The flower pillar
Sixteen flowers, a page each
What each one means in the tradition people actually follow, the months it is in season in Ireland rather than the months a shop can get it, and the care that changes the outcome instead of the care that fills a leaflet.
Every page here answers the same three questions in the same order, so you can stop reading as soon as you have what you came for. What does it mean, including the places where the meaning changes with the colour or the country. When is it in season in Ireland, which for 3 of these 16 is never, because they neither grow nor are grown here. And what to do with it once it is in a vase, at the level of water depth and stem angle rather than "keep it fresh".
The season strip on each card is the same strip that runs across the top of the page it links to. Green months are the months that flower is genuinely in season on this island. Grey months mean it is either imported that week or not available at all, and around 95 percent of the cut flowers sold in Ireland are imported, so there is a lot of grey.
Vase life is the other number worth carrying around, and the spread is wider than the price is: Orchid at about 18 days, Sweet pea at about 4. Where a flower is a bad buy, the page says so. Where the cheaper version is the better buy, it says that too.
6 of the sixteen are grown commercially in Ireland. That number is small because Irish flower farming is small, though it is growing, and the pages marked as Irish grown are the ones where buying local is realistic rather than aspirational. There is more on the calendar inIrish flowers in season, and more on the numbers in vase life by flower.
First out of the ground
January to May. The months when the cheapest flowers in the shop are also the freshest, because they were grown within a few hours of it.
Galanthus nivalis
Snowdrop
Hope and consolation, the first flower of the year, though older British folklore treated a single snowdrop indoors as unlucky
- January: in season
- February: in season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: out of season
- June: out of season
- July: out of season
- August: out of season
- September: out of season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
January to February
About 5 days in a vase
Meaning, season and careNarcissus
Daffodil
New beginnings and the return of spring, and in Ireland a strong association with cancer fundraising
- January: out of season
- February: in season
- March: in season
- April: in season
- May: out of season
- June: out of season
- July: out of season
- August: out of season
- September: out of season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
February to April
About 6 days in a vase
Grown in Ireland
Meaning, season and careTulipa
Tulip
Declared love in the older tradition, and in current use simply the arrival of spring
- January: out of season
- February: in season
- March: in season
- April: in season
- May: in season
- June: out of season
- July: out of season
- August: out of season
- September: out of season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
February to May
About 6 days in a vase
Grown in Ireland
Meaning, season and careFreesia refracta
Freesia
Friendship and trust in modern florist usage, a fairly recent convention rather than an old tradition
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: in season
- April: in season
- May: in season
- June: out of season
- July: out of season
- August: out of season
- September: out of season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
March to May
About 8 days in a vase
Meaning, season and care
The summer flowers
May to September. Short seasons, strong scent, and the part of the year when buying Irish is easy at a market and still rare in a supermarket.
Paeonia lactiflora
Peony
A happy marriage, prosperity and good fortune, an association that comes from Chinese tradition rather than a European one
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: in season
- June: in season
- July: out of season
- August: out of season
- September: out of season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
May to June
About 6 days in a vase
Grown in Ireland
Meaning, season and careAlstroemeria aurea
Alstroemeria
Friendship and mutual support in modern florist usage, with devotion and prosperity in the same lists
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: out of season
- June: in season
- July: in season
- August: in season
- September: out of season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
June to August
About 14 days in a vase
Meaning, season and careGypsophila paniculata
Gypsophila
Everlasting love and purity, which is why it turns up in wedding work more than anywhere else
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: out of season
- June: in season
- July: in season
- August: in season
- September: out of season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
June to August
About 12 days in a vase
Meaning, season and careLilium
Lily
Sympathy and remembrance, and in older Christian usage the restored innocence of the person who has died
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: out of season
- June: in season
- July: in season
- August: in season
- September: in season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
June to September
About 12 days in a vase
Meaning, season and careRosa
Rose
Love, with the colour carrying the specific message: red for romance, yellow for friendship, pink for gratitude
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: out of season
- June: in season
- July: in season
- August: in season
- September: in season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
June to September
About 7 days in a vase
Meaning, season and careLathyrus odoratus
Sweet pea
Thank you for a lovely time, and departure, from the Victorian language of flowers where the meaning is unusually specific
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: out of season
- June: in season
- July: in season
- August: in season
- September: in season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
June to September
About 4 days in a vase
Grown in Ireland
Meaning, season and care
Late summer and autumn
July to November. Heavier flowers that hold for a fortnight, and the two that dry well enough to keep after the water is gone.
Hydrangea macrophylla
Hydrangea
Gratitude and heartfelt thanks in current use, though Victorian lists gave the same flower coldness and vanity
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: out of season
- June: out of season
- July: in season
- August: in season
- September: in season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
July to September
About 8 days in a vase
Grown in Ireland
Meaning, season and careHelianthus annuus
Sunflower
Loyalty and steady regard, from the flower's habit of following the sun, with a strong modern association with Ukraine
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: out of season
- June: out of season
- July: out of season
- August: in season
- September: in season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
August to September
About 8 days in a vase
Grown in Ireland
Meaning, season and careChrysanthemum morifolium
Chrysanthemum
Long life and loyalty in the older tradition, and in much of continental Europe a flower kept for graves
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: out of season
- June: out of season
- July: out of season
- August: out of season
- September: in season
- October: in season
- November: in season
- December: out of season
September to November
About 16 days in a vase
Meaning, season and care
No Irish season at all
On the shelf every week of the year at much the same price, because every stem was grown under glass or flown in. Nothing wrong with them; just nothing seasonal about them.
Dianthus caryophyllus
Carnation
Affection, with pink standing for a mother's love and red for admiration in the tradition most often quoted
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: out of season
- June: out of season
- July: out of season
- August: out of season
- September: out of season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
Not grown in season in Ireland
About 16 days in a vase
Meaning, season and careGerbera jamesonii
Gerbera
Cheerfulness and simple good wishes, a modern florist reading rather than an old tradition
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: out of season
- June: out of season
- July: out of season
- August: out of season
- September: out of season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
Not grown in season in Ireland
About 8 days in a vase
Meaning, season and carePhalaenopsis, Cymbidium and Dendrobium
Orchid
Refinement and rare beauty in western usage, and fertility and many children in the older Chinese tradition
- January: out of season
- February: out of season
- March: out of season
- April: out of season
- May: out of season
- June: out of season
- July: out of season
- August: out of season
- September: out of season
- October: out of season
- November: out of season
- December: out of season
Not grown in season in Ireland
About 18 days in a vase
Meaning, season and care
What is not on these pages
No shop links and no bouquets to buy. These sixteen pages carry no merchant recommendations at all, because the answer to "what does a yellow rose mean" should not depend on who is paying for the answer. The comparison work lives on its own pages, clearly marked, and it stays there.
There is also no folklore invented to fill space. Where a meaning comes from the Victorian language of flowers rather than from anything people still practise, the page says which, and where a florist's story turns out to be a sales line, it says that as well.