The poem is a small puzzle about what brings someone to life. Its epigraph asks, "Flower, which but?", as if a choice between flowers is being demanded. The answer comes in a single sentence: neither the tulip nor the orchid could make "him" lively, but something else did. That something is odd and specific. It is "rose fossils" combined with a diary on a "poetic evening."
The roses here are not fresh. They are fossils, so the beauty is old, pressed, and preserved, and the diary suggests private memory. What stirs him seems to be the past rather than a bright, showy bloom. The mood is quiet, wistful, and a little playful. The phrase "teaming up" makes the fossils and the diary sound like partners, which adds a light, almost humorous touch to a tender scene. The short lines slow the poem down, so each image lands separately, like a small pause in the evening itself.