Sons and Lovers was a provocative novel when it was first published in 1913, telling the story of a young, burgeoning artist named Paul Morel who is torn between an Oedipal love for his mother and a lust for two other women.

As such, Lawrence uses flowers symbolically throughout the novel to convey concepts such as individuality, vitality, adoration, femininity, womanhood, and female sexuality. Moreover, he sometimes refers to women as flowers or makes comparisons between them. Rather than use flowers as complimentary depictions of women, however, he often views them as mere objects of adornment.

Two cogent yet differing examples of how he uses flowers are with his first love, Miriam, and his second love, Clara. Miriam's interactions with patches of maiden-blush roses and, later, daffodils are one of deference, respect, and appreciation, which mirrors her love of Paul. But Paul seems to despise her for this love of and her relationship with flowers, almost as if she's cheating on him with them. He feels suffocated by her adoration, and thus the flowers come to symbolize their love's terminus.

Clara, on the other hand, is put off by a flower's propensity to be picked, to wilt and to die. She similarly does not want to be picked by a man and then left to wilt. She wants to remain strong like a flower in isolation, not something to be adored—the opposite of Miriam—a point that Paul ironically argues with her. This view is especially prominent during her period of chastity following her split with her husband. However, once Clara's sexuality is reignited later in the story, she graciously accepts a flower from Paul to wear on her jacket.