Anniversary Flowers By Year

Everyone loves flowers, especially when it comes to a wedding anniversary. Anniversary flowers mean more than just any other gift. They symbolise the love you share with your partner and how your love has grown over the years. With a dedicated flower representing each anniversary year, show your loved ones you care with a gift filled with thought and symbolism. Find out more about flowers for anniversary by year and wedding anniversary year meanings with our guide through the most important anniversary dates! 

• 1st Anniversary: Carnations
• 5th Anniversary: Daisies 
• 10th Anniversary Daffodils 
• 15th Anniversary: Roses
• 20th Anniversary: Asters
• 25th Anniversary: Irises
• 30th Anniversary: Lilies
• 40th Anniversary: Gladiolus
• 50th Anniversary: Yellow Roses and Violets
• 60th Anniversary: Cattleya Orchids 
• Choose a Symbolic Flower That Showcases Your Love

1st Anniversary: Carnations

The first wedding anniversary is marked by carnations. With ruffled petals and aromatic fragrance, this flower symbolises the freshness and passion of new love. These resilient blooms, available in a spectrum of colours from pure white to deep crimson, represent the young couple’s dedication to nurturing their relationship through life’s initial challenges. 

White carnations in particular celebrate pure love and good luck, while red varieties express the admiration and deep affection spouses feel for one another after their first year together. Their long-lasting nature in arrangements mirrors the couple’s commitment to endurance, while their historical use in wedding ceremonies across cultures makes them perfectly suited to commemorate the beginning of a lifelong journey. 

5th Anniversary: Daisies 

Half a decade of marriage deserves a celebration! Daisies are used to celebrate this milestone with their sun-like appearance and cheerful simplicity. These classic flowers, with white petals radiating from golden centres, symbolise loyal love, patience and purite—qualities that have deepened during five years of partnership. The daisy’s name derives from “day’s eye” reflecting how these blooms open at dawn and dusk, mirroring the rhythms couples establish together.

In Victorian flower language, daisies represented shared secrets and sacred trust between partners. Their unpretentious beauty honours the authentic connection that develops when two people navigate life’s complexities together for five years. Hardy and adaptable, daisies flourish in varied conditions just as marriages become more resilient through time. 

10th Anniversary Daffodils 

Nothing screams celebration like bright flowers. Daffodils, with bright trumpet-shaped blooms, welcome new beginnings and showcase established commitment making them the perfect ten year anniversary flowers. As a staple flower of spring pushing through winter’s frost, these blooms symbolise the resilience and renewal couples discover as they enter their second decade together. The daffodil’s golden hue represents the prosperity and fulfillment ten years of partnership can bring, while its distinctive form—standing tall and facing forward, mirrors the couple’s confident stances as they look towards their future. 

In many cultures, daffodils symbolise regard and respect, reflecting the deeper appreciation spouses develop for one another after ten years of shared experiences. Their tendency to multiply and naturalise over time parallels how marriage grows richer and more abundant with passing seasons. As one of the year’s first blooms, daffodils remind couples that their relationship remains capable of fresh growth and unexpected beauty, even after a decade together. 

15th Anniversary: Roses

Fifteen years of marriage merits recognition with roses, the undisputed flowers of enduring love. By this significant milestone, a couple’s relationship has matured like a perfect rose—complex, multi-layered and exquisitely beautiful despite the occasional thorns. The rose’s legendary status across cultures makes it fitting for this anniversary, representing love that has withstood the test of time yet maintains its capacity to inspire awe. Available in countless colours, each conveying different sentiments, roses offer couples the chance to celebrate their unique journey. From deep red for passionate devotion to pink for gratitude and appreciation and orange for enthusiasm about the years ahead. 

The rose’s intoxicating fragrance, which becomes more pronounced when the bloom is fully open, parallels how fifteen years together allows couples to experience their deepest connection and most authentic selves. Like a carefully tended rose garden, a fifteen-year marriage demonstrates the extraordinary beauty that emerges through consistent nurturing and care.

20th Anniversary: Asters

Two decades of matrimony is typically commemorated with asters. These star-shaped blooms symbolise the patience and elegance that twenty years together cultivates. These daisy-like flowers, whose name derives from the Greek word for “star” represent the couple as a bright point of light and constancy in each other’s lives. Blooming in late summer and early autumn, asters appear when many other flowers have faded, mirroring how a twenty-year marriage continues to thrive and bring joy even after the initial excitement of early years has matured into something deeper. 

Their varied hues of purple, blue, pink and white celebrate the many facets and phases of a long-term relationship. In flower language, asters represent contentment and wisdom, qualities that twenty years of shared experiences naturally develop. 

25th Anniversary: Irises

The quarter-century milestone of a silver anniversary deserves recognition with irises! The regal bearing and symbolic richness of these blooms honour twenty-five years of marriage. Named after the Greek goddess who travelled on rainbows between heaven and Earth, these distinctive flowers represent the divine connection forged when two people build a life together for a quarter of a century. With their striking three-part structure, irises embody the trinity of essential relationship elements: physical attraction, emotional understanding and spiritual connection. Their sword-like leaves represent strength and protection, while their elaborate blooms symbolise the beauty that emerges from those protective qualities. 

In many traditions, purple irises signify wisdom and compliments, fitting for couples who have accumulated both knowledge and appreciation for each other over twenty-five years. The iris’s ability to return year after year, often multiplying and creating ever-larger displays, mirrors how marriages at this stage typically extend their influence through children as well as shared family and friends. 

30th Anniversary: Lilies

After thirty-years of marriage, lilies honour this remarkable achievement with their commanding presence and symbolic significance across cultures. These stately blooms, with their distinctive trumpet shape and intoxicating fragrance, represent the refined beauty and depth of a three-decade relationship. White lilies symbolise the purity of intention that sustains long marriages, while their golden anthers represent the prosperity that thirty years often brings. 

In many traditions, lilies symbolise humility and devotion, qualities that long-married couples cultivate through years of prioritising their relationship. The structure of lilies, with their perfect symmetry and graceful form, reflects the balance couples achieve after thirty years of adjusting to each other’s needs and strengths. Their perennial nature, returning year after year from seemingly dormant bulbs, mirrors the marriage’s ability to renew itself through different seasons of life. 

40th Anniversary: Gladiolus

There’s no flower that represents a ruby wedding anniversary like the gladiolus. With tall striking stalks covered in sequential blooms, these flowers symbolise the strength of character developed through forty years of partnership. Also known as “sword lilies”, gladioli are named after their blade-shaped leaves, representing the couple’s moral integrity and fortitude through life’s battles and victories. The gradual opening of florets along the stem, from bottom to top, mirrors how marriage continues to reveal new dimensions and experiences even after forty years. 

Available in virtually every colour of the rainbow, gladioli celebrate the rich diversity of experiences shared over four decades together. In Victorian flower language, these dramatic blooms represented sincerity and moral integrity, values that sustain marriages through challenging times. The gladiolus’s ability to make a bold statement in both gardens and floral arrangements honours the significant achievement and lasting impact of a forty-year marriage. 

50th Anniversary: Yellow Roses and Violets

The significance of a golden wedding anniversary means it deserves not one, but two flowers! Yellow roses and violets have complementary qualities that celebrate fifty extraordinary years of marriage. Yellow roses, with their sunny hue and classic form, represent the joy, friendship and warmth at the heart of a half-century relationship. Their golden colour perfectly aligns with this anniversary’s traditional metal, symbolising how the marriage has been refined and made more precious through five decades of shared experiences. 

Accompanying these are violets, whose delicate purple blooms represent faithfulness and modesty, qualities that sustain long-term commitment through changing times. In Victorian flower language, violets promised “I’ll always be true”, reflecting the unwavering loyalty fifty years together demonstrates making it the perfect flower for a golden wedding anniversary. The complementary colours of these flowers, yellow and purple, create a visual harmony that represents the balance the couple achieve after navigating life’s complexities together for five decades. 

60th Anniversary: Cattleya Orchids 

Six decades of marriage merit recognition with cattleya orchids, whose exotic beauty and remarkable longevity symbolise the extraordinary achievement of sixty years together. These magnificent blooms, often called the “queen of orchids”, represent mature charm, luxury and strength, qualities that marriages of this duration exemplify. Their elaborate structure, with ruffled lips and distinctive sepals and petals, reflects the complexity and richness of a relationship that has evolved through sixty years. 

Cattleyas’ intense fragrance, most powerful during morning hours, symbolises how these long-term marriages continue to bring sweetness and beauty into the world even in their later seasons. As one of nature’s most refined and sophisticated creations, requiring specific conditions and patient care to reach full potential, cattleya orchids honour the rarified achievement of couples who have cultivated their relationship through six decades of tender attention and unwavering commitment. 

Choose a Symbolic Flower That Showcases Your Love

If you are looking for a way to show your partner you care, why not choose from our range of anniversary flowers by year? These flowers not only showcase your love but also the journey you have both been on to reach this milestone. But it’s not just partners that can give flowers on an anniversary! As friends or family of the happy couple, gifting flowers for anniversary by year can help you convey the admiration you have for the love they share. 

Shop anniversary flowers from Julie’s Flowers today to find the perfect gift for your loved ones. There’s no better time to give flowers than a milestone anniversary!

FAQs

What flower is the best for an anniversary?

The best anniversary flower is one that corresponds to the specific year being celebrated, such as carnations for the first year, roses for the fifteenth or yellow roses for the fiftieth. However, you can never go wrong with the couple’s personal favourite flowers, as these show thoughtfulness and personalisation beyond traditional symbolism. Take a look at our guide to Flower for Anniversary by Year to find the flower that represents your anniversary year.

What does each anniversary year represent?

Each anniversary year represents a specific milestone in the couple’s journey together, with early years symbolising the foundation of love and commitment, middle years representing growth and resilience and later years celebrating extraordinary achievement and enduring devotion. Traditional associations assign materials of increasing durability and value to progressive anniversaries, reflecting how relationships become more precious and resilient over time. 

Should I get my parents flowers for their anniversary?

Giving your parents flowers for their anniversary is a thoughtful gesture that acknowledges and honours their love. If possible, selecting blooms that correspond to their specific anniversary year adds an extra layer of meaning that shows you recognise the significance of their milestone. 

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