Carnations and Mother’s Day go hand-in-hand like, well, long-stemmed roses and Valentine’s. And the reasons why date back to the holiday’s origins in America. When President Woodrow Wilson signed Mother’s Day into law in 1914, it was all due to the efforts of one Anna Jarvis, who did so in honor of her mother — whose favorite flower was the white carnation. For Anna, there was added symbolism in making that particular bloom the Mother’s Day special. “The carnation does not drop its petals,” she once explained, “but hugs them to its heart as it dies and so, too, mothers hug their children to their hearts, their mother love never dying.”

Read more features from our Mother’s Day Issues, past and present.