Fleur's Flower Game, Want to play?

In 1983 FLEUR COWLES published The Flower Game. This book shares nearly 200 of FLEUR'S "friends" answers to her question:




NAME TEN FLOWERS YOU WOULD WANT TO TAKE WITH YOU IF BANISHED TO A DESERT ISLAND-NOT JUST ANY ISLAND BUT ONE WHERE ANY AND EVERY FLOWER WOULD GROW, REGARDLESS OF SEASON OR SOIL.

Fleur's 10

Fleur decided to choose specimens evoking Proust's ' Remembrances from things past' so she could choose from an "etagere" of memories- assuaging some of her loneliness.

the pink clover, hoping to "spend time in happy search" for the lucky four leafed kind.


& the snowdrop, a sentimental choice since her husband of 27 years had found the first of spring's offering and presented it to Fleur.



the Tulip-for Fleur they conjured up the "drama of profusion" in one flower, trips to Holland, London's own and her sixteenth century home with pinkish red tiles.

Rembrandt's Flora

the pansy- evocative of the famous French primitive painter, Andre Beauchant and also one of the Queen mother's favourites.

Andre Beauchant

& Tuberose would always say Spain and her home there.

the humble field daisy for answering questions-the counting of petals, for its simplicity and memories of childhood in the States.

June Sira
"he loves me he loves me not"

& White Jasmine would fill the shells and coconuts made into vases on the island and remind her once again of her Spanish home where jasmine climbed the walls.

Fleur Cowles

the rose and its ability to allow Fleur to recall Shakespeare, Katherine Mansfield, Katherine Anne Porter, Andre Maurois and "every painter I love, if worth his salt, has painted the rose."

Fantin- Latour

Fleur wanted another wild flower besides the clover- a wild orchid, a cowslip,a buttercup. Perhaps the pimula, the dandelion, or even cow parsley.

(How could she have selected just one or would she have slipped a few of all these in the soil of her picks? Likely.)

Givenchy gown Muguet

& Finally lily-of -the-valley , its whiteness, fragrance, size and it holds a special place-the flower her husband sends when available.

Botticelli

FROM FLEUR'S LIST I WOULD TAKE :

lily of the valley, the lily Regale , snowdrop and the rose would pack well.

To this I would add the gardenia, lilac, peony, hydrangea,violet and lastly- the beautiful Queen Anne's Lace.

Some lists that are standouts- Cary Grant, Cecil Beaton, Beverly Nichols, Evangeline Bruce, Lady Diana Cooper, Norman Parkinson, Terence Stamp, Pauline Trigere, Eleanor Lambert, Clare Booth Luce.

- Princess Caroline of Monaco, Princess Grace of Monaco, Lord Olivier, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Jane Goodall, David Hicks...

What would you take along?

Andre Beauchant