What flower is the traditional symbol of Mother's Day?

The carnation is the traditional flower symbol of Mother’s Day. Anna Jarvis chose the flower in 1907 because the white carnation had been her mother Ann Jarvis’s favorite.

Jarvis promoted the white carnation as a tribute to a mother’s purity and love. Early Mother’s Day observances often involved wearing or distributing carnations, helping the flower become closely identified with the holiday in the United States and Canada.

A later custom associated a red or pink carnation with a living mother and a white carnation with a deceased mother. That color code is widely repeated, but it is a later convention rather than the entire origin of the symbol. Carnations also appear in many other traditions, including weddings and national commemorations.

The carnation is sometimes mistaken for a rose because roses are popular Mother’s Day gifts. Roses are strongly associated with love and appreciation, but the historically specific emblem selected for this holiday was the carnation.