Julie Ardery in a roadside cutting garden, near Lautrec, France. Photo: Bill Bishop.

The Human Flower Project is an international newsgroup, photo album and discussion of humankind’s relationship with the floral world. We report on art, medicine, society, history, politics, religion, and commerce. Written and photographic submissions are welcome.

Since its inception in September 2004, the Human Flower Project has been non-commercial, focussing rather on research, news gathering, commentary, and visual documentation. I hope to present worldwide perspectives on this topic and welcome contributors of all ages and nationalities.

The website ran from 2004 to 2012, languished for several years and then was lost entirely. Thanks to the WayBackMachine, most of the original posts were preserved and have been reconstructed here with the expertise of Honeywick, a Louisville, Kentucky-based group of designers and tech experts. Bouquets to all involved!

After decades in Austin and La Grange, Texas, I now live in Louisville. With a background in sociology, folklore, literature, art history and journalism, my primary flower interests run along those lines. What are your interests? I want to share this space with anyone who has observations, photos, information or stories about how the lives of people and flowers intersect. Please post comments and engage with any articles that strike you.

From the mourners of a Neanderthal man buried with flowers in 60,000 B.C. to today’s megawatt floral designers, people have turned to flowers out of anxiety, necessity and joy.

By studying flowers, we look into human emotion and value. Since the flower trade is global, and has been for centuries, the circuit of plants across the world traces economics and international relations. Seeing how artists represent flowers, we re-experience what it is to be living temporarily, alongside life in many forms different from ourselves.

As Human Flower Project is reborn, in the spring of 2026, it features past stories, some “evergreen” and many others that warrant reconsideration.  Political leaders once showered with rose petals betrayed their supporters; floral remedies turned out to be snake oil. Many fine and not so fine human flower projects, commercial and otherwise, have withered away. These vagaries, too, are true dynamism – life itself.

Welcome, or welcome back,
Julie Ardery