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Mother's Day in Chicago: lilac in Lombard, lilies and roses at her door
Mother's Day in Chicago falls on the second Sunday of May. The two weeks before it belong to Lilac Time in Lombard, where Lilacia Park has opened its gates every year since 1929 to more than two hundred varieties of lilac in bloom. The lilac stays in the park; what travels home instead is a bouquet of lilies, roses and hydrangea, and the real choice starts with colour and format.
What goes into a Chicago bouquet for the second Sunday of May
Lilies, gerbera and lisianthus are greenhouse flowers, grown and cut on a year-round schedule rather than a short season, so the start of May does nothing to limit the choice between them.
A Midwest peony is a different story. It opens from late May into early June, after Mother's Day has already passed, so a bouquet built around one has to wait a few weeks longer than the calendar allows this time. If peonies are what she actually wants, that later date is worth marking down.
A French rose isn't a variety at all, but something a florist does by hand, turning the outer petals back to open the bloom wider; eleven red stems treated this way are simply sold as French roses. One flower worth leaving out of the choice altogether: lilies are toxic to cats through every part of the plant, even the water left standing in the vase, so a home with a cat is better served by roses or gerbera.
Anna Jarvis handed out five hundred white carnations in Grafton in 1908, her mother's favourite flower, at what became the first Mother's Day service. By the 1920s the gesture had split into a rule: a red carnation marked a mother still living, a white one marked her memory.
Chicago doesn't keep that rule today, and carnations rarely carry the meaning they once did. Where a family still remembers the story, the simplest nod to it is a second colour added to white, pink or red roses set beside white lilies or white roses, rather than carnations on their own. An even or odd stem count barely registers once the flowers are gathered into one hand-tied shape, so it isn't worth counting either way.
Hand-tied or set in foam: Mother's Day flower delivery in Chicago
A box or a basket needs no vase: the stems sit in wet foam, watered every day across its whole surface rather than tipped or soaked from one corner. A hand-tied bouquet wrapped in paper suits a mother who already has a favourite vase and would rather arrange the flowers herself.
Mother's Day has been a national observance since 1914, when Woodrow Wilson signed it into law, though it has never been a public holiday. That also means Mother's Day in Chicago brings far more orders than an ordinary day, and the delivery page is clear that intervals widen then, with no courier promising an exact minute. Booking the date a few days ahead, rather than on the morning itself, leaves more slots open to choose from.
The same booking rule covers hotel stays and orders from abroad.
Jarvis spent years arguing with the greeting-card industry, insisting that a printed card said only that the sender was too lazy to write to the person who loved them most. A card written in your own words costs nothing extra, and you can sign it or leave it anonymous, whichever would mean more to her.
A balloon or a box of sweets can be added at checkout, among the gifts to go with the bouquet.
Choosing where to start is easier by format than by flower. Red French roses suit the classic reading of the day, while flowers in boxes survive a wait at reception without water. A flower basket stands on a table on its own, with no vase needed at all.