What Do Pesticides and Chrysanthemums Have in Common?
They both contain insecticides called pyrethrins, used in ancient Persia. Today we use them in lice-killing shampoos.
Four Flowering Plants That Have Been Decidedly Queered
The queer history of the pansy and other flowers.
Why Victorian Gardeners Loathed Magenta
For decades, British and American gardeners avoided magenta flowers. The color had associations with the unnatural and the poisonous.
An 18th-Century “Sapphist”’s Sexy Garden
The 18th-century "sapphist" gardens of Mary Granville Pendarves Delany were piquant places that expressed same-sex desires.
When the Desert Blooms
Following a winter of exceptional rain, Southern California's desert wildflowers have bloomed en masse. The event is dubbed a “super bloom.”
What Poinsettias Have to do with U.S.-Mexico Relations
Poinsettias were named for the first US diplomat to Mexico. The flower was more successful than he was. How it went from Aztec dye to Christmas decoration.
Seven Favorite Flower Poems
Our editors pick flower poems from Poetry magazine, American Poetry Review, and the Kenyon Review.
