By Jill Brooke
With the launch of her groundbreaking country music album, “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé has been sending flowers. To Jack White. To Mickey Guyton. To K.Michelle.
But not just any floral bouquet. These are ALL white flowers. White anemones. White hydrangeas. White ranunculus. White roses.
As a floral historian, the choice of a white flower carries symbolic meanings.
Beyoncé’s entry into country music is being noted for how few black artists thrive in that genre. Hence her floral gift to Mickey Guyton and K. Michelle who have paved the way.
But white flowers are also the color used purposely and intentionally. to support women’s rights. In 1913, the National Woman’s Party in the U.S. explained that “White is the emblem of purity symbolizing the quality of our purpose,” while gold is the color of light and life as a torch that guides our purpose.
To counter that women who wanted their rights and the ability to have a voice in the culture were not ugly and to be dismissed, the women wore white. Not only white dresses and white sashes but also often carried white flowers.
In her bouquet note to K. Michelle, Beyoncé wrote, “I know it’s not easy to enter a new space.”
But enter a new space she has. “Cowboy Carter,” a 27-track country album has already made history. She is the first black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart with songs such as “Texas Hold’ Em” and “16 Carriages.”
“This Texas girl has done a great country record,” notes entertainment writer Roger Friedman of showbiz411.com. “It’s the best of her career.”
Plus “Cowboy Carter” has broken streaming records on several platforms and has been supported by country superstars such as Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood, and Miley Cyrus.
And as we know, Miley knows how effective flowers can be in expressing human emotions. Her “I Can Buy Myself Flowers” is the biggest hit of her career.
Cyrus wrote on her Instagram that she loved Beyoncé “long since I had the opportunity to meet and work with her,” collaborating on the song “II Most Wanted.”
Beyoncé also knows the power of the flower. She used flowers for effective messaging in her film, “Black is King.”
The superstar talent is also known to send flowers to many, creating what some call a mystique. Fans comment on her generosity and how grand the bouquets. Furthermore, she uses many of the great floral artists including Oscar Mora, Putnam & Putnam, Phil John Perry.
Anything she does, is with style including sending flowers.
Jill Brooke is a former CNN correspondent, Post columnist and editor-in-chief of Avenue and Travel Savvy magazine. She is an author and the editorial director of FPD and a contributor to Florists Review magazine. She also won the 2023 AIFD (American Institute of Floral Design.) Merit Award for showing how flowers impact history, news and culture