What Do Different Rose Colors Symbolize?
If you’ve never read about the history and symbolism of roses, you’re probably wondering what do the different colors of roses mean? It’d be a shame to commit a rose faux pas by sending the wrong color of rose to someone you love.
Rose symbolism has a long and complex history, growing out of literature, tradition, and the art of floristry. Rose color symbolism has as much to do with old-fashioned color symbolism as anything else. Colors get their symbolic meaning from many different sources–applying those symbols to colors of roses is a natural fit, considering how many colors of roses exist in nature. Now that florists can grow roses of colors not normally found in the wild, rose color symbolism is even more varied.
- Red roses traditionally represent romantic love.
- Yellow roses stand for friendship, happiness, warmth, and kindness.
- White roses are the pure and innocent members of the rose family.
- Pink roses are graceful and elegant and are used to symbolize admiration and young love.
- Orange roses are fiery, passionate flowers that symbolize excitement and romance.
Now that you know what colors of rose mean what symbols, it’s pretty easy to figure out when to use different roses for different occasions.
- Give red roses to your spouse or long-term girlfriend or boyfriend.
- Yellow roses are ideal roses to send to friends or as a message of congratulations.
- White roses are ideal for marriage displays and a way to say ‘congratulations’ for a new baby.
- Pink roses are the domain of the secret admirer, especially when 13 stems are delivered together.
- Orange roses are are for passionate romantics or for love that has recently been sparked.
Remember that the “rose code” is not set in stone. If a friend of yours really likes red roses, sending her a display of red roses won’t suddenly mean you two are in love. It is always best to send along a note with rose deliveries to indicate the message you’re trying to send.
For more reading, check out my recent blog posts on topics like questions for the question game and Christmas trivia and quizzes.