Bouquet with carnations in Bogota: the first Mother's Day flower
A bouquet with carnations in Bogota carries a history that starts in 1908: Anna Jarvis sent five hundred white carnations, her mother's favourite flower, to the first Mother's Day service in Grafton, one for each person who came. In the grid above, the flower turns up two ways: a mono bouquet of fifteen stems, "15 Dianthus – New Arrival", and paired with lisianthus in "Sirius".
Red or white: what a carnation once said
Jarvis read white as a sign of a mother's pure love, and the scent as a reminder of prayer. By the 1920s the custom had split: red for a mother still living, white for one who had died. It belongs to its time rather than to any rule followed today. For a mother who is here, simply agree the shade with the florist and check it on the photo taken before the courier sets off.
How long carnations last in a vase
A carnation holds for two to three weeks, well past the week a rose usually manages. It is a greenhouse crop, so cut stems reach the shop year-round. Care is mostly about the water: cut the stem at an angle, strip any leaves that would sit below the waterline, and change the water every day or two. Keep the vase away from radiators, sun and ripe fruit, whose ethylene ages the petals faster.
Every bouquet here is put together to order. A single variety sits among the mono bouquets, a wider mix among the mixed bouquets. How soon it arrives is shown in the bouquet's own card, and zones sit on the delivery page.