Having reread some of this thread after a day or so's hiatus, I have two additional points:

First, I did NOT say that the rose and briar motif originated with the ballad "Barbara Allen" as someone here seemed to be wanting to argue about with me. I made the point that it was undoubtedly a "floater" that was appended sometime later.

And second, if you check a number of books dealing with "The Language of Flowers," you will find that they do not always agree on which flower means what, and it is conceivable that one could get into knock-down-drag-out wrangles over this issue that would rival the endless "what is folk music?" arguments.

So being dogmatic and inflexible on the subject leads folks to chasing each other in endless circles.

Don Firth