Into the Forest discussion

Both of these books are more Wiccan than fairy, but they might still be useful for you.

Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs is good for giving common names, folk names, and common uses of different flowers/herbs. If you skip to page 30 or so on the Amazon preview, that should give you an idea of whether or not it'll be useful to you.

Green Witchcraft: Folk Magic, Fairy Lore & Herb Craft - If this is the book I'm remembering, it has fairy lore in it, but also has lore from other cultures as well.

You might want to see if you can find Faerie Magazine. They usually have articles about the subject.

Usually if you can find a good symbolism dictionary, you can get flower/plant symbolism infromation.The Wordsworth Dictionary of Symbolism is pretty good, and the book is published by other publishers.

Belle, I was just browsing for this sort of thing on Amazon, and found several books, some on herbs, some on trees. (I was actually looking more for the tree ones) but here are a couple I found:

Irish Wild Plants: Myths Legends and Folklore by Niall MacCoitir

Irish Trees: Myths, Legends & Folklore by Niall MacCoitir

Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees (Dover Pictorial Archive)

Gods and Goddesses in the Garden: Greco-Roman Mythology and the Scientific Names of Plants

Wild Flower Plant Spirits by Debra Kaatz

Interesting topic to study! Best of luck with your article!

Hi Belle,

You may want to search out an old but amazing book titled Lilies of the Hearth by Jennifer Bennett. I think it started as the author's dissertation, and is all about the relationship between women and plants, so there's a lot of info about herb lore, connections to witchcraft and occult beliefs, and some info on traditional links to fairy tales and folklore. It's out of print, but Amazon has used copies, or your library may be able to get it.

I doubt you're still in the market for these, but I was browsing my library's card catalog this afternoon and found this:

A Contemplation Upon Flowers: Garden Plants in Myth and Literature by Bobby J. Ward

I thought it might be useful for anyone else interested in the subject.