TYPES OF CARNATIONS

For the most part, 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. Pink carnations have the most symbolic and historical significance. According to a 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.
The Carnation is also the birth flower for those born in the month of January.
In some cultures, however, especially the French culture, the carnation symbolizes misfortune and bad luck.
At Oxford University, carnations are traditionally worn to all examinations — white for the first exam, pink for exams in between and a red for the last exam.
The state flower of Ohio is a scarlet carnation. The choice was made to honor William McKinley, Ohio Governor and U.S. President, who was assassinated in 1901, and regularly wore a scarlet carnation on his lapel.
Carnation is the provincial flower of the autonomous community of Balearic Islands of Spain[1].
The flower of the collegiate fraternity Theta Chi is the red carnation. The intercollegiate fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon also uses the red carnation as the official symbol of their fraternity. The women's fraternity Alpha Chi Omega uses the red carnation as the official flower of their fraternity.



[ References
Anderson's Online Documentation: Floral emblem of state (Ohio)

[edit] External links
Wikibooks' Gardening-Carnations
Carnations and Pinks Resources
Oxford Carnations
Carnations and the Floriculture Industry: Records of the Colorado Flower Growers Association
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