Series M-6 Flowers by E. Nash

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How to send a secret message with flowers!

All of the material you have access to here -- the instructive booklets, the nostalgic postcards, the boldly graphic ephemera, and all of the historical information researched and shared from the mind of the woman who is making it all happen -- can easily fit into one 8 x 10 foot room in an old Victorian farmhouse, but you would never see it without the investment of the time it takes to produce such a site and the caloric input such a site requires in the form of food for the writer, graphic designer, and database manager, as well as the US currency needed to pay for the computers, software applications, scanners, electricity, and internet connectivity that bring it out of that little room and into the world.

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E.Nash "Series M-6 Flowers"

Embossed, gilded, varnished, and enlivened with exquisite sho-card lettering and calligraphy, the most esteemed floriography postcards of all are those that comprise the E. Nash "Series M-6 Flowers" set, published circa 1910. The "M" in a Nash series stands for "Motto," indicating that a bit of verse or a line of prose was included on the card, somewhat akin to the 21st century memes found on social media.

From the perspective of floriography, these cards are a bit scant on meaning or divinatory implications, as the symbolism of each flower is limited to a single word -- but they more than make up for that lack in terms of their sheer beauty.

I wish i could tell you the name of the gifted artist-letterer who painted these images, and also who crafted the fine lithographs for reproduction, but, alas, like many commercial artists then and now, such art-workers were usually not allowed to sign or initial their fabulous creations.

ASTER

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Aster

"How often have I paused,
A joyous traveler,
in sooth, to cull
A garland of thy flowers,
When with faint sweets,
the sun has filled
them full."

  • Meaning: Variety


BLEEDING HEART

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Bleeding Heart

"Flowers to the Fair!
To you these flowers I bring!
And strive to greet you
With an earlier spring;
Flowers sweet and gay,
And delicate like you,
Emblems of innocence
And beauty too."

  • Meaning: [no meaning given]


CORNFLOWER

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Cornflower

"Here is a flower
whose modest eye
Is turned with looks
of light and love,
Who breathes her softest,
sweetest sigh,
Whene'er the sun
is bright above."

  • Meaning: Constancy


CYCLAMEN

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Cyclamen

"Flowers are lovely
Love is flower-like
Friendship is
A sheltering tree."

  • Meaning: Diffidence


DAFFODILS

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Daffodils

"That come before
The swallow dares,
And take
The winds of March
With Beauty."

  • Meaning: Regard


FUCHSIA

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Fuchsia

"In Eastern lands
they talk of flowers
And they tell in a garland
their loves and cares,
Each blossom that blooms
in their garden bowers,
On its leaves
A mystic language bears."

  • Meaning: Taste


IRIS

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Iris

"Every varying hue
Of every beautiful thing
on earth — the teints
Of heaven's own Iris —
are all in the west
On this delicious eve."

  • Meaning: Message


LILY

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Lily

"Ye loftier lilies
Bathed in mornings dew
Of purity
And innocence
Renew
Each lovely thought."

  • Meaning: Purity


MOSS ROSE

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Moss Rose

"The rose that hails the morning
Arrayed in all its sweets.
Its mossy couch adorning
The sun enamored meets."

  • Meaning: Confession of Love


NASTURTIUM

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Moss Rose

"'Twas a lovely thought
To mark the hours
As they floated
In light away,
By the opening
and folding flowers
That laugh
to the summer's day."

  • Meaning: Patriotism


ORCHIDS

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Orchids

"Who gave to thee
that name
So full of homely
and most pleasant thought?
It's charm might win renown
For many a thing with
Far less beauty fraught."

  • Meaning: [no meaning given]


PINK

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Pink

"Each pink sends forth
Its choicest sweet,
Aurora's warm embrace
To meet."

  • Meaning: Pure and Absent Love


POINSETTIA

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Poinsettia

'"Flowers are the brightest things which earth
from her broad bosom loves
to cherish;
Gay they appear
as childhood's mirth —
like fading dreams of hope
they perish."

  • Meaning: [no meaning given]


POPPY

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Poppy

"What brings the bright
and shining leaf
The scarlet poppy wears?
A consolation for our grief,
A solace for our cares."

  • Meaning: Consolation


PRIMROSE

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Primrose

"But thou art beautiful,
And our sole native
Of thy graceful band
Which we so prize and seek
In varied form and hue,
Through many a land."

  • Meaning: Unpatronized Merit


VIOLET

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Violet

"The blossom that blooms
in every land,
Where laughs a summer sky
blue and bland!
As if to tell of that blessed
heaven
Whose softest hue to its
heart is given!"

  • Meaning: Faithfulness


WATER LILY

E. Nash Motto Series M-6 Postcards, Water Lily

"Oh! thou magic world of flowers,
Fairy ministers of grace;
Soothing all our weary hours,
Decking every lovely place."

  • Meaning: Eloquence


There are 17 cards on this page, but printing presses are generally set up to run postcards in multiples of 6 ... so, please, wish me luck as i try to find the 18th card and complete my collection of this somewhat elusive set of floriographic wonder-cards.

See Also


catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
Your Wate and Fate


Special thanks to my dear husband and creative partner nagasiva yronwode for illustrations, scans, and clean-ups.