To Blossom is To Bloom

I was thinking of the difference between the words flowers, blossoms, and blooms.   It seems like we wouldn't say "Look at that rose blossom".  Instead, we might say "Look at the rose blooming".   We think of fruit trees - apples, cherries, plums, almonds, peaches, etc as having blossoms, being blossom trees, and blossoming in the spring.  One site says that blossoms don't flower, but flowers do blossom. That seemed poetic indeed. Blooming seems to occur with flowers/flowering plants.   It doesn't seem typical to comment that the orchard is blooming.  We would comment that the roses are blooming.  These differences seem subtle and tricky, and refer to the literal meaning of flower, blossom and bloom.  To continue with the literal meaning, this comes from Collins English Dictionary for bloom.   1. countable noun A bloom is the flower on a plant. [literary , technical] ...the sweet fragrance of the white blooms. Harry carefully picked the bloom. Synonyms: flower, bud, blossom    2. in bloom 3. verb When a plant or tree blooms, it produces flowers. When a flower blooms, it opens. This plant blooms between May and June.  Synonyms: flower, blossom, open, bud    What about these distinctions between the words?  The Scrabble score for each of these words: blossom is 61 points - blossoming is 65 points bloom is 9 points - blooming is 63 points flower is 12 points - flowering is 66 points Our fantasy flowers in bloom today are lilies.

Lilies in the Field

It is considered unlikely that the Lilies of the Field reference in the Bible refers to Lilium lilies.  This is contrary to the beautiful Tiffany Stuido stained glass showing white lilies - looking like white Madonna lilies. From Wikipedia: Many varieties of flowers grow wildly and abundantly in Galilee. The translation of lilies is traditional, but far from certain. Modern scholars have proposed a number of different flowers that Jesus could be here referring to, according to Fowler these include the autumn crocus, scarlet poppy, Turk's cap lily, Anemone coronaria, the narcissus, the gladiolus, and the iris. France notes that flowers were less specifically defined in that era, and lily could be a word referring to any showy variety. The verse could also just mean flowers in general, rather than a specific variety. "In the field" implies that these are the wildflowers growing in the fields, rather than the cultivated ones growing in gardens. Harrington notes that some have read this verse as originally referring to beasts rather than flowers.  Some of these flowers have lily in the common name such as gladiolus - sword lily, iris - flag lily.  But it remains as indistinct today as in the past. We revel in the lilies of Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field from this past summer.