Anniversary flowers: a guide by year and what each milestone calls for
You have got an anniversary coming up, and you want the flowers to mean something. Not just a nice bunch, but a gift that fits the years behind it and the person in front of you.
Anniversary flowers follow a year-by-year tradition. Most wedding anniversaries have a flower linked to them, running from carnations for the first year through to yellow roses and violets for the fiftieth. Picking that flower is a simple way to make the gift more personal. You are never bound to it, though. The list is a starting point, not a rule.
Where the year-by-year tradition comes from
The wedding anniversary flower list sits alongside the better-known list of anniversary materials: paper for the first year, silver for the twenty-fifth, gold for the fiftieth. Flowers grew out of the same custom. It is a convention, not an official rule. Different florists and guides do not always agree on which flower belongs to which year, especially past the twenty-fifth. So treat the list below as a helpful guide, not a fixed law.
Anniversary flowers year by year
Here are the traditional anniversary flowers for the years people most often celebrate. Each one carries a meaning, which is part of why the tradition has lasted.
| Anniversary year | Traditional flower | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Carnation | Young, passionate love |
| 5th | Daisy | Loyalty and true love |
| 10th | Daffodil | Hope and fresh starts |
| 15th | Rose | Deep love and lasting passion |
| 20th | Aster [VERIFY] | Patience and a bond that holds |
| 25th (silver) | Iris | Faith, hope and admiration |
| 30th (pearl) | Lily | Devotion and pride |
| 40th (ruby) | Gladiolus [VERIFY] | Strength of character |
| 50th (gold) | Yellow roses and violets | Friendship, joy and faithfulness |
A few notes. An aster is a small, star-shaped flower a bit like a daisy. A gladiolus (say “glad-ee-oh-lus”) is a tall spike covered in blooms. The years in between the ones above have their own flowers too, but the lists vary a lot from source to source, so they are best confirmed with your florist rather than trusted blindly. The sixtieth, the diamond anniversary, has no single flower everyone agrees on, so it is usually marked with a standout arrangement in white, or with a favourite bloom, instead.
When the traditional flower is not right for you
Not everyone wants carnations, and some traditional flowers are hard to get for part of the year. Daffodils are a good example. In Melbourne they flower in late winter and early spring, so a September anniversary suits them and a February one does not. This is where the year-by-year list stops being much help, and a bit of judgement takes over.
A colour-led approach solves it. Each milestone carries a colour as much as a flower. The fiftieth is gold, so yellow and cream blooms in season carry the same feeling as the traditional yellow rose. The twenty-fifth is silver, which reads as soft whites, greys and pale greens. You can honour the milestone through the palette and the mood, then build the arrangement from whatever is freshest that week. The flower can change. The meaning does not have to.
That is also how a French-garden, colour-led style works. It starts from a palette and builds loose, painterly arrangements around it, rather than forcing one named flower into every bunch. It is a more forgiving way to mark a milestone, because it bends with the season instead of fighting it.
Milestone anniversaries that call for something bigger
A fifth or tenth anniversary can be a single, well-chosen bunch. A twenty-fifth or fiftieth usually wants more presence. These are the milestone anniversary flowers people gather around, so the arrangement becomes part of the room rather than a gift on the bench.
For a silver twenty-fifth, think fuller and cooler: white iris, pale roses, and silver-grey foliage like dusty miller (a soft, felt-like leaf). For a golden fiftieth, go warmer and richer: yellow and butter-toned roses, with deep green or a touch of violet so it does not turn flat. Size matters too. A milestone arrangement can sit low and wide for a dinner table, or tall for an entrance, depending on where it will live on the day.
Making anniversary flowers personal, beyond the list
The year-by-year list is a nice anchor, but the flowers people remember are usually the ones tied to them, not to a chart. There are a few easy ways to do that.
Think back to the wedding. If you know what was in the bouquet, or the colours of the day, working one of those flowers or shades into the arrangement is a quiet, personal touch. Their favourite flower or colour beats any tradition, every time. The season you married in can guide the palette too, so the flowers echo the time of year the marriage began.
You can still nod to the milestone while doing this. A fiftieth built mostly around their favourite blooms, with a few golden-yellow roses worked through, honours both the person and the year. That balance, personal first and traditional second, is usually what makes an anniversary arrangement land.
Common questions about anniversary flowers by year
What flower is for a 1st anniversary?
The carnation. It stands for young, passionate love, which suits a first year of marriage. Carnations are available all year and come in almost every colour, so they are an easy one to get right.
What are the traditional anniversary flowers by year?
In short: carnation for the 1st, daisy for the 5th, daffodil for the 10th, rose for the 15th, iris for the 25th, lily for the 30th, and yellow roses with violets for the 50th. Lists vary between sources, so use this as a guide rather than a rulebook.
What flower is for a 10th anniversary?
The daffodil, a sign of hope and fresh starts after ten years together. One thing to watch: daffodils are seasonal, so outside their late-winter-to-spring window a florist may suggest another cheerful yellow bloom in their place.
What flowers suit a 25th, or silver, anniversary?
The iris is the traditional flower, standing for faith and admiration. Silver also works as a palette: whites, soft greys and pale green foliage give a cool, elegant look without needing a literal silver flower.
What colour is a 50th anniversary?
Gold. The traditional flowers are yellow roses and violets, and any warm yellow or cream bloom fits the golden theme.
What if I can't get the traditional flower?
Match the colour and the feeling instead. A good florist can build the same meaning from what is in season that week, so the arrangement still fits the milestone even when the exact flower is not around.
Ordering anniversary flowers
If you know the anniversary and the person, that is enough to start. Tell your florist the year, the flower or colour you have in mind, and the day it needs to arrive. For a big milestone, a few days’ notice helps, because a specific stem like iris or a particular rose colour often has to be brought in rather than pulled from the bench that morning. Monet de Fleur on Burke Road in Camberwell can build an anniversary arrangement around any milestone, whether you want the traditional flower or the same feeling in a fresh-that-week palette.