Carnations and Lady Smocks

Carnations and Lady Smocks, two delicate spring and summer flowers that add beauty and colour to a Shakespeare garden.

Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus)

Source: www.flickr.com/photos/mrhayata/494923616

“… the fairest flowers o’ the season

Are our Carnations and streak’d Gillyvors”

 - The Winter’s Tale, Act IV, Scene 3

Elizabethan Nosegays

Nonsuch Palace by Joris Hoefnagel

A garden “shall contain the herbs and flowers used to make nosegays and garlands.”

The Country Farme, 1600

Nosegays or Tussie-Mussies are small bouquets of flowers and herbs that were attached to lady's bodices and to gentleman’s doublet or mantle. The term nosegay is derived from the Middle English gay, meaning bright object or ornament or gay in the sense of happiness or joy, literally meaning an ornament that brings joy to the nose. The word Tussie Mussie or tusemose is first mentioned in 1440 and is derived from the word tuse meaning knot of flowers and mose referring to the damp moss that was wrapped around the stems to prevent the flowers from drying out. (Tussie-Mussies: The Language of Flowers, Geraldine Adamich Laufer)