The Language of Flowers

Nina & Jake
  • 5.0 (13)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Biweekly

A podcast about flowers and what humans have always used them to say. Each episode, a different bloom. Short enough to stop and smell the roses. Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Episodes

  1. Sep 23

    Flowerotica: The Lotus

    Reach into a lotus and it is the temperature of a body. It heats itself, holds insects inside overnight, and lets them go in the morning carrying its traces to somebody else. Flowerotica closes with the flower we all agreed was about purity, and a twelfth-century poem in which a god begs a woman to put her foot on his head. The lotus is waiting to see who climbs in. Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian Theme Music: Paul Oliphant Episode References: Seymour & Schultze-Motel (1996): "Thermoregulating lotus flowers," Nature, Vol. 383. Floral temperature range and thermoregulation.Seymour & Schultze-Motel (1998): follow-up work on heat production and beetle pollination in Nelumbo nucifera.Li & Huang (2009): "Effective pollinators of Asian sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)," Annals of Botany. Protogyny, day-one stigma receptivity, day-two anther dehiscence, overnight trapping of beetles.Barbara Stoler Miller, trans. (1977): Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva's Gitagovinda, Columbia University Press. Standard scholarly translation; source for structure, raga and tala assignment, and shringara framing.Andrew Schelling, trans. (2008): Kamini: Poems from the Gitagovinda.Lee Siegel, trans.: Gitagovinda: Love Songs of Radha and Krishna, Clay Sanskrit Library.Lee Siegel (1978): Sacred and Profane Dimensions of Love in Indian Traditions, as Exemplified in the Gitagovinda of Jayadeva.Encyclopedia of Religion, "Jayadeva" entry. Padmavati marriage tradition and the Krishna-writes-the-couplet legend.Ocaso Press: Gita Govinda translation and commentary (public domain rendering, invocation text).Gita Govinda Canto X, song 19: "smara-garala-khandanam mama shirasi mandanam dehi pada-pallavam udaram." The foot-on-head verse and the love-as-poison image.Gita Govinda Canto XI (Radha enters the bower) and Canto XII (the union, rati viparita, and the re-adornment song).Sanskrit devotional usage of pada-padma, charana-kamala and pada-aravinda as fixed epithets for the feet of a deity, guru or elder. Miller's notes cover this; worth a scholarly cite rather than a devotional site.

    Flowerotica: The Lotus

  2. Aug 26

    Flowerotica: Tuberose

    A flower that every culture has tried to contain and instead, it gets louder. In the third episode of Flowerotica, we're following tuberose. Commonly mistaken for jasmine, but this one doesn't seduce so lightly. Banned from Victorian bedrooms, named after courtesans, and bottled as an unrequited declaration of love. Some flowers take you apart at the seams. Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian Theme Music: Paul Oliphant Episode References: Wikipedia: Polianthes tuberosa entry (pronunciation exchange, Raffalovich/Wilde detail)Wikipedia: Marc-André Raffalovich entryWikipedia: Germaine Cellier entryWikipedia: Fracas (perfume) entryWikipedia: Edwige Feuillère entryAbeBooks / Peter Harrington listing for Tuberose and Meadowsweet first edition (Wilde's review quote, Uranian poetry context)UT Austin Ransom Center blog (Wilde/Raffalovich acquaintance timeline, Pall Mall Gazette review date: March 27, 1885)Cambridge University Press / New Blackfriars journal: "Uranisme et Unisexualité" (Raffalovich biography, Wilde/Raffalovich relationship souring)Fragrantica: "Germaine Cellier: Innovator and Iconoclast" (Cellier biography, Fracas dedication, Bandit context)Fragrantica: "Germaine Cellier: Genius and Witch" (Feuillère crush detail, vintage Fracas description)Kafkaesque blog: "Perfume Review — Robert Piguet Fracas: The History & The Legend" (Cellier biography, Roja Dove quote, ingredient list)Into The Gloss: "History Lesson: The Scent of Fracas" (Cellier eccentricities, Feuillère nude scene, naming of Fracas)AllMovie: Edwige Feuillère biographyOur Classic Past blog: Edwige Feuillère entrySilver Scenes blog: Edwige Feuillère entryXochiquetzal mythology details (Wikipedia and supporting sources on Aztec mythology)

    Flowerotica: Tuberose

  3. Aug 5

    Flowerotica: The Orchid

    In the second episode of Flowerotica we track the orchid, and a floral biology so precise that it can replicate female arousal at the molecular level. From ancient Greece to Victorian greenhouses, landing in a domestic garden in Melbourne, this is a flower that has been running the same naturally selective seduction for two hundred million years. Some flowers get into the chemistry.  Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian Theme Music: Paul Oliphant Episode References: Schiestl et al. (1999): "Orchid pollination by sexual swindle," NatureSchiestl et al. (2000): "Sex pheromone mimicry in the early spider orchid (Ophrys sphegodes)," Journal of Comparative Physiology A, Vol. 186Edith Coleman (1927): original paper on pseudocopulation in Cryptostylis leptochila, republished by Edward Poulton in Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society, 1928"Orchid Sexual Deceit Provokes Ejaculation," The American Naturalist, 2008Brunton & Martin: "Orchid sexual deceit affects pollinator sperm transfer," Functional Ecology, 2020British Herbal Guide (1653) Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance (1893) Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief (1998) Fred M. White, "The Purple Terror" (1896)

    Flowerotica: The Orchid

  4. Jul 15

    Flowerotica: Jasmine

    Desire that arrives before you know it’s hit you. In the first episode of Flowerotica, we follow jasmine from Cleopatra's barge on the Cydnus river, through the sacred bridal rituals of South Asia, into the chemistry of a molecule that speaks a language the body already knows. Some invitations can only be felt. Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian Theme Music: Paul Oliphant Episode References: The Perfume Society: "Jasmine — Mythology, History & Scents" — perfumesociety.orgThe Perfume Society: "Cleopatra's Fragrance: Finally Recreated?" — perfumesociety.orgHistoires de Parfums: "A Brief History of Jasmine" — histoiresdeparfums.comBon Parfumeur: "Jasmine in Perfumery" — bonparfumeur.comNatural Niche Perfume: "Jasmine Perfume — Properties, Distillation, and History" — naturalnicheperfume.comPerfumer & Flavorist, Vol. 34, October 2009: "Jasmine: The Flower of Flowers" by Rodrigo Flores-Roux, Givaudan — the trade publication source for the Grasse harvest figures and indole chemistry detailBlue Tree Aroma: "The Enigmatic Journey of Jasmine" — bluetreearoma.comInsight Intelligence Group: "Cleopatra's Enigma: The Art of Seduction and Power" — insightintelligence.com.auThe Siasat Daily: "Cleopatra's Perfume That Lured Julius Caesar, Mark Antony Recreated" — siasat.comPlutarch, Life of Antony — the original source for the barge sceneShakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act II Scene II — "the winds were lovesick with those sails"Rabindranath Tagore, The GardenerWikipedia: "Gajra"Garland Magazine: "Mala: The Floral Garlands of India"Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book 42

    Flowerotica: Jasmine

  5. Jun 24

    The Rose

    The rose is the most symbolically overloaded flower in human history, precisely because it exceeds every meaning humans try to give it. In this episode, we follow one of the largest and yet perhaps lesser known through lines of the rose, across Greek epigrams, Persian mysticism, and postwar Japan. Wherever desire and love are too big to be contained by the body or the century holding it, the rose finds a way to let it all thrive. Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian Theme Music: Paul Oliphant Episode References: Beverly Seaton, The Language of Flowers: A HistoryMeleager of Gadara, Greek AnthologyStraton of Sardis, Mousa Paidike (The Boyish Muse)Solon of Athens: homoerotic poetry fragmentsWikipedia: LGBTQ Symbols, Shams Tabrizi, Eikoh HosoeKew Gardens: "Four Flowers That Have Become Queer Symbols"Rumi, Masnavi and Divan-e Shams-e TabriziEikoh Hosoe, "Subject Matter" lecture, American Suburb X (2010)Aperture: Eikoh Hosoe: Barakei edition notesMetropolitan Museum of Art collection entry on BarakeiNippon.com: "Ordeal by Roses: The Astonishing Artistic Collaboration Between Mishima Yukio and Photographer Hosoe Eikō"Yukio Mishima, preface to Barakei (1963)Scientific American: "How Roses Evolved to Become the Flower of Valentine's Day" (2026)Nesreen Akhtarkhavari and Anthony A. Lee (trans.), Rumi's Love is My Savior - "A Dream" from Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi

    The Rose

  6. Jun 3

    Violets

    For over two thousand years, violets have been a shared language between women. In this episode, we follow a thread from Sappho's pen, through Parisian salons and art circles, to Broadway. And we ask how love finds a way to exist when the world insists it can't. Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian Theme Music: Paul Oliphant Episode References: Anne Carson, If Not, Winter: Fragments of SapphoStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Sappho”Poetry Foundation biographyShari Benstock, Women of the Left BankJSTOR Daily, “Why Violets Became a Symbol of Lesbian Love”Lillian Faderman, Surpassing the Love of MenKew Gardens, "Four Flowers That Have Become Queer Symbols" — kew.orgJSTOR Daily, "Four Flowering Plants That Have Been Decidedly Queered"Wikipedia, "LGBTQ Symbols" — for The Captive / violet sales detailDressing Dykes, "From Lavender to Violet: The Lesbian Obsession with Purple" — for Paris Lesbos community detailManchester Historian, "Fighting Lesbian Erasure in Historiography: Restoring Sappho as a Queer Identity" — Amber BarryWikipedia, "Renée Vivien" — for laudanum/violets suicide attempt detailFreedom Socialist Party, "Gay Resistance: The Hidden History Part III" — for Vivien's work being unsellable in England and USTaylor Institution Library, "Renée Vivien, Enfant Terrible of the Belle Époque" — for critical hostility detail

    Violets

  7. May 13

    The Dahlia

    The dahlia didn't arrive with a meaning. It accumulated one. In our titular episode, we trace how a sacred Aztec crop became a smuggled treasure, a botanist's legacy, and eventually a word in the Victorian language of flowers. Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian Theme Music: Paul Oliphant Episode References: Seaton, Beverly. The Language of Flowers: A History. University of Virginia Press.Greenaway, Kate. The Language of Flowers. London, 1884.Cavanilles, Antonio José. Icones et Descriptiones Plantarum (1791–1801).Sahagún, Bernardino de. Florentine Codex (Aztec botanical traditions).Smithsonian Gardens. “The History of the Dahlia.”Royal Horticultural Society. “Dahlia: History and Origins.”

    The Dahlia

  8. Apr 22

    The Blue Cornflower

    Some symbols, however small, earn their weight through the specific, irreplaceable moments in which they were held. In our first episode we trace how a wildflower that grew at the margins of cultivated fields became a vessel for grief, resistance, and national memory. Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian Theme Music: Paul Oliphant Episode References: Christopher Clark, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947Monika Wienfort, Monarchy and Modernity in PrussiaPaul Fussell, The Great War and Modern MemoryJay Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural HistoryGeorge L. Mosse, Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World WarsBeverly Seaton, The Language of Flowers: A History

    The Blue Cornflower
  • 8 Episodes

5
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

A podcast about flowers and what humans have always used them to say. Each episode, a different bloom. Short enough to stop and smell the roses. Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Information

  • Creator
    Nina & Jake
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    8
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Nina & Jake
  • Show Website
    The Language of Flowers