Why we give flowers on Mother's Day
They say that everything comes at once, and it certainly seems that way in the world of floristry where Mother’s Day signals the second major event in our calendar. Valentine’s Day seems barely over before we’re getting ready for our busiest day of the year, and Christmas wasn't that long ago.
Personally, it’s one of my favourite events with so many beautiful spring flowers in bloom giving us florists some wonderful choices to include in our arrangements from short blue hyacinths bursting with their heady perfume, to a rainbow of ranunculus and anemones, and of course my favourites, simple, elegant tulips.
In the UK Mother’s Day always falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent, and is the legacy of a religious holiday that is thought to have started in the 16th century to honour the Virgin, or Mother, Mary. For this special day, worshippers would visit the main or “mother” church in their area, rather than their local church, and so the tradition began and evolved into a celebration of mothers who were given flowers by their children who picked them from the hedgerows on their way to church..
Mums are honoured at different times of the year in different countries. In the US, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May, and in many parts of Europe Mums have their day on the 8th of March, which is also International Women’s Day - in the UK this year Mothering Sunday falls on the 31st of March.
I’ll be popping up at the lovely Archie Parker Café in Forest Hill again this year, with lots of beautiful bouquets full of seasonal flowers, as well as house and garden plants all wrapped up and ready for you to take away. It will be my second Mother’s Day pop up at the Archie, and my fourth Mother’s Day pop up in SE23, so it looks like I’ve started a little tradition of my own.
And for the first time this year, you can also find my flowers and plants at Mabel’s Five and Dime vintage store just up the road on Kirkdale.
Even if you’re not buying a mother’s day gift, come and take a look and say hi. The café will be open serving its delicious coffee and food, and there’s Leaf and Groove next door for a bit of chill out browsing too. Enjoy!
Just So Flowers will be at the Archie Parker Café, 55a Dartmouth Rd, SE23, from 29th-31st March.
Plants and flowers will be on sale at Mabel’s Five and Dime vintage store, 100 Kirkdale, SE26 4BG, from 28th-30th March.
