January
Birth Flowers
Carnation
Carnations express love, fascination, and distinction. Light red
carnations represent admiration, while dark red denote deep love
and affection. White carnations indicate pure love and good luck;
striped symbolize a regret that a love cannot be shared. Green carnations
are for St. Patrick's Day; purple carnations indicate capriciousness.
This is the one January birth flower.
Pink carnations have the most symbolic and historical significance.
According to Christian legend, carnations first appeared on Earth
as Jesus carried the Cross. The Virgin Mary shed tears at Jesus'
plight, and carnations sprang up from where her tears fell. Thus
the pink carnation became the symbol of a mother's undying love,
and in 1907 was chosen by Ann Jarvis as the emblem of Mother's Day,
now observed in the United States and Canada on the second Sunday
in May. A red carnation may be worn if one's mother is alive, and
a white one if she has died.
A flowering plant native to the Near East and has been cultivated
for the last 2,000 years. Its original natural flower color was
pinkish-hued, but later, cultivars of other colors, including red,
white, yellow and greenish, have been developed.
Although originally applied to the species Dianthus caryophyllus,
the name Carnation is also often applied to some of the other species
of Dianthus, and more particularly to garden hybrids between D.
caryophyllus and other species in the genus. January birth flowers
come in all sorts of varieties.
Some scholars believe that the name "carnation" comes
from "coronation" or "corone" (flower garlands),
as it was one of the flowers used in Greek ceremonial crowns. Others
think the name stems from the Greek carnis (flesh), which refers
to the original color of the flower, or incarnacyon (incarnation),
which refers to the incarnation of God made flesh.
click to enlarge
Snowdrop
The Snowdrop is another January birth flower, originally
from Europe and Asia, is the best-known representative of a small
genus of about 20 species in the family Amaryllidaceae that are
among the first bulbs to bloom in spring.
(Galanthus Nivalis) - Is derived from the Greek word Galanthus
meaning Milkflower and Nivalis, Latin for resembling snow.
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