Young men often give flowers to young women when they are in love. The tradition may have come from Turkey.

The idea of sending gifts of love with secret meanings quickly spread to other countries. However, as time passed, only sending flowers remained popular.

In the 1700s in Turkey, it was quite popular for people in love to send each other baskets full of strange things. The baskets were sent secretly to the person who was receiving it. Usually, an old woman who sold flowers or fruit on the street left the basket beside the door of that person.

Flowers told young ladies about the feelings in the heart of young men. Each different flower had a different meaning. For example, the flowers from an orange tree meant, "you are beautiful and pure." Pink carnations meant, "My love for you is great." Yellow roses, on the other hand, meant, "I saw you with someone else."

These baskets included many kinds of gifts: flowers, stones, candles, etc. Each thing in the basket had a special meaning. By working out the secret message hidden in each gift, the person who received the basket began to understand little by little the true feelings of the person who sent it.

Many flower dictionaries were made to help young people in love understand the meaning of the flowers they received. However, not all of the dictionaries agreed on the meaning of each flower, so a person had to be careful about the flowers they chose to send.

By the 1880s, using flowers to send messages had become unpopular, and the more direct way of sending love letters began. Today, flowers are still considered a lovely gift, but the meaning for each kind of flower has been lost.