Flower time

[amateur51]

Tulips, which, as Max Bygraves' song reminds us, are generated from hamster jam

[Beef Oven!]

[Mary Chambers]

If we're going down the not-strictly-'classical' route, how about The Rose of Tralee? (My Irish grandmother's nickname in her youth, I was told.)

I've always thought Where have all the flowers gone? is quite a good song. I though it was much older than it actually is.

[jean]

Back to the strictly classical - in Purcell's My Beloved Spake, The Flowers Appear upon the Earth.

[Beef Oven!]

Getting back to the OP.....

[jean]

In Dunstable's O Rosa Bella, the flower does seem to be a metaphor:

O rosa bella, o dolce anima mia,
non mi lassar morire in cortesia.
Ai lasso mi dolente dezo finire
per ben servire e lealmente amare.

O dio d'amore, che pena e questa amare,
Vedi che io moro tut' hora per ‘sta giudea,
Socorremi, ormai del mio languire,
Cor del corpo mio, non me lassar morire.

.

[gurnemanz]

Here's a lovely Juna Tabor album, bought after seeing her sing some of them in concert a few years ago.

[Mary Chambers]

I should have thought of Tchaikovsky's Crown of Roses, which I have often sung.

Then there's Sweeter than Roses (Purcell), which isn't about roses.

[doversoul1]

Tournoiement ‘Songe d’opium’: Saint-Saëns
(indirect ref. Papaver somniferum)