Geranium Meaning: Friendship, Folly or Stupidity? Five Victorian Dictionaries, 14 Named Geraniums and a Scarlet One Read Three Ways
Geranium meaning: true friendship (oak-leaved), stupidity or folly (scarlet), preference (rose-scented), from five Victorian dictionaries, kind by kind.
In short
- Geranium meaning in Victorian dictionaries, by type: true friendship (oak-leaved), preference (rose-scented), bridal favour (ivy), unexpected meeting (lemon), steadfast piety (wild).
- The scarlet geranium means stupidity, folly or comfort, depending on the book.
- Where the books name a species, it is a pelargonium, not a hardy cranesbill.
- Checked against: Greenaway, Tyas, Flora’s Pocket Dictionary, RHS, Oxford University Herbaria.
A geranium means true friendship if it is oak-leaved, stupidity or folly if it is scarlet, and preference, bridal favour or an unexpected meeting for other kinds, according to the Victorian-era flower dictionaries. Kate Greenaway’s Language of Flowers, two books by Robert Tyas, Flora’s Pocket Dictionary and a New York edition printed by R. Worthington all list geraniums by type, and most types get their own message. Modern guides fold those messages into one idea of friendship, comfort or protection. The few kinds the old books tie to a botanical name are pelargoniums, the tender bedding plants, rather than the hardy cranesbills of the genus Geranium, so this guide also sorts out the naming.
This page is part of our flower symbolism and meaning guide. Smithsonian Gardens notes that nearly all Victorian homes owned at least one flower-language guide, that the authors drew on analogies, literary sources, folklore and plant traits, and that these meanings have changed since. Where the five books here disagree, the disagreement is shown rather than smoothed over.
What does a geranium mean?
A geranium means whatever the book called its type. The dictionaries list geraniums by leaf, scent or colour and give each kind its own message. The table gives the six kinds readers ask about most, with the book that prints each meaning.
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| Type | Victorian meaning | Printed in |
|---|---|---|
| Scarlet | Stupidity, folly or comforting (see the scarlet section) | Greenaway, Flora’s, Tyas (Sentiment of Flowers), Tyas (Language of Flowers), Worthington |
| Rose-scented | Preference | Greenaway, Flora’s (as “Scented Rose or Pink”), Worthington, both Tyas books |
| Ivy | Bridal favour (Flora’s adds “I engage you for the next dance”) | Greenaway, Flora’s, Worthington |
| Oak-leaved | True friendship (Flora’s adds “Lady, deign to smile”) | Greenaway, Flora’s, Worthington |
| Lemon | Unexpected meeting (Flora’s adds “Tranquillity of mind”) | Greenaway, Flora’s, Worthington |
| Wild | Steadfast piety (Flora’s adds “Disappointed expectation”) | Greenaway, Flora’s, Worthington |
The takeaway is that the oak-leaved geranium is the only kind with a friendship meaning in the five books I read, and the scarlet geranium is the kind the books most often call foolish.
The card shows the meaning each type carries in Greenaway’s list, with the scarlet geranium’s second reading from Tyas’s Language of Flowers.
The five books behind these meanings
The five books were printed between 1869 and 1884, and no two of them list the same set of geraniums. Two are by the same author in the same year, and they disagree with each other about the scarlet geranium.
| Book | Printed | Geranium entries |
|---|---|---|
| Tyas, The Language of Flowers | Routledge, London, 1869 | Three: night-smelling, rose-scented, scarlet |
| Tyas, The Sentiment of Flowers | Houlston and Wright, London, 1869 | Three: geranium (generic), rose-scented, sorrowful; scarlet is mentioned inside the sorrowful entry |
| Flora’s Pocket Dictionary | Porter and Coates, Philadelphia, 1870 | Thirteen: the generic geranium and twelve kinds |
| Greenaway, Language of Flowers | Routledge, London, 1884 | Ten kinds |
| The Language of Flowers, Including Floral Poetry (not Greenaway’s book) | R. Worthington, New York, 1884 | Twelve: the generic geranium and eleven kinds |
Together the five books name 14 kinds of geranium: oak-leaved, scarlet, rose-scented, ivy, lemon, nutmeg, apple, pencilled, silver-leaved, dark, sorrowful, night-smelling, wild and horseshoe-leaf. That count treats Flora’s “Oak”, “Pencil-leaved” and “Scented Rose or Pink” as the oak-leaved, pencilled and rose-scented kinds. Only the Tyas books and one calendar in Flora’s give a botanical name for any of them, which is why the Geranium and Pelargonium section matters.
The scarlet geranium: stupidity, folly or comfort?
The scarlet geranium is read at least three ways across the five books: stupidity, folly and comfort. Among the named kinds, none gets such a spread; only the unspecified generic geranium comes close.
| Book | What it prints for the scarlet geranium |
|---|---|
| Tyas, The Language of Flowers (1869) | “Folly”, and “the emblem of Folly” in the night-smelling geranium entry |
| Tyas, The Sentiment of Flowers (1869) | “The emblem of stupidity”, mentioned inside the sorrowful geranium entry |
| Flora’s Pocket Dictionary (1870) | “Comforting. Stupidity.” Its index adds Consolation, Folly and Silliness, and its October bouquet lists “Scarlet Geranium, Pelargonium inquinans. Silliness.” |
| Greenaway (1884) | “Contorting. Stupidity.” in the A–Z list; “Comforting” in the index |
| Worthington (1884) | “Comforting”; its Stupidity is printed against the horseshoe-leaf geranium instead |
Stupidity is attached to the scarlet geranium in three of the five books (Greenaway, Flora’s and Tyas’s Sentiment of Flowers), comfort in three (Flora’s, Greenaway’s index and Worthington) and folly in two (Tyas’s Language of Flowers and Flora’s index). Greenaway’s “Contorting” looks like a misprint, because Greenaway’s own index reads “Comforting” for the scarlet geranium and Flora’s prints “Comforting. Stupidity.” for the same entry. That is my reading of the printing, not something the books say.
Why Tyas called it Folly
Tyas is the only author who explains the scarlet geranium’s bad name, and only in the Routledge book. His scarlet geranium entry tells of Madame de Staël, who was always angry when anyone tried to introduce a mindless man into her society. A friend brought a handsome young Swiss officer who could answer her questions with nothing but “foolish nonsense”. She told the friend he was like her gardener, who had brought her a pot of geraniums she sent away: “the Geranium is a flower well clad in scarlet: so long as we look at it, it pleases the eye; but when we press it lightly, it emits a disagreeable odour.” Tyas adds that the officer’s regimentals were the colour of the flower to which he had been compared.
Tyas gives no source for the story, so it shows how he read the emblem, not where the emblem came from. None of the other four books gives a reason for any scarlet-geranium meaning.
What modern guides do with it
Modern guides split the same way. GardenGuides says the geranium “could mean true friendship, stupidity or folly” and that the scarlet one “stood for consolation”, crediting another website for the Victorian part. A second GardenGuides page says scarlet geraniums relate to “either comfort or stupidity”. A 2025 Thursd article says the scarlet geranium “conveyed comfort and protection” and that the folly reading “originated in selective Victorian dictionaries that categorized red Geraniums under negative traits”.
Comfort matches the books. Protection does not appear in any geranium entry in the five books; in Greenaway and in Flora’s it belongs to bearded crepis and to juniper.
Does a geranium mean friendship? Only the oak-leaved one does
Friendship attaches to one named kind in the books, the oak-leaved geranium, printed as “True friendship” in Greenaway, Flora’s and Worthington. Greenaway lists it twice in the index, as “Friendship, true” and “True Friendship”. Flora’s widens it to “Lady, deign to smile. True friendship.” Neither Tyas book has an oak-leaved geranium, and no book says why the oak-leaved kind got the meaning.
The generic geranium received other words. Tyas’s Sentiment of Flowers gives it Admiration, Flora’s gives Gentility and Deceit, and Worthington gives Deceit. The Thursd article says “Across traditions, the Geranium represents friendship, good health, and protection” without a source, and the only friendship meaning I could trace for any geranium in the five books is the oak-leaved entry.
The Royal Horticultural Society names Pelargonium quercifolium the oak-leaved geranium, also called the almond geranium or village oak geranium, a tender sub-shrub with aromatic, deeply lobed leaves. The dictionaries give no botanical name for their oak-leaved kind, so the match rests on the common name. For other flowers with a friendship reading, see our guide to flowers that symbolize friendship.
Scented-leaf geraniums: rose, lemon, nutmeg and apple
Five of the 14 kinds have names that point to a smell: rose-scented (Preference), lemon (Unexpected meeting), nutmeg (Expected meeting), apple (Present preference in Flora’s only) and night-smelling (Melancholy spirit in Tyas). The lemon and nutmeg entries are mirror images, and no book says why.
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→ Find My Frost DatesThe RHS guide to scented-leaf pelargoniums says the leaves can smell of rose, eucalyptus, peppermint, lemon, orange, balsam or apple and release a fragrance when rubbed. UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions says scented geraniums release aromatic oils when rubbed or crushed and that in Victorian times people floated the leaves in small bowls of water to cleanse their hands before eating, which earned them the name “fingerbowl geraniums”.
Tyas names the rose-scented kind Pelargonium capitatum in both books, and the RHS says extracts of P. capitatum are used to make geranium oil. The RHS lists Pelargonium crispum as the lemon geranium and P. odoratissimum as the apple geranium. None of the dictionaries names the lemon, nutmeg or apple kinds botanically, so those matches rest on common names too.
Tyas names the night-smelling geranium Pelargonium triste and says it “flies the light of day” while its “delicious perfume delights those who cultivate it”. He files it under Melancholy spirit because the plant, “like those who suffer from melancholy”, flies the light of day.
The other kinds: melancholy, recall and ingenuity
Eight of the 14 kinds fall outside the six in the first table, and three of them share one meaning. Dark, sorrowful and night-smelling geraniums all mean melancholy, so the idea that each geranium got a different message holds for most kinds but not for all.
| Kind | Meaning | Printed in |
|---|---|---|
| Generic geranium | Admiration; Gentility and Deceit; Deceit | Tyas (Sentiment); Flora’s; Worthington |
| Nutmeg | Expected meeting | Greenaway, Flora’s, Worthington |
| Apple | Present preference | Flora’s |
| Pencilled | Ingenuity | Greenaway, Worthington; Flora’s (as “Pencil-leaved”) |
| Silver-leaved | Recall | Greenaway, Flora’s, Worthington |
| Dark | Melancholy | Greenaway, Flora’s, Worthington |
| Sorrowful | Melancholy mind; Melancholy spirit | Flora’s; Tyas (Sentiment) |
| Night-smelling | Melancholy spirit | Tyas (Language) |
| Horseshoe-leaf | Stupidity | Worthington |
The takeaway is that the books agree on most kinds and split on the generic geranium and the scarlet one. Worthington’s horseshoe-leaf entry is the only dictionary entry that sends Stupidity to a kind other than the scarlet, although its list of flower characters also calls the plain geranium “stupid”.
Geranium meaning by colour
Scarlet is the one flower colour that carries a meaning in the five books. A dark geranium (Melancholy) and a silver-leaved one (Recall) supply the other colour words, apart from the “Pink” in Flora’s entry discussed below, and the books do not say whether “dark” means the flower or the plant. Tyas calls the rose-scented kind’s flowers purplish and gives the meaning to the plant rather than the colour, and no book gives a white, yellow or orange geranium a message. Flora’s lists a “Scented Rose or Pink” geranium with the meaning Preference, which matches the meaning of the rose-scented kind in the other books, though the entry does not say whether pink there is a flower colour.
| Colour | Victorian dictionaries | Modern guides (no Victorian source cited) |
|---|---|---|
| Scarlet or red | Stupidity, folly or comforting | Protection and courage (Thursd) |
| Pink | No pink flower meaning; Flora’s “Scented Rose or Pink” geranium is Preference, and the entry does not say whether pink is a colour or a scent | Comfort, affection and emotional healing (Thursd) |
| White | No meaning | Folklore that a white geranium keeps snakes away (GardenGuides) |
The takeaway is that the colour meanings in the modern guides I fetched cite no Victorian book, so they are best read as modern tradition. Thursd also says geraniums were planted near entrances to guard the home and are linked spiritually to protection and emotional restoration. It gives no source for either, so treat them as tradition and modern belief.
Geranium vs Pelargonium: which plant do the meanings belong to?
Every species name the five books give is a pelargonium, and the true cranesbill appears in only one of them, under the meaning Envy. The Royal Horticultural Society says “‘Geranium’ is the name most people use when talking about Pelargonium. But Geranium is actually a different plant genus”, so some people call Geranium the hardy geraniums and Pelargonium the tender geraniums. Our guide to geranium vs pelargonium covers how to tell them apart in a nursery.
| Feature | Geranium (cranesbill) | Pelargonium |
|---|---|---|
| Common names (RHS) | Cranesbill; hardy geranium | Geranium; tender geranium (the RHS also lists bedding geranium and zonal pelargonium for P. × hortorum) |
| Hardiness | Generally long-lived, easy-to-grow plants; RHS says two Canary Islands species need frost-free winters | Not hardy, but can overwinter in frost-free conditions (RHS) |
| Name origin | Cranesbill, from the long, pointed seed capsule (RHS) | Greek pelargos, stork (Oxford University Herbaria) |
| Native range | Come from a wide range of wild habitats (RHS) | More than 280 species native to Africa, the Atlantic Islands, Australasia and temperate Asia (Oxford) |
| In the Victorian dictionaries | Flora’s lists “Crane’s Bill” separately, with the meaning Envy; no book names a Geranium species | Rose-scented (P. capitatum), night-smelling (P. triste) and scarlet (P. inquinans) carry botanical names |
The card sets the two genera side by side, using the RHS and Oxford wording above.
Oxford University Herbaria says Linnaeus first placed the pelargoniums in Geranium, that Johann Jacob Dillenius proposed separating them in 1732, and that Charles L’Héritier separated the two genera in 1789. Pelargoniums have been grown in European gardens since the early seventeenth century, and the Oxford Botanic Garden’s 1648 catalogue already included one. Oxford adds that Pelargonium inquinans and Pelargonium zonale are two of the species used to create the zonal pelargoniums grown today.
For the kinds with no botanical name, such as ivy, nutmeg and pencilled, the books do not say which genus they mean. The names were still tangled when the dictionaries were printed, between eighty and ninety-five years after L’Héritier’s split. Tyas’s Routledge entry for the rose-scented kind says “There are numberless species of the Geranium, or Pelargonium”, treating the names as one. Flora’s ties its scarlet geranium to Pelargonium inquinans, one of the two species Oxford names as used to create the zonal pelargoniums. The wild geranium is the open case: neither Greenaway nor Flora’s says which plant it means, and Flora’s adds a further meaning, Disappointed expectation, ahead of Steadfast piety.
The true cranesbill is easy to miss. Flora’s prints “Crane’s Bill. Envy.” as its own entry, apart from the 13 geranium entries. Folkard’s Plant-Lore, Legends and Lyrics (1884) calls the plant the “Crane’s Bill, or English Geranium”, whose name comes from the fruit’s resemblance to a bird’s beak and which astrologers put under Mars, with no flower-language message. Thursd says pelargoniums “lean toward meanings of vitality and protection” while cranesbills are “linked to balance and perseverance”, again without a source.
From meaning to garden: growing the geranium you chose
Pelargoniums are tender, and the RHS says they will not survive frost, so it advises gardeners to plan how to overwinter them or to buy fresh plants each year. Our geranium (pelargonium) care guide covers light, watering and feeding, and our guide to overwintering geraniums indoors covers bringing them in. The RHS lists the zonal Pelargonium × hortorum under the common names bedding geranium and zonal pelargonium.
For the scented kinds, the RHS says full sun helps develop the aromatic oils, and suggests placing them near a seat or on a favourite windowsill where the scent can be enjoyed. It adds that the leaves can flavour sugars and tisanes. If the meaning is the reason for planting, the oak-leaved kind is the one the books tie to friendship, and the RHS lists it as a tender sub-shrub.
Geranium meaning FAQ
What does a geranium symbolize?
In Victorian flower dictionaries a geranium symbolized whatever its type was called: true friendship for the oak-leaved, preference for the rose-scented, bridal favour for the ivy, unexpected meeting for the lemon, and stupidity, folly or comfort for the scarlet. Modern guides add friendship, comfort and protection without citing the old books.
What does a red geranium mean?
A red or scarlet geranium means stupidity in Greenaway, Flora’s and Tyas’s Sentiment of Flowers, folly in Tyas’s Language of Flowers and Flora’s index, and comforting in Flora’s, Greenaway’s index and Worthington. Thursd’s “protection and courage” for red geraniums has no Victorian source.
Does a geranium mean friendship?
Only the oak-leaved geranium does. Greenaway, Flora’s and Worthington print “True friendship” for it, and none of the five books gives the generic geranium a friendship meaning.
What does the oak-leaved geranium mean?
The oak-leaved geranium means true friendship. Flora’s Pocket Dictionary adds “Lady, deign to smile”. The RHS lists Pelargonium quercifolium as the oak-leaved geranium, though the dictionaries do not name the species.
What did the Victorians think of the scarlet geranium?
The books read it as foolish or comforting. Tyas’s Routledge book calls it Folly and tells a story of Madame de Staël comparing a dull young officer to a scarlet geranium that pleases the eye but smells disagreeable when pressed. His other 1869 book calls it the emblem of stupidity.
Is a geranium the same as a pelargonium?
No. The RHS says Geranium and Pelargonium are different genera that share the common name geranium, and that pelargoniums are not hardy but can overwinter in frost-free conditions. Every species name in the five Victorian books is a pelargonium.
What do pink and white geraniums mean?
None of the five Victorian books gives a pink or white flower a geranium meaning by colour, though Flora’s lists a “Scented Rose or Pink” geranium with the meaning Preference. Modern guides do, such as comfort and affection for pink in Thursd and snake-repelling folklore for white in GardenGuides, and neither cites a Victorian source.
Sources
- Greenaway, K. Language of Flowers. George Routledge and Sons (Project Gutenberg ebook 31591)
- Internet Archive. Language of flowers by Kate Greenaway, London: George Routledge and Sons, 1884 (catalogue record used to date the book)
- Tyas, R. The Language of Flowers: or, Floral Emblems of Thoughts, Feelings, and Sentiments. George Routledge and Sons, 1869. Internet Archive
- Tyas, R. The Sentiment of Flowers; or, Language of Flora. Houlston and Wright, 1869. Internet Archive
- Flora’s Pocket Dictionary: A Lexicon of the Language and Sentiment of Flowers. Porter and Coates, Philadelphia, 1870. Internet Archive
- The Language of Flowers, Including Floral Poetry. R. Worthington, New York, 1884 (not Greenaway’s book). Internet Archive
- Folkard, R. Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 1884. Internet Archive
- Royal Horticultural Society. Pelargonium, genus guide
- Royal Horticultural Society. Geranium, genus guide
- Oxford University Herbaria. Oxford University Plants 400: Pelargonium species
- Royal Horticultural Society. Pelargonium × hortorum (zonal geranium), plant profile
- Royal Horticultural Society. Pelargonium quercifolium (Sc) (oak-leaved geranium), plant profile
- Royal Horticultural Society. Pelargonium crispum (Sc) (lemon geranium), plant profile
- Royal Horticultural Society. Scented-leaf pelargoniums, genus guide
- University of Florida IFAS Extension. Geraniums, Gardening Solutions
- Smithsonian Gardens. The Language of Flowers (education activity packet)
- GardenGuides (Static Media). What Is The Meaning Of The Geranium Flower? (updated 3 November 2022)
- GardenGuides (Static Media). The Meaning Of A Red Geranium
- Thursd. Geranium Flower Meaning: The Symbolism of Friendship, Protection, and Peace (October 2025)
