The holidays are over, and a new year begins. Hopefully, you’ve recovered from all of the typical holiday chaos. The beginning of a new year also means that we restart the cycle for which every month gives us a different birth flower. January’s flower is the carnation. Botanists have cultivated carnations for over two centuries throughout Europe and Asia. We know that because of a 1475 painting that Leonardo da Vinci painted. He called it “The Madonna With the Carnation.” It is part of a Munich collection of da Vinci paintings. Consequently, it’s often referred to as the Munich Madonna.
There are an estimated 300 known species of carnations from which many hundreds of hybrids have been developed. The first carnations had pink blooms, and fittingly, carnation, the flower’s common name means “flesh-toned.” Because of their spicy scent, carnations have been referred to as Clove Pink or Gillyflower.
Beauté
According to the elaborate Victorian Language of Flowers, Carnations represent many things, including:
- Admiration
- Beauty
- Distinction
- Divine Love
- Fascination
- Gratitude
- Pride
- Woman
Flower colors are symbolic of different emotions such as:
- Red – for passionate love
- White – for pure love
- Yellow – contempt or rejection
- Purple – capriciousness or whimsicalness
- Striped Carnations symbolize the regret that one feels about an unrequited love
If you really want to impress someone with your thoughtfulness when you give him or her flowers for a January birthday, give them carnations because carnations are January’s flower.
Victorian Garden
We’ve come up with some cheerful arrangements that use carnations and we think they would make an ideal birthday gift for any man or woman.
If you’re looking for an over the top arrangement that’s sure to impress a recipient without conveying anything romantic, you’ll certainly achieve that goal when you give them Beauté. This pink, purple and white arrangement contains carnations, alstroemeria, roses, wax flowers, and stock. The combination of colors is delightfully bright and will do wonders to cheer someone up on a dreary winter day.
Create the illusion of a Victorian indoor garden with this delightful Victorian Garden Basket. We create this garden in a basket by starting with a wicker basket that has a handle. We weave ivy around the handle. Then we fill the basket with pink roses, mini carnations and alstroemeria. We add green button poms for contrast and seeded eucalyptus. This garden in a basket gives the illusion that you just picked the flowers in your own backyard.
Don’t forget those January birthdays. Let Boyd’s Flowers help you create an arrangement using the birth flower for January. Call us, stop by, or order your gifts online.
