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Plate 1 A carnation with ruffled, fringed petals on a slender stem

Carnation

Charlotte de La Tour gave the carnation "ardent and pure love". The English and American books split carnations and pinks by colour, so that Kate Greenaway's deep red carnation says "Alas! for my poor heart" and the yellow one "disdain". Since 1908 the white carnation has also been the emblem of Mother's Day in the United States.

The language of flowers. Also called carnation meaning.

Meaning

La Tour's chapter on the florists' carnation is headed Amour vif et pur, and her yellow carnation means Dédain. The English version of her book, which calls the flower a pink, keeps "pure love" and "disdain" for the yellow. Henrietta Dumont's Floral Offering (Philadelphia, 1851) gives the pink "pure love" and calls it the emblem of woman's love "which no circumstance can change"; she explains that florists divide these flowers into pinks and carnations, and that old English writers called the carnation the clove-gilly flower for its scent. Sarah Josepha Hale's Flora's Interpreter (Boston, 1832) gives the carnation "pride and beauty" and the double red pink "woman's love". Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers (1884) gives the deep red carnation "Alas! for my poor heart", the striped "refusal", the yellow "disdain", and the carnation pink "woman's love". The carnation is the Old Farmer's Almanac's first flower for January.

Origin and history

Richard Folkard's Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (1884) doubts the usual story that the name comes from the flower's flesh colour. Old writers spelled it "coronation", he says, because the flowers were used in the chaplets, coronae, of classical times. In religious painting the carnation stood in for the rose. Elizabeth Haig's study (1913) concludes that its symbolism is the same as the rose's, and that painters used it when they chose not to paint a rose; in an Adoration by Hugo van der Goes, three carnations in a crystal vase stand for the divine love of the Trinity.

The Mother's Day carnation

The carnation has a living meaning in the United States. Anna Jarvis designed Mother's Day in honour of her own mother, and Smithsonian Magazine says she chose her mother's favourite flower, the white carnation, as its official emblem. The first formal Mother's Day church service was held on 10 May 1908 at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, and Jarvis sent 500 white carnations for the congregation, the National Park Service records. She soon railed against florists raising carnation prices before the day, and in 1922 backed a boycott of them.

Yellow for disdain

The carnation's yellow meaning matches the Yellow rose, which the same books made a flower of infidelity or jealousy.

See also

January birth flowers: carnation and snowdrop, Yellow rose, Pink rose, Red rose, Red rose, White rose.

Sources

  1. Le Langage des fleurs (Charlotte de La Tour, 13th edition), Charlotte de La Tour, Le Langage des fleurs, treizième édition augmentée (Paris: Garnier frères, [1856]); first published 1819, Cornell University Library, via the Internet Archive, Œillet des fleuristes; Dictionnaire, “Dédain”
  2. The Language of Flowers: The Floral Offering, by Henrietta Dumont, 1851, H. C. Peck & Theo. Bliss, Philadelphia (Project Gutenberg edition), Pink chapter
  3. Flora's Interpreter (Sarah Josepha Hale, 1832), Sarah Josepha Hale, Flora's Interpreter, or the American Book of Flowers and Sentiments (Boston: Marsh, Capen and Lyon, 1832), Boston Public Library, via the Internet Archive, Carnation; Pink, red, double
  4. Language of Flowers, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, 1884, George Routledge and Sons (Project Gutenberg edition), Carnation; Pink, Carnation
  5. The Floral Symbolism of the Great Masters (Elizabeth Haig, 1913), Elizabeth Haig, The Floral Symbolism of the Great Masters (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1913), Project Gutenberg, The Carnation
  6. Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (Richard Folkard, 1884), Richard Folkard, Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (London: Sampson Low, 1884), Project Gutenberg, Carnation
  7. Anna Maria Jarvis (National Park Service), U.S. National Park Service
  8. The Tenacious Woman Who Helped Keep Mother’s Day Alive (Smithsonian Magazine), Smithsonian Magazine
  9. Birth Flowers by Month: Discover Your Monthly Flower & Meaning, Catherine Boeckmann, updated 17 September 2026, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, January
  10. The Language of Flowers, with Illustrative Poetry, by Frederic Shoberl, seventh edition, 1840, Saunders & Otley, London (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library copy), Dictionary, “Disdain”, “Love, Pure”

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Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research

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