Trending: Carnations

If carnations can make a comeback… you my dear can do anything!

Let’s be real. Carnations had a bad wrap in wedding flowers from at least the 2000’s on. I always ask my clients what flowers they liked and what flowers they want to stay away from. About 80% of the time the response was “IDK, just not carnations”. And for a while i would agree with them.

Until a few years ago... The flower industry leaders started using carnations. Not just the carnations you remember from your 2nd grade science fair experiment, but real Fancy carnations. No joke, that’s what they are called!

Check out our top 9 fancy or tried and true trending carnations.

PROS:

1. Very cost efficient, affordable, bang for you buck. Whatever you want to call it, these gorg carns will save you money and give you the look you want.

2. Extremely hardy. but really. It’s REAL hard to kill a carnation. Forget to put them in water? No probs! They'll still be thriving. Short of stomping on it, they will stay alive for weeks. Their heads might fall off due to fragile nodes in their stems but the blooms are hardy.

3. GORGEOUS colors. They now have carns with subtle colors, bold colors. two-toned colors, dusty colors bright colors. THEY HAVE ALL THE COLORS!

4. They are great for any arrangement. More often then not we will guide our brides to use a more expensive flower in their bouquet (budget allowing) and use a similar colored carn in a large altar arrangement or centerpiece. Keeping with the same aesthetics but different types of flowers is the key to affordable flowers.

5. I kid you not, I am a seasoned florist, and sometimes I see a carnation and think it’s a small peony due to the petal structure. IT’S SO FLUFFY! Take a look at this blush carnation in this photo… looks like a peen (what I call peonies, odd I know but makes me chuckle.).

CON'S:

1. Their stems are a bit fragile with the aforementioned nodes. They have a tendency to snap at the nodes especially if there are too many in a bucket or if the arrangement is tight and you are trying to shove in a carn stem. So be gentle with them!

2. They sometimes take a bit longer to open up. If this happens I usually put them in warm water or in direct sunlight for a bit to soften the heads so they relax and open.

3. The calyx (the green part just below the petals, that holds it all together) is thick and can be hard to use in smaller wearable items like a bout or corsage. We typically stay away from those items (except for the mini carn which we’ll post about later!🤗)

That’s it. That’s all you need to know about Carnations.
They are lovely, smell lovely, come in a gigantic variety of colors (we can find the perfect fit for any wedding.)

I can’t tell you how many times we have used carnations at a wedding and people come up asking
“What kind of rose is that!??!”and I get to tell them its a

#CARNATION!