Photo: Alineofcolor / T.W. van Urk / Zanna Pesnina / Shutterstock
Here are the negative meanings of your favorite flowers.
By Megan Hatch — Written on Sep 01, 2021
Even though all flowers may look beautiful and appealing to the eye, there are some flowers with negative meanings.
Flowers are beautiful, they smell amazing, and are very aesthetic.
However, there is such thing as the secret language of flowers.
Just like there are beautiful flowers you give out on certain occasions, there are also very profound meanings attached to your favorite flowers.
Looks can be deceptive, especially with flowers, therefore it's important to know certain flowers' special meanings, especially the ones that have a negative connotation to them.
If you're looking to buy a special friend, family member, or partner a nice flower bouquet, be careful of your choices and make sure to read up on all the flowers with negative meanings attached to them.
Here are 15 flowers with negative meanings.
1. Black Dahlia
Photo: Oleg Shakirov / Shutterstock
Black dahlias are a dark burgundy color flower that unfortunately might look beautiful to some, but it has a very negative meaning. A Black Dahlia symbolizes evil and dishonesty. They also often symbolize betrayal, doom, and other negative emotions.
2. Red Rose
Photo: Alineofcolor / Shutterstock
Typically, red roses are connected to representing love and romance and are thought to convey deep emotions. However, the color of the rose matters, as a darker red color means a more negative meaning. A dark red, burgundy red, or maroon-colored rose means that your love is unrequited.
Red roses often have a negative meaning because of the hatred that is connected to them as they are the most hated flower. This is most likely due to the feeling that they are overrated especially because of Valentine's Day.
Red roses are also given out at funerals for the grieving and therefore represent a dark and sad time.
3. Lily of the Valley
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Even though Lily of the Valley is known for good luck and happiness, it also is a very poisonous flower. Therefore, it can represent sadness, pain, loss, and death. It's also a symbol of tears from religions like Christianity.
In Romania, the flower comes from a story about a little girl crying at graves where the Lily of the Valley would grow from her tears.
4. Orange Lilies
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A lily is a beautiful flower that lasts only a few weeks but its colors and smell are very bright and beautiful. There are lots of colors of lilies, however, the one color that you should stay away from is orange.
Orange lilies can symbolize hatred, pride, disdain, and contempt. In general, lillies are the flowers of sadness as they can also represent renewal, rebirth, and restoration of a soul.
5. Red Tulips
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Tulips universally symbolize love and romance, and a red tulip's positive meaning is all about love, passion, romance, power, and joy.
However, the negative meaning of the red tulip symbolizes aggression, anger, danger, and wrath. If it comes into your life at the wrong time, this might be the case for you.
6. Yellow Rose
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Yellow roses often convey bright and happy thoughts and represent positive feelings of warmth, but they also represent negative traits of jealousy and greed. Yellow can also be a symbol of cowardice, sickness, and mental illness.
7. Buttercups
Photo: Natali art collections / Shutterstock
Buttercups are often a flower that you might like as a child, therefore, they are very childish and silly flowers. They represent ingratitude, childish behavior, and unfaithfulness. They also aren't a classy flower as they are an invasive and prolific weed.
8. Yellow Carnations
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Yellow carnations are the one color of carnations that you shouldn't get because they symbolize rejection and disdain. Yellow carnations also represent disappointment, sadness, and are used to give to people who you dislike or that you want to break up with.
9. Petunia
Photo: Alena Charykova / Shutterstock
The petunia flower does not hold positive and happy sentiments. It displays deep feelings of resentment, anger, and trouble. They are very beautiful but often take people by surprise because of their negative meaning.
10. Black Roses
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The Black Rose is probably one of the most negative rose meanings, therefore it must be avoided at all costs. The black rose is usually associated with death and mourning and appalling meanings.
The Black rose is one of the most popular flowers with a well-hidden meaning of revenge and hatred. It also represents the end of a career or a relationship. All roses have thorns which is a universal symbol of evil.
11. Aconite (Monkshood)
Photo: bond.aruke25 / Shutterstock
The aconite flower is very beautiful, however, looking closely at it, it can look very sinister and evil. The flower is a dark purple color that represents decadence, conceit, and pomposity. Even though it's a pretty-looking flower, it means ‘hatred’ and ‘be cautious.’
12. Begonia
Photo: Galina Sharapova / Shutterstock
Begonia flowers are a universal symbol of warning or caution. The flower also means 'deep thinking' begonias in literature also means there is danger up ahead so be warned.
13. Butterfly Weed
Photo: Mark Herreid / Shutterstock
The butterfly weed literally means 'leave me' or 'you've been warned.' The negative meaning of the flower is known very well so this is why you might not see this flower as much as others. Therefore, if you care about your relationship with someone, never send them a butterfly weed through a delivery service.
14. Cyclamen
Photo: nnattalli / Shutterstock
The cyclamen flower is a sweet and lovely flower as it represents a new path in life and separation. It's a good flower to send to someone with who you have just broken up. It's also a symbol of goodbye or resignation and definitely not a desirable gift.
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Megan Hatch is a writer at YourTango who covers pop culture, love and relationships, and self-care.