State Guides to Flowers

State Guides to Flowers book cover — Introduction Each of the ﬁ fty states and the District of Columbia has a special ﬂ ower to represent them Some grow wild while others are carefully planted and tended in public spaces and gardens Some state ﬂ owers are blossoms of fruit trees that will drop off to make way for the fruit Others are short-lived and die quickly when picked In 1893 the World’s Fair in Chicago planned a National Garland of Flowers asking each state to contribute a symbolic ﬂ ower In many cases schoolchildren voted for these ﬂ owers Each of them is special and speaks to the spirit of the state that selected it

State Guides to Flowers — page 1 — Alabama Camellia The camellia is called the rose of winter for its showy likeness to the rose It grows on a shrub in many colors and shapes The goldenrod was the state ﬂ ower from 1927 to 1959 But women from Butler County said a weed should not be the state ﬂ ower so they pushed the legislature to adopt camellias Since the camellia wasn’t a native plant they added the oak-leaf hydrangea as the state’s wildﬂ ower Scientiﬁ c Name Camellia japonica Year Made State Flower 1959 4

State Guides to Flowers — page 2 — Alaska Forget-me-not Alaska has long loved the wild native true blue alpine forget-me-not It is a symbol of the wild as it grows in rocky mountainous places It was adopted as the Alaska Territory ﬂ oral emblem in 1917 The forget-me-not was important to Benny Benson an Aleut boy who won a contest for designing the Alaskan ﬂ ag in 1927 He said that the blue background of the ﬂ ag represented the sky and the forget-me not It was ofﬁ cially adopted as the state ﬂ ower of Alaska in 1959 when it became part of the United States Scientiﬁ c Name Myosotis alpestris Year Made State Flower 1959 5

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