Wall-Flowers

First Published 1901
Writer/composer Frank Leo Roud RN6307

Music Hall Performers Ernest Heathcote
Folk performances see below 

Although I'm getting on in years I've never had a beau,
All the Johnnies pass me by its very hard
They all call me a wallflower that has riled me so
I've taken up my quarters in the yard
I live out in the garden with the other pretty flowers
you'll find me standing up against the wall
I get my poor geranium wet through being in the showers
For-get-me-not if Fuschia'd ever call

Wallflower, wallflower growing up so high
All you young ladies have captured a pie
Except yer little Phoebe she's left in the cold
Though I'm but a wallflower I mean to marigold

The Lily's and the Daisies seem to shuffle off-the-shelf
They all find a beau but I am waiting still
I think I was in Clover and I'd chuckle to myself
If I'd a Dandy Lion or John Quill
It's lovely in the garden, that is in the summertime
Accompanied by Violet and May
But when the winter comes along it isn't so sublime
It's Orchid when the Snowdrops all the day

You may call a spade a spade and you may call me what you will
But I tell you that I do not care a jot
The only old man I possess is on my windowsill
I mean some Old Man growing in a pot
I dreamt I Rose one morning and was going to be wed
I thought I saw the parson and the Swain
Nige empty pressed his Tulips on my Lily white forehead
And then the Blue Bells chimed this sweet refrain

This one is perhaps not central to my project – its Music Hall song which borrows a little of its chorus from a relatively well-known children’s singing game. The earliest reference I can find to the game was published in 1878-82:

Wally, Wally Wallflower, growing up so high,
We are all maidens and we shall die, 
All except the youngest one, and that is (child's name). 
Choose for the best, choose for the worst 
Choose the one that you love best.

Copied down from word of mouth by Miss Allen, School House, Hersham, Surrey, in Folk-lore Record Vol 5 (1878-82) p84

Versions vary across the British Isles, but it’s been collected many many times – see the entries indexed by Steve Roud in the Vaughan Williams Memorial library

The earliest reference to the song is in 1901 – an advert, marketing it as a potential dame song in pantomime:

The Era – Saturday 19 October 1901

Sources: