The Language of Roses for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is coming up, and flowers are a popular gift. So this seems like the appropriate time to talk about the traditional language of roses.

Did you know that since Victorian times, the different colors of roses have had different meanings?

For Mother's Day, at least in the South, it is traditional to wear red roses on Mother's Day to signify a living mother, and white roses to honor a mother who is no longer alive. For this reason, you might not want to give white roses to your living mother on Mother's Day, except perhaps mixed with other colors to honor her mother if her mother has passed on.

If you give red roses to your Mom, you signify respect and undying love. This is the most traditional and popular choice. When given to a lover or spouse, red roses signify passion and commitment, as well. Red roses are an excellent choice for a husband to give to the mother of his children.

Yellow roses stand for kindness, cheerfulness and affection, and would be lovely for a mother-in-law, stepmother, or grandmother particularly.

Pink roses convey thankfulness, grace, and femininity. While they are appropriate for any maternal figure, they would be especially thoughtful for people who are not mothers but fill a motherly role in your life, such as an aunt or a mentor, or any female you feel deserves to be remembered on mother's day. They would also be lovely gifts for daughters-in-law who have given you grandchildren, to say thank you for that precious gift.

Orange is an exuberant and enthusiastic color, and while orange roses are not traditional for gifts for Mother's Day, they could be just the thing for a nonconformist mom or for a new mother to express the tremendous joy of a first Mother's Day as a mom.

Purple and lilac shades, such as the deep purple roses that are almost black, are mysterious and spiritually powerful colors and would be good choices for Pagan moms or those involved in any kind of deeply spiritual calling or very spiritually inclined.

So if you give roses to your mother for Mother's Day, give some thought to the meaning of the flowers to make your gift extra special. You could enclose a card explaining why you chose that color with the bouquet!