“a mother is like a flower each one is beautiful and unique”
Every year we appear to spend more on Mother’s Day gifts than the year before, with spend in the UK in 2021 reaching £1.34 billion (increasing from £1.23 billion in 2019) with the top three things we spend money on being:
- (1) A Mother’s Day Card
- (2) Flowers
- (3) Special Trip Out
With many mothers being lucky enough to receive a combination of gifts and the average person spending over £70 on their Mum for Mother’s Day.
But why are flowers so popular? It could be that you simply can’t go wrong with flowers, receiving flowers makes us feel special, loved, appreciated and cherished . . . in fact flowers make us feel happy! Studies have shown that flowers will have an immediate impact on how happy we feel and have a positive, long-term effect on improving our mood.
"Common sense tells us that flowers make us happy . . . Now, science shows that not only do flowers make us happier than we know, they have strong positive effects on our emotional well-being." says Dr. Jeanette Haviland-Jones
What Do Different Flowers Mean ?
With such a wide range of flowers to choose from when it comes to selecting a bouquet – or even picking and tying a bouquet for Mother’s Day yourself, you could consider what different flowers ‘mean’ to help narrow down the choice. Here’s a summary of what we’ve found out . . .
The most popular Mother’s Day flowers are carnations. Available in a wide range of sizes and colours, pink carnations have the most significance for Mother’s Day.
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Pink Carnations A Christian Legend says that the first carnations bloomed when Jesus carried the Cross. |
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Other colours of carnations which you might choose are light red for admiration, dark red for love and affection or white for purity and remembrance.
Coming second in popularity when it comes to flowers for Mother’s Day, and the most traditional choice, are roses.
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Dark Pink Roses Choose dark pink roses to signify gratitude and appreciation, pink roses for love, white for remembrance, dignity and purity . . . cream-coloured roses for thoughtfulness, yellow roses for friendship and celebration or orange roses for pride.
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“A mother’s love is like an everlasting bed of roses, that continues to blossom. A mother’s love bears strength, comfort, healing and warmth. Her beauty is compared to a sunny day that shines upon each rose petal and inspires hope.”
Courtesy of Ellen J Barrier
Although roses are usually associated with romantic occasions, there are lots of myths surrounding roses . . .
In a Roman myth, Flora the goddess of Spring, asked the gods to create the rose after she found the lifeless body of a nymph in the woods and Apollo, Bacchus, Vertumnus, Pomona and Flora all contributed gifts that made the rose to be considered as the Queen of Flowers . . .
In Greek mythology poet Anacreon said that white roses appeared from the sea foam that dripped off Aphrodite when she was born . . .
In another Roman myth, Cupid knocked over a bowl of wine and a rose bush grew from it which was dedicated to his mother Venus . . .
These are just a few of the myths you can read about.
For the more modern Mum tulips are often thought to be the perfect choice as they represent comfort, coziness and happiness. They are also a good choice for new Mothers as tulips symbolise spring and new beginnings.
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Yellow Tulips Choose yellow to represent hope and cheer . . . pink tulips for happiness . . . red tulips for love and purple tulips for admiration. Tulips come in so many colours and have such a distinctive shape that a bouquet of a combination of colours would also be perfect! |
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Another good choice for Mother’s Day, and one which won’t cost the earth and could easily have been grown in your own garden are daffodils. With their bright yellow and white colours these cheerful flowers associated with spring are seen as a symbol of positivity, rebirth and new beginnings.
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Daffodils One little daffodil had nothing much to do. Two little daffodils were smiling at a bee, Three little daffodils were growing by the door, You can read the rest of this little rhyme here courtesy of Wibsey Primary School
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The Pretty Assassin?
Daffodils may look pretty but they have a killer’s instinct. The sap from cut daffodils can shorten the life of other flowers, including freesia, tulips and roses. Although you’ll find mixed opinions on this amongst florist who often recommend that simple keeping your flowers in fresh water and changing it every couple of days will get rid of any damaging sap.
From the simple daffodil we now move to the more dramatic flower for Mother’s Day, orchids.
Orchids are a good choice as they are a relatively long-lasting flower, maintaining their fresh, waxy appearance from several days up to several weeks, depending on the variety.
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Orchids Orchids are said to represent luxury, love, beauty and strength. Green orchids symbolise good health and fortune, whilst pink or purple orchids represent elegance, respect and admiration. |
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Did you know?
One of the world’s most expensive flowers is an orchid, the Gold of Kinabalu orchid. Also known as the ‘Rothschild slipper’ orchid a single stem can cost over £5000!
Another of the most popular mother’s day flowers are the delicate freesias. Said to be the ultimate symbol of friendship, freesias were given as a symbol of trust in Victorian times. White freesia blooms represent purity and innocence, red romance, purple for beauty and royalty whilst pink freesias symbolise femininity and love.
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Freesias One little daffodil had nothing much to do. This can be helped by displaying them in a vase that tapers in the neck, which will help to support these delicate, zygomorphic flowers with their sweet perfume.
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With a wide range of varieties and colours to choose from, lilies are a popular Mother’s Day flower as they often represent fertility and motherhood.
Oriental lilies are a standout choice as they come in many dramatic colours which enhance their large, trumpet shaped flowers and powerful fragrance. Orange lilies represent pride and confidence, choose red for love and passion, pink for prosperity or yellow for gratitude.
In contrast to the oriental lilies are the more understated Lily of the Valley. This diminutive flower represents love, motherhood, devotion and purity and makes a pretty little bouquet.
Whilst the Calla lilies create a statement display with their distinctive shape and dramatic appearance . . . and are surrounded by some drama filled myths as well.
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Calla Lilies Derived from the Greek word ‘calla’ that means beautiful. In Greek mythology Zeus had a son, Hercules, with another woman which he took to his wife whist she slept and allowed Hercules to drink her milk. |
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Whilst the yellow pistil in the centre of the calla lilies was placed there by Venus who was jealous of how beautiful the lilies were that she cursed their beauty . . . this is one of the reasons that calla lilies are sometimes associated with lust and jealousy.
And Finally
Top Tips For Looking After Your Mother’s Day Bouquet
If you are lucky enough to have received flowers for Mother’s Day, then you’ll want them to last as long as possible. Here is what we recommend to keep them looking good day after day . . .
Get the Vase Ready
So if you are organised, last time you used your best vase you would have washed it clean and stored it away safely until new flowers arrive. However, just make sure when you pick your vase this Mother’s Day that it’s nice and clean and has no traces of previous use . . . ideally check the day before as if there are old stains inside the vase the best way to remove them is to put some bleach in it overnight to soak away the marks.
Add Sufficient Water
Before adding your flowers to your vase fill it about two thirds full with fresh water. This will ensure that your new flowers will have sufficient water to soak up after their journey from the shop to your home.
Ideally you should refresh the water and clean your vase every couple of days, which helps to keep your flowers lasting longer and stop bacteria growing in the water. Whilst you’re changing the water you should re-cut the stems so that you are making it easier for the flowers to soak up the water.
Prepare The Flowers
If you want your flowers to last then it’s not as simple as unwrapping them and putting them in the vase, a bit of pre preparation first will go a long way in keeping them looking good. Ideally the part of the stem which will be immersed in the water should be foliage free – so strip away any low down leaves from the stem. Then to ensure the stems can soak up water efficiently you need to recut each stem at an angle – ideally cutting off about 1½” from the base. Make sure you use a sharp pair of scissors or a knife to create a clean cut – and by cutting at an angle you are creating are larger surface through which water can be absorbed.
Place Them In The Correct Spot
So, with the flowers prepared and in their vase of fresh water, ideally they should be placed where they will be away from draughts, away from sources of heat and away from direct sunlight.
Did you know ?
It’s also recommended that you don’t place your flowers near a bowl of fruit . . . the reason behind this is that ripening fruit emits ethylene, a gas that can cause cut flowers to age quickly, causing them to wilt and wither.
Our blog posts are created from our personal knowledge, information gathered by speaking to other gardeners or manufacturers in the gardening industry, by reading gardening magazines and devouring information from books and the internet. We aim to be as accurate as we can, so if you find a mistake, please remember, we’re only human.