Œillets d’anniversaire

Pink carnations and what the carnation flower means

Pink carnations stand for a mother's love and gratitude, which is why carnations became the Mother's Day flower; red carnations for deep affection; white for pure love and good luck; and the purple, blue-tinted and striped varieties simply for fun. Carnations are the birth flower of January and the traditional first anniversary flower, two more reasons to send them for a birthday that falls near either date. The carnation flower is also one of the longest-lasting fresh flowers a florist can put in a vase, holding its color and shape for two to three weeks, so the bouquet still looks beautiful when the birthday person gets back from a weekend away.

Carnation bouquet and flower arrangements with fresh flowers

Lovely Lavender Medley is the carnation bouquet in our birthday collection today: lavender and white roses and carnations loosely gathered in a clear cylinder vase with cascading greens, from $79.95, with more designs joining it as the season turns. Carnations also play a supporting role in several of our other flower arrangements for birthdays, including Blushing Lavender Bouquet, Blushing Beauty Bouquet and Petals Embrace, where hot pink and lavender carnations sit between roses and lilies and outlast both. For a bouquet that is mostly carnations, the carnation bouquets we deliver year round include designs with roses, lilies and alstroemeria in every color from pink and red to white and purple.

Delivered in bud form, the same day

Order by 2:00 PM Monday to Friday or 12:45 PM on Saturday, in the recipient's local time, and a florist near them designs the bouquet from our recipe and hand-delivers it that day, in water. Carnations often arrive partly in bud form and open fully over the first two days, so the bouquet grows into itself; the florist conditions the stems in water before they leave the shop to protect the blooms on the way, so there is no cardboard package to open, just the vase. For a birthday later in the month, select the date at checkout. Add your card message there too, and see how delivery works for deliveries to a home, an office, a school or a hospital, and for the way substitutions work when a color is out of stock.

Carnation care

Re-trim the stems between the nodes, use the flower food, and change the water every two or three days. Keep the vase away from fruit, which releases ethylene gas that ages carnations quickly, and the blooms will last two to three weeks. Remove any flower that fades so the rest keep going, and place the vase out of direct sun.

Carnations for Mother's Day, wedding flowers and every other day

Carnations are the budget-friendly backbone of weddings and wedding flowers, Easter and graduation arrangements, Valentine's Day bouquets and sympathy pieces alike, and they work just as hard for a birthday, which makes a carnation bouquet a perfect gift for the person who has everything. Sending a gift with the same two-week staying power in a different look? Our birthday roses, birthday daisies and birthday flowers for her pages have plenty of items to choose from, and customers who read the reviews on each product will see why the same designs come back year after year. James Cress Florist has been a family florist since 1903, our customers rate us 4.9 out of 5 stars, and carnations have been in every one of our coolers since the first.