recommended.

American poet James G. Percival expressed his feelings in the following short poem, "The Language of Flowers."

In Eastern lands they talk in flow'rs

And they tell

in garland their loves and cares;

Each blossom that blooms in

their garden bowr's,

On its leaves a mystic language bears.

***

Flowers also have symbolic meanings. Lilies represent purity; hydrangea stands for health.

Thyme is symbolic of courage and peppermint represents friendship.

Ivy represents wedded love; rosemary is symbolic of remembrance and lavender represents devotion.

The tournament theme for members to submit an artistic design was "Dewey Meadows," using wild flowers and "Dazzling Dahlias," a design using a crock or stoneware for a vase.