Why Are Carnations a Mother’s Day Tradition?

Carnations earned their place as the signature flower of Mother’s Day when the holiday’s founder, Anna Jarvis, chose them to honor her own mother. The gesture caught on quickly and bloomed into a tradition that has lasted ever since.

Carnations have been tied to Mother’s Day since Anna Jarvis organized the first official observances in 1908 in honor of her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis. According to the National Park Service, Jarvis sent 500 white carnations to the first formal Mother’s Day service on May 10, 1908, at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, near her hometown. A companion event took place the same day at Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia, where Jarvis was living at the time.

Jarvis chose carnations because they were her mother’s favorite flower, Time reported. In a 1927 interview with Parents’ magazine, Jarvis explained the symbolism. “Around the white carnation, I wove a sentiment,” she said. “Its whiteness is to symbolize the truth, purity and broad charity of mother love; its fragrance, her memory and her prayers. The carnation does not drop its petals but hugs them to its heart as it dies, and so, too, mothers hug their children to their hearts, their mother love never dying.”

According to longtime floral company FTD, “White carnations are typically worn to honor a deceased mother, while pink carnations are used to celebrate a mother who is living.” Red carnations, meanwhile, represent love and affection.

Jarvis took the symbolism seriously—so seriously that, as Mother Jones reported, she copyrighted the white carnation emblem along with the phrases “Mother’s Day” and “second Sunday in May.”

As Jarvis campaigned tirelessly for a national holiday—writing to political figures, ministers and newspapers—carnations became part of the movement. By the time President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day in 1914, carnations were already widely associated with the holiday. “The designation of the white carnation emblem energized the floral industry,” Time reported.

Demand soared. The BBC, citing the Philadelphia Inquirer, reported that “soon you could not ‘beg, borrow or steal a carnation.’” Jarvis quickly began a fight against the commercialization of Mother’s Day and “denounced confectioners, florists and other groups whom she accused of gouging the public,” The New York Times reported in Jarvis’ 1948 obituary.

“When the price of carnations rocketed, she released a press release condemning florists: ‘WHAT WILL YOU DO to rout charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and other termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest and truest movements and celebrations?’” the BBC added. “By 1920, she was urging people not to buy flowers at all.”

In this pursuit, Jarvis failed. The carnation remains the official flower of Mother’s Day.