(used with a sing. or pl. v.)
maudlin sentimentality: The play is a period piece, full of innocence abused and hearts and flowers.
[1940-45, Amer.]
* * *
hearts and flowers,
U.S. Slang. sentimentality: »
Transplanted from stage to screen, Enid Bagnold's witty, pitiless…high comedy yields only a withered bouquet of hearts and flowers (Time).
* * *
used in allusion to extreme sentimentality
Useful english dictionary. 2012.