Seemingly, these artistic efforts were made to reclaim the word rose, which was originally used as a pejorative for gay men in Japan. Meaning "Rose Tribe," the magazine ran from 1971 to 2008, publishing over 400 issues. The link between gay men and roses in Japan dates back to the 1960s, according to the book "Homosexuality and Manliness in Postwar Japan," and was started by a collection of homoerotic photography called Bara Kei, loosely translated as "Ordeal of the Roses." This association led to the creation of a magazine for gay men, called Barazoku (via John Coulthart). One of her most evocative surviving poems describes how she dresses a lover in "many crowns of violets, roses, and crocuses." Particularly in recent history, floral imagery has taken root in several parts of LGBTQ+ history. The University of Washington Botanic Gardens elaborates on how Sappho's romantic poetry for other women went on to be an inspiration in modern times. She also plays a big part in the popularity of flowers in queer culture. Even though relatively little of her writing has survived into modern times, Sappho's legacy lives on today: Well over two and a half millennia after she composed her poems, she's the reason why the words " lesbian" and " sapphic" are part of the 21st-century vocabulary. As an article in The New Yorker mentions, Sappho was famous in Ancient Greece, standing alongside Homer.
As JSTOR Daily notes, it's reminiscent of a much older poet, famous for using floral imagery to describe queer relationships – the Ancient Greek poet Sappho. Douglas' poem describes a flower-strewn fantasy world.
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