Mother's Day

In 1908 Anna Jarvis began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day and persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia, to celebrate Mother's Day on the anniversary of her mother’s death. A memorial service was held there on May 10, 1908.

Jarvis and others began a letter-writing campaign to ministers, businessmen and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother's Day. They were successful. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement proclaiming Mother's Day a national observance that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.

Flowers are universal symbols of pure love, just like that of a mother's love. As a child, I was told that Mother's Day started out with children presenting their Mother with a flower. Even Miss Jarvis used to distribute flowers to mothers, especially carnations.

My mother loved azalea’s but for years I gave her a traditional red or pink carnation because azaleas need an acid soil, organically formed, and heavy mulch, all things our home in the city lacked, and carnations were easier.

Although carnations are the popularly gifted flowers on Mother's Day, a bouquet of mature blooming roses and spring flowers like Narcissus, Tulips, Daffodils, etc., are frequently given on Mother's Day. The name of the flower is not important but the meaning of your flower gift matters a lot.

Mother died at their retirement home in Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas. In her memory, we planted azaleas at the corner of the Catholic Church building my father constructed.

As late as my gift of azaleas were, just remembering what they meant to her brought me to a better understanding of the underlying meanings of choosing a flower as a remembrance. If she had lived in Florida, I think she would have liked the Coontie (Zamia pumila) because she loved butterflies and the coontie serves as the sole host plant for larvae of the rare atala butterfly (Eumaeus atala).