ELI5: What Do Flowers Symbolize in Paintings?

In paintings, flowers act like secret emojis that painters use to show human feelings and the everyday circle of life without using any words.

Long ago, before people had phones to text each other smiling faces or heart icons, artists hid messages in plain sight. When you look at your own day-to-day life, you can understand these painted flower codes easily:

• Big feelings and love: Just like you might give your mom a bright red rose on her birthday to say "I love you," a painter puts a red rose in a picture to show deep love or romance. A simple white daisy shows innocent, playful happiness, like a sunny morning at the playground.
• Growing up and time passing: Think about an apple on your kitchen counter. First, it is fresh and crunchy, but after a few weeks, it gets soft and wrinkly. Flowers do the same thing. A fresh, open blossom shows youth, energy, and the fun parts of the day. But if an artist paints a droopy flower dropping its petals on a table, it is a gentle reminder that playtime ends, bedtime comes, and nothing stays new forever.
• Fresh starts: Have you ever seen little green sprouts poking out of the cold dirt after a long, freezing winter? Artists use blooming spring flowers to show hope. It is like waking up after a bad day and knowing that tomorrow is a brand new chance to be happy.
• Sneaky dangers: Sometimes a painter includes pretty flowers that have sharp thorns hidden under the leaves. This is just like eating a sweet treat too fast and getting a tummy ache—it reminds us that beautiful, fun things can still cause a little trouble if we are not careful.