Pansies as a symbol for "thought" is a fairly direct word-relation to the French pensées (thoughts).
I had thought of sunflower ("himawari", 向日葵) as day ("hi", 日) turning ("mawari", 回り), but it's not exactly that, though I feel it is closely related. (回 vs 向).
This page has a much better (bilingual!) explanation than I can muster.
"Hana kotoba" (花言葉) literally meaning "flower words" or "flower language" has some pretty old roots, and I'd not be surprised if the basic concept came from ancient times. I think it's a pretty neat means to construct meaning!
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