I Learned the Hidden Meaning of Each Birth Flower, and It's Transformed How I Gift

Flower meanings are used to make bouquets more personal by matching blooms to couples’ stories and personalities, helping avoid overly similar looks even with trendy color palettes. Flower language generally draws on Western meanings for most clients, while also considering the cultural background of the people involved, including different definitions across cultures. Victorian-era meanings are one focus, and birth months can correspond to more than one flower. Carnations illustrate how color changes meaning: red signifies love and admiration, white signifies purity, purple can signify fickle or capricious behavior, and pink is associated with a mother’s love. Many flowers relate to love, with distinctions based on devotion and romantic symbolism.

""Each wedding that I do, I get to know the couple as well as possible, and then I choose flowers that have meanings that fit their stories and their personalities," she says. "It helps keep everything from looking too similar, especially when [working with] trendy color palettes.""

""So it's important to note that when Westerberg-Jackson is talking about flower meanings, by and large, she's referencing the Western meanings because it's most relevant for most of her clients. But she always takes into account the cultural background - and therefore the flower definitions of that culture - of the people she's working for.""

""For this article I'll be focused on the Victorian-era flower meanings, but there are so many different definitions that you should look into. Additionally, when it comes to birth months, some birth months have more than one flower!""

""Carnations have different color meanings as well. A red carnation, she tells me, is more 'love and admiration.' White has to do with 'purity' (like all white flowers). Purple, for example, has to do with 'being fickle or capricious.' Pink is common for 'a mother's love.'""

Read at Apartment Therapy