Show Your Friends You Care: A Complete Guide to Flowers That Symbolize Friendship
For thousands of years, meaning has been attributed to flowers in traditional cultures around the world.
Flowers can be wonderful gifts to give on nearly all occassions, but it’s important to be aware of their cultural and symbolic signficance to ensure that the type of flower you’re gifting is appropriate for the occassion.
Are you looking for flowers that symbolize friendship to show someone that you care?
Let’s take a deep dive into the world of friendship flower symbolism.
Roses
Roses are best known for being seen as symbols of romance. Fine if you’re trying to make your friend fall for you, however, not all colors of roses carry that same meaning.
If you’re looking for types of flowers that symbolize friendship, you’ll want to stay away from red roses. However, getting white, orange, or yellow roses can adequately communicate a symbol of friendship.
White roses represent innocence, youthfulness, and purity. Ivory roses, which look similar but are technically different, represent thoughtfulness, charm, and gracefulness.
Yellow roses are representative of friendship, caring, and joy. They are a great way to convey warmth, affection, and delight.
The meaning of orange roses is thought to be enthusiasm, energy, and fascination.
Sunflowers
Can you name a flower that’s more cheer-inspiring than the sunflower? This is a great way to lift anyone’s spirits on a gloomy day.
A symbol of loyalty and adoration, these are always nice flowers to send to friends.
Chrysanthemums
Chrysanthemums have carried different symbolism in different cultures throughout time.
In the Victorian era, people used them to display well-wishing and friendship. In China, the traditional use of mums is to offer them to elderly people as a symbol of good luck in the home and a long life.
These flowers that mean friendship are also a great choice for Mother’s Day.
Another fun fact: the chrysanthemum is one of the national flowers of Japan!
Irises
The commonly understood meanings of irises is that they stand for hope, wisdom, valor, and trust.
Specifically, blue irises represent hope and faith, while yellow irises represent passion. Purple irises are signifiers of wisdom and royalty, while white irises are symbols of purity.
Gladioli
Another one of the types of flowers that symbolize friendship are gladiolus. They represent faithfulness, moral integrity, strength of character, and remembrance.
Zinnias
These lovely flowers are some of the easiest to grow on your own. As one of the longest blooming flowers, they are a symbol of endurance.
Strong, sun loving, and drought tolerant, these wonderful flowers are originally from Central America, Mexico, and the southwestern U.S. The most common interpretations of the Zinnia symbolism is either thoughts of a missing friend or thoughts of friends.
Like other flowers, the different colors of zinnias can have different meanings. Some of these include:
- White: pure goodness
- Yellow: daily remembrance
- Red: steadfastness, of the heart, familial ties
- Magenta: lasting affection
- Mixed: thinking of an absent friend
Zinnias are a nice gift if you’re trying to convey a message of joyous endurance.
Ivies
Looking for something a little different? While not a traditional floral bouquet, gifting an ivy to a friend can be a great way to communicate your friendship.
Since ivies are an evergreen plant, they symbolize fidelity, eternity, and strong affectionate attachment (such as friendship and wedded love).
Ivies are also representative of immortality and perennial life.
In ancient Greece, the vigor of ivy led it to be considered the plant of Dionysus. In ancient Egypt, the representative of immortality, Osiris, had the ivy dedicated to him. You can find images of ivy showing up in ancient European cultures including Germany, Norway, and Ireland.
Alstroemeria
Also known as the Peruvian lily, the alstroemeria flower comes in a number of different colors that each have their own meanings. All of them are generally connected to strength, love, friendship, and devotion.
One common interpretation of alstroemerias is that they represent the ability to assist eachother through tough times. They are a symbol of mutual support. It’s a great way to say “thanks for being there for me” or “I’ve got your back.”
Each of the six petals of the alstroemeria is representative of a different quality. They represent humor, understanding, empathy, patience, respect, and commitment. The way that their leaves twist is symbolic of stability, bonding, and overcoming difficulties through togetherness.
Celosia
These blooms are a little different if you’re trying to stray away from the typical sunflower. They are known to symbolize friendship, warmth, humor, affection, and immortality.
Cymbidium
In China, the act of both giving and receiving this orchid flower is considered an honor. It is therefore a popular gift between good friends in China.
Cymbidium stands for respected, pure, and valued friendship, as well as virtue and morality.
Diascia
Native to southern Africa, these cute little flowers are a symbol of friendship and fidelity. This is a very popular ornamental plant around the world to be planted in borders, containers, and rockeries.
Geranium
There are some conflicting meanings to the geranium flower. This means that the type, the color and the circumstances need to be taken into account.
For example, the horseshoe geranium is symbolic of folly or stupidity. Not exactly what you mean when you’re trying to give your best friend a birthday gift! On the other hand, the oak leaf geranium is representative of true friendship.
Flowers That Symbolize Friendship: There Are So Many It Might Be Hard to Choose!
There are so many different options when deciding: what flowers should I send to a friend? Whether you want to give them some sweet cut flowers, a nice potted plant, or a flowing, draping ivy, you can find the perfect plant for the occassion.
Did you find this article about flowers that symbolize friendship helpful? If so, be sure to check out the rest of our blog for more informative and interesting articles!
