In the second episode of Flowerotica we track the orchid, and a floral biology so precise that it can replicate female arousal at the molecular level. From ancient Greece to Victorian greenhouses, landing in a domestic garden in Melbourne, this is a flower that has been running the same naturally selective seduction for two hundred million years. Some flowers get into the chemistry.

Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier

Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan

Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian

Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Episode References:

1. Schiestl et al. (1999): "Orchid pollination by sexual swindle," Nature
2. Schiestl et al. (2000): "Sex pheromone mimicry in the early spider orchid (Ophrys sphegodes)," Journal of Comparative Physiology A, Vol. 186
3. Edith Coleman (1927): original paper on pseudocopulation in Cryptostylis leptochila, republished by Edward Poulton in Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society, 1928
4. "Orchid Sexual Deceit Provokes Ejaculation," The American Naturalist, 2008
5. Brunton & Martin: "Orchid sexual deceit affects pollinator sperm transfer," Functional Ecology, 2020
6. British Herbal Guide (1653)
7. Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance (1893)
8. Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief (1998)
9. Fred M. White, "The Purple Terror" (1896)

Desire that arrives before you know it’s hit you. In the first episode of Flowerotica, we follow jasmine from Cleopatra's barge on the Cydnus river, through the sacred bridal rituals of South Asia, into the chemistry of a molecule that speaks a language the body already knows. Some invitations can only be felt.

Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier

Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan

Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian

Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Episode References:

1. The Perfume Society: "Jasmine — Mythology, History & Scents" — perfumesociety.org
2. The Perfume Society: "Cleopatra's Fragrance: Finally Recreated?" — perfumesociety.org
3. Histoires de Parfums: "A Brief History of Jasmine" — histoiresdeparfums.com
4. Bon Parfumeur: "Jasmine in Perfumery" — bonparfumeur.com
5. Natural Niche Perfume: "Jasmine Perfume — Properties, Distillation, and History" — naturalnicheperfume.com
6. Perfumer & Flavorist, Vol. 34, October 2009: "Jasmine: The Flower of Flowers" by Rodrigo Flores-Roux, Givaudan — the trade publication source for the Grasse harvest figures and indole chemistry detail
7. Blue Tree Aroma: "The Enigmatic Journey of Jasmine" — bluetreearoma.com
8. Insight Intelligence Group: "Cleopatra's Enigma: The Art of Seduction and Power" — insightintelligence.com.au
9. The Siasat Daily: "Cleopatra's Perfume That Lured Julius Caesar, Mark Antony Recreated" — siasat.com
10. Plutarch, Life of Antony — the original source for the barge scene
11. Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act II Scene II — "the winds were lovesick with those sails"
12. Rabindranath Tagore, The Gardener
13. Wikipedia: "Gajra"
14. Garland Magazine: "Mala: The Floral Garlands of India"
15. Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book 42

The rose is the most symbolically overloaded flower in human history, precisely because it exceeds every meaning humans try to give it. In this episode, we follow one of the largest and yet perhaps lesser known through lines of the rose, across Greek epigrams, Persian mysticism, and postwar Japan. Wherever desire and love are too big to be contained by the body or the century holding it, the rose finds a way to let it all thrive.

Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier

Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan

Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian

Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Episode References:

1. Beverly Seaton, The Language of Flowers: A History
2. Meleager of Gadara, Greek Anthology
3. Straton of Sardis, Mousa Paidike (The Boyish Muse)
4. Solon of Athens: homoerotic poetry fragments
5. Wikipedia: LGBTQ Symbols, Shams Tabrizi, Eikoh Hosoe
6. Kew Gardens: "Four Flowers That Have Become Queer Symbols"
7. Rumi, Masnavi and Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
8. Eikoh Hosoe, "Subject Matter" lecture, American Suburb X (2010)
9. Aperture: Eikoh Hosoe: Barakei edition notes
10. Metropolitan Museum of Art collection entry on Barakei
11. Nippon.com: "Ordeal by Roses: The Astonishing Artistic Collaboration Between Mishima Yukio and Photographer Hosoe Eikō"
12. Yukio Mishima, preface to Barakei (1963)
13. Scientific American: "How Roses Evolved to Become the Flower of Valentine's Day" (2026)
14. Nesreen Akhtarkhavari and Anthony A. Lee (trans.), Rumi's Love is My Savior - "A Dream" from Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi

For over two thousand years, violets have been a shared language between women. In this episode, we follow a thread from Sappho's pen, through Parisian salons and art circles, to Broadway. And we ask how love finds a way to exist when the world insists it can't.

Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier

Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan

Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian

Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Episode References:

1. Anne Carson, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho
2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Sappho”
3. Poetry Foundation biography
4. Shari Benstock, Women of the Left Bank
5. JSTOR Daily, “Why Violets Became a Symbol of Lesbian Love”
6. Lillian Faderman, Surpassing the Love of Men
7. Kew Gardens, "Four Flowers That Have Become Queer Symbols" — kew.org
8. JSTOR Daily, "Four Flowering Plants That Have Been Decidedly Queered"
9. Wikipedia, "LGBTQ Symbols" — for The Captive / violet sales detail
10. Dressing Dykes, "From Lavender to Violet: The Lesbian Obsession with Purple" — for Paris Lesbos community detail
11. Manchester Historian, "Fighting Lesbian Erasure in Historiography: Restoring Sappho as a Queer Identity" — Amber Barry
12. Wikipedia, "Renée Vivien" — for laudanum/violets suicide attempt detail
13. Freedom Socialist Party, "Gay Resistance: The Hidden History Part III" — for Vivien's work being unsellable in England and US
14. Taylor Institution Library, "Renée Vivien, Enfant Terrible of the Belle Époque" — for critical hostility detail

The dahlia didn't arrive with a meaning. It accumulated one. In our titular episode, we trace how a sacred Aztec crop became a smuggled treasure, a botanist's legacy, and eventually a word in the Victorian language of flowers.

Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier

Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan

Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian

Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Episode References:

1. Seaton, Beverly. The Language of Flowers: A History. University of Virginia Press.
2. Greenaway, Kate. The Language of Flowers. London, 1884.
3. Cavanilles, Antonio José. Icones et Descriptiones Plantarum (1791–1801).
4. Sahagún, Bernardino de. Florentine Codex (Aztec botanical traditions).
5. Smithsonian Gardens. “The History of the Dahlia.”
6. Royal Horticultural Society. “Dahlia: History and Origins.”

Some symbols, however small, earn their weight through the specific, irreplaceable moments in which they were held. In our first episode we trace how a wildflower that grew at the margins of cultivated fields became a vessel for grief, resistance, and national memory.

Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier

Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan

Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian

Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Episode References:

1. Christopher Clark, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947
2. Monika Wienfort, Monarchy and Modernity in Prussia
3. Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory
4. Jay Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History
5. George L. Mosse, Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars
6. Beverly Seaton, The Language of Flowers: A History