The Language of Flowers

Elizabeth is Victoria’s foster mother at her last placement. She is a wine grape farmer, a business that she inherited from her father, with dark eyes and skin tanned from working outside. Elizabeth carries childhood trauma of abuse from her mother, as well as trauma from her sister Catherine having an affair with her boyfriend. She confesses that she spent a long time focusing on work because it distracted her from her history of hurt. In this regard, she is like Victoria, as her unprocessed trauma impacts her ability to develop and maintain relationships. Elizabeth teaches Victoria the language of flowers, which she used to communicate with her sister at boarding school.

Elizabeth’s love for Victoria changes her and makes her desire a family again. She reaches out to her estranged sister Catherine, not realizing the extent to which the latter’s disease has taken over her life. This effort stems from her thinking Victoria needs more adults in her life to love her. Her efforts make Victoria feel isolated, causing a rift that compounds when Elizabeth’s obsession with her sister causes them to miss Victoria’s adoption hearing. Elizabeth’s need (and initial failure) to create a family for Victoria comes full circle at the end of the novel, when she welcomes the young woman back into her life. She reprises her role as guardian for Hazel, helping Victoria and Grant navigate parenthood.

Elizabeth only makes a brief appearance at the end of the novel, but it is evident from how she treats Hazel and an adult Victoria that she has changed because of their separation—letting Victoria move at her own pace with newfound patience.

Grant is Elizabeth’s nephew and Victoria’s lover. He is described as lean and muscular, with slightly wrinkled skin from years tending to a flower farm. He is olive-skinned and always in work clothes. He is quiet and thoughtful, sharing Victoria’s ravenous appetite. Grant learned the language of flowers from his own mother before her illness overtook her and communicates with Victoria through these secret messages to gain her trust. He and Victoria first bond over their differences in interpretations, and he inspires her to make her own dictionary.

Grant shows his love for Victoria through actions, first by encouraging her to make a dictionary, then by learning how to cook for her. He begins renovating his childhood home to make a place for them to live together, though Victoria does not learn this until she returns for Hazel. Grant’s development is largely hinged on Victoria’s presence, as she inspires him to make changes where he otherwise would have been content with his life. It is Victoria’s abandonment, paired with Hazel’s arrival, that leads him to reconcile with Elizabeth after years of estrangement. He and his aunt are given the opportunity to heal old wounds, laying the groundwork for the family that Victoria eventually joins. In this way, Grant both physically and symbolically provides her with a home.

Grant also has a history of abuse, fueled by his mother Catherine’s unspecified illness. According to Grant, Catherine struggles to remember things and even threatens to burn down Elizabeth’s farm. Because there were no other adults in his life, Grant was forced to take on a parenting role at an early age, taking care of himself, the farm, and his ailing mother. He notes that the final year of Catherine’s life was her best, as she was somewhat lucid and tried to be present for him. Although Grant was not physically abused to the extent that Elizabeth and Victoria were, the fraught emotional experiences of his past contribute to his difficulty rearing Hazel. He overcomes these challenges when he, Victoria, and Elizabeth work together to create a family.

Renata is the owner of Bloom and Victoria’s first employer. Renata is described as thin with short gray hair. She has a large family but is not interested in motherhood, focusing instead on her business. Prior to Victoria’s arrival, she is overworked and in need of help. Renata has a strained but loving relationship with her own mother, Mother Ruby, as the two do not understand each other. It is through Renata that Victoria reconnects with Grant, gets her own housing, and receives support when delivering her baby. By the end of the novel, she and Victoria enter a mutually beneficial business relationship in which Victoria directs clients to Bloom when she is unable to take them in exchange for Renata’s help raising her baby.

Renata helps restore Victoria’s faith in humanity by giving her an opportunity to prove herself and discover her talent in flower arranging. She becomes another person in Victoria’s life who loves and accepts her despite her past mistakes. Renata stands as proof of the importance of friendship, being the first adult to respect Victoria—becoming a central part of her community as she grows.