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It’s already December, and decorations like Christmas flowers appear in public places.
Flower arrangements always have a strong emphasis on Christmas decorations. Traditional Christmas flowers have special meanings in Christianity, such as colors and symbols.
Christmas flowers are not only for public decorations purposes. You can use these flowers as decoration points at home to liven up Christmas vibes. You can also send these flowers as gifts to your relatives to spread the holiday spirit through their elegant beauty.
Christmas flowers are not just beautiful objects but also an act that brings togetherness during the holidays.
What are these Christmas flowers exactly? Let’s dive deeper to learn about these graceful objects.
What are the Christmas flowers called?
Which flower comes to your mind when talking about Christmas flower? Is it the classic Poinsettia or the romantic mistletoe? We have listed for you 13 Christmas flowers name that are used as decorations on the Christmas holidays.
- Poinsettia
- Holly
- Christmas Rose
- Amaryllis
- Mistletoe
- Paperwhites
- Christmas Cactus
- Rosemary
- Cyclamen
- Pansies
- Phalaenopsis Orchid
- Pear Tree
- Christmas Tree
What are popular Christmas plants?
As there are so many Christmas flowers, it is worth knowing the most popular ones. Just in case you need a hand to select flowers for your Christmas decorations or gifts to loved ones.
Here are several flowers that are often associated with Christmas, complete with their meanings. Once you know each flower’s meaning, you will understand why they are considered popular Christmas flowers.
1. Christmas Roses
Christmas Roses are not actually roses. They are a type of buttercup flower, but it has a rose-like appearance hence its name. The colors of the flowers are white with pink at the edges. Christmas Rose appeared in a legend about a shepherdess called Madelon, who cried because she did not have any gift to welcome Christ’s birth. An angel appeared and revealed Christmas Rose’s presence, which Madelon arranged into a bouquet for her gift.
2. Red Roses
Due to the meaning behind the color, Red roses are considered as popular flower for christmas bouquets as Christmas bouquets. Traditionally, red symbolized the blood of Christ and rose symbolized passion. To utilize red in a perfect holiday bouquet, they were combined with smaller white flowers. You can also have them as table arrangements for more “neutral” gifts.
3. White Lilies
White lilies symbolize purity and innocence and are often associated with the Virgin Mary. The elegant shapes make these flowers popular for wedding anniversaries, connecting them with devotion and pure love. Other meaning of white lilies are salvation and innocence one receives after death.
4. White Roses
The same as white lilies, white roses are flowers that represent innocence and purity. White roses also have deep connections with spirituality due to their quiet beauty. While these flowers are used in traditional wedding bouquets, they also find their way to Christmas floral arrangements. They look great as a centerpiece on the table or as bouquets. To make them pop up, you can combine white roses with other flowers.
5. Pansies
The pansy flower means loving thoughts, love in idleness, thinking, free thinkers, remembrance, and considering. This flower was adopted as the Free Thinkers Society symbol, a group with an open thought mode from societal constraints, expectations, emotions, or religious dogma.
This Christmas plant has various colors ranging from red, pink, violet, blue, orange, yellow, and white. For instance, red means passion, and white means let’s take a chance.
6. Poinsettia
You may have heard that Poinsettia is a traditional red Christmas flower. However, the red “flower” is actually a combination of colored foliage. The combination of bright red and deep green is perfect for traditional Christmas decorations. You can add little white elements to create a more festive look and turn them into wreaths for the door or wall.
7. Christmas Cactus
Christmas cactus is included as a popular Christmas flower as many people have it as a houseplant. The reasons are aesthetic value and easy care requirements. When the flowers bloom, you can have colorful tubular flowers in pink or purple.
This flower is a meaningful decoration for Christmas as it symbolizes faith and hope. Here is the story behind the flower. A young boy in Brazil prayed for a sign of Christmas as a reprieve from the jungle’s heat and humidity. On 25th December, the boy rose from his hut and saw that the jungle had filled with the flowering cacti overnight.
8. Mistletoe
Mistletoe means more than just kisses. This flower is linked with fertility, long life, good luck, health, and a good harvest in the months to come. Here are more meanings of a mistletoe.
- Life
- Power
- Magic
- Peace
- Rebirth
- Healing
- Protection
- Femininity
- Friendship
- Unification
- Immortality
The ancient European left us with the mistletoe legacy. It was the Celtic Druids who observed a symbiotic relationship of mistletoe with the deciduous tree. A tree that has lost its leave is a symbol of death, rest, and withdrawal. The mistletoe, however, still cling to the deciduous tree and even blossom during the hibernation. Thus, this is a symbol of life in the midst of death, and so the mistletoe brings the concept of rebirth.
Why is Poinsettia a Christmas flower?
Poinsettia is not just a Christmas flower, but it is the official Christmas flower. If we look at the leaves’ bright red and deep green colors, it makes sense because these colors represent Christmas.
Does the shape of the leaves remind you of something? They look like a star. That’s why Poinsettia is sometimes thought of as a symbol of Bethlehem’s Star that led the Wise Men to Jesus.
The actual reason why Poinsettia is a Christmas flower goes back to a Mexican legend. Here is how the story goes. Pepita was a young Mexican girl who wanted to give baby Jesus a present at Christmas Eve services. However, she didn’t have any money and was sad because of it. “Jesus would love any present, even the smallest ones,” said her cousin to comfort her. Pepita then picked up weeds on her way to church as a gift. Miraculously, those weeds transformed their color into beautiful red and green.
How do you water a Christmas flower?
Watering a Poinsettia can depend on your home’s humidity, so it is best to seek advice from a local florist. However, we can share a few best practices to get you informed.
Watering Frequency
If you are located in a humid place, it is sufficient to water every couple of weeks. On the other hand, you need to water weekly when the plant’s soil gets dry quickly. Poinsettia should never be sitting in water. Also, spraying the soil every day to keep it moist is not the correct way to water the Christmas plant.
Watering Quantity
It is a common mistake to let the Poinsettia be soaked in water. The right amount of water for a small Poinsettia tree is a cup for 1-2 weeks. An important thing to note is to wait for the soil to get dry before watering again.
How do you take care of a Christmas flower?
Taking care of flowers is not necessarily a chore. One can see it as a symbiotic relationship between human and the plant. Although each plant requires different care, it is the basic needs of it like water and nutrition. When nurturing plants, humans get a sense of taking care of something, bringing up positive feelings. Taking care of flowers can even bring happiness because the person gets to see the beauty that he grew by himself on a daily basis.
As a professional florist, we can give you advice on taking care of any flowers. However, on this special occasion, we would like to share tips to take care of a particular Christmas flower, which is the Poinsettia.
1. Light
On a daily basis, your Poinsettia needs 6 hours of sunlight. And remember that the sunlight should not be direct.
2. Temperature
There are certain temperatures that Poinsettia likes during the night and day. Ideally, it needs to be 65-70 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and 60-65 degrees at night. Please don’t expose these Christmas plants to temperatures below 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Water
Since Poinsettias like moist soil, you need to make sure the earth doesn’t get dry or too wet. The water used can be of room temperature. When watering the Christmas plant, you should let excess water out of the soil.
4. Watering during blooming season
There is a time when Poinsettia blooms and the leaves drop. It is called the rest period. During these times, you need to water less often, which is just once a week.
5. Leaves
It would be best if you inspected Poinsettia’s leaves regularly. Unhealthy leaves turn yellow and fall off. It means you did not water it right. Were you overwatering it? Think of the possibilities of how the water went wrong.
How long does the Christmas cactus flower last?
Christmas cactus requires specific care, but worry not! Christmas cactus is a houseplant with relatively easy care. That’s why it is considered one of the most popular Christmas flowers.
Care
- Water the Christmas cactus once the soil is dry. You can run the water through the pot and discard the excess water so that the Christmas plant doesn’t get soaked up in the water. It is essential to water the plant well when it is blooming.
- Houseplant fertilizer can be given with different frequencies depending on the season or temperature of your location. If the temperature is mildly cold, give fertilizer every two weeks. Give more often when the temperature is hotter.
- Cut off a few sections of each stem to trigger more branches and flowers to grow. The cut pieces can grow into more plants when put in moist vermiculite.
- A minimum of 14 hours of daylight for six weeks is required for blooming as the plant needs the temperature. Flowers can be grown if the temperature is between a cold 50 to 55°F (10 to 13°C).
- The Christmas cactus’ natural habitat is tropical, so a well-humidified home is the best environment for it to grow.
Blooming Period
Most of the time, the Christmas cactus blooms for 1-2 weeks long. If the Christmas plant is taken care of in an impressive condition, the flowers can hang around for 7-8 weeks.
As mentioned, the plant is low-maintenance. Nevertheless, improper watering or temperature that are not suitable can cause flowers to be wilting.
Flowers are not just great as Christmas decorations, but also as gifts. As a human, we seek meaning in our lives through celebrations and relationships. Christmas flowers are a great way to express this quality. And it doesn’t have to be Christmas to utilize the beauty of flowers in daily life as there are plenty of occasions throughout the year.
Singapore’s FlowerAdvisor offers a wide range of flowers in the forms of bouquets and Christmas flower arrangements. The international Christmas flower delivery service will cheer up anyone who receives your gifts, no matter where they live. Make this holiday livelier by sending traditional Christmas flowers as special gifts. We were even named one of the best Christmas Hammer Suppliers in Singapore by Flower Delivery Reviews.
