Carnations

Nature 5 Minutes

Carnation flowers are symbolic of love, fascination, and distinction and are scientifically known as Dianthus. They are also known as “The Flowers of God.” According to a Christian legend, Carnations first appeared on earth as Jesus carried the Cross. Carnations sprang up from where the Virgin Mary’s tears fell as she cried over her son’s plight.

So, whether you love giving flowers or are an avid gardener, there’s something quite special about carnation flowers.

About the Carnation Flower and Plant

The single flowers of the Carnations species, Dianthus caryophyllus have 5 petals and vary from white to pink to purple in color. Border Carnation cultivars may have double flowers with as many as 40 petals.

When grown in gardens, Carnations grow to between 6 and 8.5 cm in diameter. Petals on Carnations are generally clawed or serrated.

Carnations are bisexual flowers and bloom simply or in a branched or forked cluster. The stamens on Carnations can occur in one or two whorls, in equal number or twice the number of the petals.

The Carnation leaves are narrow and stalk less and their color varies from green to grey-blue or purple. Carnations grow big, full blooms on strong, straight stems.

Growing Carnations

Carnations grow readily from cuttings made from the suckers that form around the base of the stem, the side shoots of the flowering stem, or the main shoots before they show flower-buds.

The cuttings from the base make the best plants in most cases.

These cuttings may be taken from a plant at any time through fall or winter, rooted in sand and potted up.

They may be put in pots until the planting out time in spring, which is usually in April or in any time when the ground is ready to be handled.

The soil should be deep, friable and sandy loam.

Carnation Plant Care

Carnations need some hours of full sun each day and should be kept moist.

Avoid over-watering as this may tend to turn the foliage yellow.

Spent flowers should be removed promptly to promote continued blooming.

The quality of the bloom depends on the soil and irrigation aspects for growing carnations.

Those who grow carnations should know the importance of pinching, stopping and disbudding.

At the time of plucking carnations, leave three to four nodes at the base and remove the stem.

The plant foliage should not be exposed to the direct heat of a stove or the sun.

Carnation Meaning

These flowers are one of the oldest cultivated flowers across the globe. As such, they have a rich history associated with symbolism, and there are several different meanings. The three most loved colors are pink, red, and white carnations.

Pink carnation flowers are known to reflect a mother’s love and gratitude. However, dark pink ones represent tenderness and are sometimes associated with the feeling of love that could bloom on a first date. Light pink carnations are the ones that most dearly express the love of a mother.

Red carnations are most commonly associated with feelings of deep love and affection. Light red ones symbolize admiration – the lightness of their hue enunciates a softer expression of the portrayal of love. While red roses are the ultimate in romance, red carnations are great if you want to convey something a bit less serious.

When it comes to pure love and good luck, white carnations are your best bet. White is a color of purity and luck. When gifting someone white carnations, you convey messages of good wishes for a prosperous life.

The Symbolism of The Carnation Flower

Believe it or not, carnations exude strong symbolism. Although these flowers could easily be taken for granted, they actually have a lot to teach us.

Carnation flowers have a different symbolic meaning in various cultures around the world.

Chinese culture: Carnations are typically used at weddings.

Rome and Greece: Carnations were used in ceremonial crowns, and the name was believed to derive from the Latin word for “wreath” or “garland.”

Korea: People wear pink and red carnations on Parents Day to express admiration, love, and gratitude.

Japanese culture: Carnation flowers are the most loved flower for Mother’s Day, and the red carnation is symbolic of love.

American culture: Carnations are the official Mother’s Day flower and are commonly used for special occasions such as weddings for corsages and boutonnieres for proms.

Victorian era: The colors of the carnation symbolized an answer to a secret question. A yellow carnation was indicative of ‘no,’ and a solid color meant ‘yes, and a striped carnation communicated rejection in a diplomatic way.

Growing Tips for Carnations

Carnation flowers are known to thrive in humid environments. This means that they flourish best in moist conditions. They also grow better when placed fully in the sun with soil that is either slightly alkaline or more neutral in alkalinity.

Caring for them requires little effort, and when stems are cut, they can last for a few weeks. This is what makes them so ideal for growing and using in flower arrangements and bouquets. To make sure that they grow well, it’s best to make sure that they get about four to six hours of sunlight a day.

Take care not to over water carnations. Watering them two to three times a week should suffice. If you notice that the petals or foliage turn yellow, you’re probably over watering them.

If you want to try growing them from seeds, it’s best to plant them in early spring or late fall. It’s also a good idea to grow them indoors. Allow the seedlings some time to grow, and when they are around five inches tall, you can transfer them into a bed that is well prepared or into a pot.

Carnation flowers will form small side shoots (or suckers) around their stems to allow for growth from their cuttings. The best time to take cuttings is in the summer. During this time, the plant cells divide at a faster pace, which promotes root growth. You can also use peat to add more nutrients to the soil to help your carnations grow better.

Uses Of Carnations

Throughout history, there have been several uses of carnations. A common use was to brew the flowers in tea. This is thought to help reduce stress and boost energy levels. Carnation tea can also be used to treat fevers and stomach aches.

In the beauty industry, some products include carnation oil as an ingredient to help moisturize the skin. In addition to this, carnation flowers have also been used in massage oils to help soften and heal the skin while providing a calming scent.

In A Nutshell

Carnation flowers are unique and special, and they should be given credit for their rich history and symbolism. They are robust plants – making them the perfect flowers to grow in your garden. Also, they pair well with other flowers and have a pleasant, calming smell.

Published by pat frederick

Published

156 thoughts on “Carnations”

  3. Liked by 1 person

    1. the cdc is NOT technically part of the gov’t…wth do they get a say in ANYTHING unless they are asked for ADVICE. not control not mandates…ADVICE

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  5. Like

    1. I like Gail’s suggestion!!!

      Gail Combs
      Gail Combs(@gailcombs)Online
      Coyote
      Reply to TradeBait2
      January 19, 2023 16:19

      My response to that would be to FIRE ALL THE LAW CLERKS** and the rest of the staff that had access, ONE BY ONE….

      You do the same thing you would do to children. No one wants to fess up? YOU ALL GET PUNISHED.

      ** ALSO give ALL the law clerks BAD RECOMMENDATIONS.

      Liked by 1 person

  7. Issue: January 19, 2023
    “Tony Blair calls for WEF and WTO to introduce “digital infrastructure” that monitors vaccination status — “You need the data. You need to know who’s been vaccinated and who hasn’t been.”
    By Tom Parker
    Posted 3:19 pm

    ENTIRE ARTICLE @ ReclaimTheNet: “Former United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for global organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Economic Forum (WEF) to push national governments to introduce “digital infrastructure” that monitors who has been vaccinated and who hasn’t. Blair pushed for this government-controlled digital vaccine database during an appearance at the World Economic Forum’s 2023 annual meeting — a yearly event where powerful business leaders, politicians, and other influential figures meet in Davos, Switzerland to discuss the agendas they want to advance.

    The former Prime Minister emphasized the importance of “technology and digital infrastructure” and data collection for surveilling the status of the vaccinated and unvaccinated. “You need the data,” Blair said. “You need to know who’s been vaccinated and who hasn’t been. Some of the vaccines that will come on down the line will be multiple, there’ll be multiple shots. So you’ve got to have, the reasons to do with the healthcare more generally, but certainly, for a pandemic or for…vaccines, you’ve got to have a proper digital infrastructure, and many countries don’t have that. In fact, most countries don’t have that.”

    Blair continued by suggesting that his digital vaccination status surveillance dragnet should be pushed through by the WTO (an intergovernmental organization that regulates international trade), the WEF (an unelected global organization that seeks to “shape global, regional and industry agendas”), and intergovernmental forums such as the Group of Twenty (G20) and the Group of Seven (G7).

    “Who are the people that can make this happen?” Blair said. “How do you get the right partnerships in place?…That should happen in the G20 particularly, I think, which is…G7 is an important forum, but the G20 is the broader forum…You’ve got to work out what is it that you want to achieve in order to make sure that any future pandemic is properly handled and what are the partnerships that you’re going to create in order to ensure that the answers you get are the right answers. And then you’re going to have the mechanisms of implementation. And those mechanisms will be partly through the formal institutions that you have, like the WTO, and they’ll also be through organizations like yours [the WEF] which…I think…have many advantages because they don’t get landed with the same bureaucracy and frankly small pea politics around them.”

    Blair’s call is the latest of several that he and his nonprofit, The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, have made for an expansion of mandatory digital surveillance infrastructure. His institute has called for digital IDs and said increased surveillance is a “price worth paying.” Blair himself has also called for mandatory vaccine passports. And two of the global groups that Blair wants to help push through this digital surveillance system, the WTO and the WEF, are also huge advocates of digital surveillance systems.

    The WEF and the WTO have previously pushed “global digital identity of persons and objects.” And the WEF regularly advocates for digital ID programs around the world. This year’s WEF 2023 annual meeting subjected journalists to some of the surveillance technologies it advocates for including digital IDs and biometric scanning. Not only do these surveillance systems reduce individual privacy but vaccine passports discriminate against citizens and restrict their access to businesses and services. And the WEF wants to expand this surveillance and discrimination via digital ID. It has proposed a system that monitors online behavior, biometrics, purchases, and more to determine access to a wide range of services.”

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  8. Liked by 1 person

  9. “NHL Player Says If He Wanted To Support The Gays He’d Be Playing Soccer”
    SPORTS · Jan 19, 2023 · BabylonBee.com

    “PHILADELPHIA, PA — NHL star Ivan Provorov declined to participate in the Philadelphia Flyers’ Pride Night or wear a rainbow-colored jersey, saying if he wanted to support the gay agenda he would have played soccer instead of hockey.

    “Listen, man, I got nothing against the gays,” said Provorov to a crowd of outraged sports writers as the rest of his team pranced across the ice gracefully in their colorful outfits. “But I ain’t wearing that thing. Let’s leave all that gay stuff in soccer where it belongs. Also, I believe in God and stuff, and I don’t want to disobey him, so there’s that.”

    The sports world expressed unbridled outrage at the decision. “The lives of LGBTQ+ people are in danger unless everyone on earth affirms their sex lives by wearing the special uniform and saluting the special flag,” said Sports Illustrated writer Gloop Schnixen (they/them) in an op-ed. “If Provorov refuses to show unquestioning fealty to our belief system, he is a fascist and must be punched until he complies.”

    Representatives for Major League Soccer confirmed that they celebrate Pride Night every night, and invited anyone who felt unwelcome in the NHL to attend one of their soccer games for free. So far, none have accepted the invite.

    At publishing time, the NHL courted more controversy after several players refused to wear sparkly princess dresses on Trans-Awareness Night.”

    Liked by 1 person

  10. “Egypt Ordered To Pay Israel Reparations For Slavery”
    WORLD · Jan 19, 2023 · BabylonBee.com

    “CAIRO — Shockwaves reverberated throughout Egypt today as an international court officially ruled the nation must begin making payments of financial reparations to Israel for hundreds of years of slavery in ancient times.

    “This was certainly not expected,” said Quadri Abdur, spokesman for the Egyptian government. “We were happy to hear about other governments looking to make reparation payments to minorities, but we didn’t stop to think about our own history of horrible oppression and slavery against the people of ancient Israel.”

    Experts and political pundits around the world had initially hailed other reparations decisions like that of San Francisco to pursue making monetary payments to make up for past enslavement and mistreatment of African-Americans. Public sentiment took a turn, however, when people began to remember the plight of the Israeli people for thousands of years.

    “It’s about time! No one knows the level of oppression experienced throughout history by the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Josef Gittelman. “We’re just starting at the beginning here. Next, we’ll be looking for reparations from the Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans, Germany, everyone! It’s time to pay up, Gentiles!”

    It was unclear if Egypt’s reparations payments would be made to the Israeli government or to descendants of ancient Israelite slaves, which would effectively have Egypt making payments to a large percentage of the world’s population.

    At publishing time, reparations activists were reportedly rethinking their push after realizing ancient Israelites and their descendants had experienced far more oppression and slavery than any other people group in recorded history.”

    Liked by 1 person

  12. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

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