Anniversary Flowers by Year: 1st Carnation to 50th Yellow Rose, and the 4 Years Florists Disagree On

Anniversary flowers by year pair each wedding anniversary with one flower, starting with the carnation for the 1st and reaching yellow roses and violets for the 50th on most lists. We compared seven florist and magazine lists: The Knot, Kremp Florist, Bloom & Wild, Blossoming Gifts, Harper’s Bazaar UK, Flying Flowers and Freddie’s Flowers. They agree on most years and split on four. We then checked the flowers against two Victorian flower dictionaries and against the older gift-material list, which Emily Post printed in 1922 with eight entries and no flowers. For the wider picture of how flower meanings were assigned, see our flower symbolism guide.

What are the anniversary flowers by year?

The anniversary flower is the carnation for year 1, the sunflower for year 3, the daisy for year 5, the daffodil for year 10, the rose for year 15, the iris for year 25 and yellow roses with violets for year 50, according to The Knot. The table follows The Knot’s US list because it is the only one of the seven that covers every year from 1 to 20 and every milestone to 60. The gift column comes from The Knot’s separate gift guide.

Fifteen of these twenty years name the same flower in every one of the seven lists that covers the year: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 40. Years 2, 4, 8 and 9 split, and year 50 differs in detail. The Knot alone names flowers for year 16 (statice), 17 (red carnation), 19 (bronze chrysanthemum), 45 (blue iris), 55 (a “Green Goddess” calla lily) and 60 (orchid). It says year 18 has no official flower, and that year 35 has none either, although coral roses are often used.

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Which anniversary years do the flower lists disagree on?

The seven lists disagree on years 2, 4, 8 and 9, and the split does not follow the Atlantic. Bloom & Wild, a UK florist, gives the same year-2 and year-4 flowers as the US-based Knot. The Harper’s Bazaar UK list gives different ones and credits SerenataFlowers.com with having “identified which flower symbolises each year of married life.”

Our own hydrangea meaning page also names the hydrangea for year four, while The Knot, Kremp, Bloom & Wild, Blossoming Gifts and Flying Flowers give the geranium.

Year 50 differs in detail. The Knot, Kremp, Bloom & Wild, Blossoming Gifts and Harper’s Bazaar UK name yellow roses and violets together. Freddie’s Flowers names yellow roses and says they are often combined with violets. Flying Flowers lists roses alone.

Some lists share wording. Bloom & Wild writes that “peony meanings include romance, prosperity, good fortune, a happy marriage,” and Blossoming Gifts says the peony “symbolises romance, prosperity, good fortune and a happy marriage.” When lists copy each other, their agreement may reflect copying more than independent checking.

What do the anniversary flowers mean?

Each anniversary flower carries a modern meaning that a florist or magazine attached to it: the carnation stands for passion and young love, the daisy for fidelity and the iris for faith and hope in The Knot’s list. Victorian flower dictionaries give different readings for most of the same flowers. The Smithsonian Gardens lesson plan on the language of flowers says meanings and traditions change across time and culture. It adds that the authors of Victorian guidebooks used visual and verbal analogies, religious and literary sources, folkloric connections and botanical attributes to derive them.

The table sets the modern reading beside the entry in Kate Greenaway’s Language of Flowers, published in 1884. The hydrangea row uses the Harper’s Bazaar UK list; every other modern reading comes from The Knot.

Cosmos (year 2), freesia (year 7) and gladiolus (year 40) have no entry in Greenaway, and the searchable text of Robert Tyas’s 1869 Language of Flowers contains none of the three either. The yellow rose is negative in both books: Tyas headlines it “Unfaithfulness,” and Greenaway gives “Decrease of love.” Two readings overlap: Greenaway’s oak-leaved geranium is “True friendship” and The Knot says the geranium often symbolizes friendship, and Greenaway’s blue violet is “Faithfulness” while The Knot says violets show faithfulness and affection. Our yellow rose meaning page follows that shift from Victorian jealousy to modern friendship.

Where did the anniversary gift list come from?

The anniversary gift list is the older convention: silver and gold anniversaries are documented in Germanic countries first, a short English-language list is in print by 1859, and a year-by-year list was assembled in the 1900s. Wikipedia says associating a wedding anniversary with silver at 25 years or gold at 50 has been documented in Germanic countries since the 1500s. TIME’s history of the list says the idea has been traced to ancient Rome or medieval Germany, but that it is hard to find actual anniversary presents from either society that far back. By the 18th century, TIME says, the evidence from German culture is more solid: friends might give the wife a silver wreath at 25 years and a gold one at 50.

Post’s first edition came out in July 1922, and she wrote that “the paper, wooden and tin wedding presents are seldom anything but jokes.” TIME reports that in the same year the American National Retail Jewelers Association discussed supplementing the common anniversaries. A speaker at that meeting, quoted from the Jewelers’ Circular, said the jeweler earned “very little profit” until a couple reached the golden or diamond anniversary. TIME adds that over the next decade or so the association worked on a uniform list with a heavy emphasis on precious stones and metals. Wikipedia, citing a 2001 book, dates the expanded list to 1937. TIME says an exhaustive yearly list was not invented until the 20th century and has been subject to change since.

Flowers appear in these gift lists in only two places: the “floral” seventh year in the 1910 list TIME describes, and a fruit-and-flowers entry for year 4 in the US traditional lists that The Knot and Wikipedia print.

Is there a documented origin for the flower-per-year list?

No source we opened documents where the flower-per-year list began. None of the seven lists cites a book, a date or an earlier list for its flowers. Harper’s Bazaar UK credits a florist, SerenataFlowers.com, with identifying them. Wikipedia’s table of flower gifts cites two sources: a 2017 post on the 1-800-Flowers blog and the 2019 Harper’s Bazaar list. The Knot calls the flowers “official” and says they sit alongside gift materials that “date back to the Victorian era.”

The 1937 jewelers’ list is the obvious candidate for a source, but the pages we cite describe it as a list of gifts, and none of them connects it to the flower lists. The lists above also disagree on four of the first ten years. The Roman claim is a separate case. Harper’s Bazaar UK says “roman husbands” started the practice with a silver garland at 25 years, while TIME says actual instances are hard to find. We therefore treat the Roman wreath as tradition, and the flower-per-year list as a modern convention whose compiler is unrecorded.

A wedding-flower custom with a recorded date shows what a documented tradition looks like. The Smithsonian lesson plan says that in 1858 Queen Victoria’s daughter Victoria carried a sprig of myrtle taken from a bush grown from a cutting the Queen’s mother-in-law had given her, and that this began a tradition of royal brides carrying myrtle. The anniversary flowers have no equivalent entry: no named person, no year and no document.

How do UK and US anniversary lists differ?

The gift-material lists differ by country; the flower lists do not split cleanly by country. Wikipedia prints US and UK columns side by side, and its UK column cites a 1978–79 Pears Cyclopaedia.

US lists vary as well: The Knot gives iron for year 6 like Wikipedia, but willow or pottery for year 9. For the flowers couples choose on the wedding day itself, see our guide to wedding flowers and their meanings.

Which flowers mark the 1st, 5th, 10th, 25th and 50th anniversaries?

The 1st, 5th, 10th, 25th and 50th anniversaries are marked by the carnation, daisy, daffodil, iris and yellow roses with violets. Years 1, 10, 25 and 50 appear in all seven lists, and Freddie’s Flowers, the shortest list, covers only 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50.

1st: carnation. The Knot ties it to passion and young love, and Bloom & Wild to “young, passionate love.” Our carnation meaning guide covers each colour. The Smithsonian lesson plan notes that a yellow carnation could be returned to a suitor to express “disdain.”

5th: daisy. The Knot gives fidelity and endless love, and Kremp gives forever love and fidelity. Greenaway’s plain daisy reads “Innocence.”

10th: daffodil. The Knot says the daffodil is dependable because it comes back every year.

25th: iris. The Knot says the name is the Greek word for rainbow and that the flower stands for faith and hope.

50th: yellow roses and violets. The Knot says the yellow rose is “basically gold in the plant community.” Blossoming Gifts says golden weddings are traditionally associated with yellow or golden flowers. Kremp adds that the yellow and purple are complementary colours. Both Victorian books give the yellow rose a negative reading, so the 50th pairing rests on colour, not on a Victorian meaning.

Which flower should you choose when the lists split?

Because no body maintains the list, the flower that the most lists name is the safest pick, unless the couple has a reason to prefer another. The table of disagreements above supports these choices:

• Year 2: cosmos, named by four lists; lily of the valley if you follow the Harper’s Bazaar UK list.
• Year 4: geranium, named by five lists; hydrangea if you follow the Harper’s Bazaar UK list. The US gift lists also pair this year with fruit and flowers.
• Year 8: clematis or lilac, or both, as The Knot gives them.
• Year 9: poppy, named by four lists; add bird of paradise to match The Knot’s pair.
• Year 50: yellow roses with violets, named together by five lists; the other two name yellow roses (Freddie’s Flowers) or roses (Flying Flowers).

For years with no flower on a list, such as year 18 on The Knot, the lists leave the choice to the giver.

Growing your own anniversary flower

If you would rather grow the year’s flower than buy it, our care guides cover the sunflower (year 3), the peony (year 12), the dahlia (year 14), the daffodil (year 10), the iris (year 25) and lily of the valley (year 2 on the Harper’s list). Two products that fit a cutting garden are bypass pruners such as the Felco F-2 and a potting mix such as Espoma Organic Potting Mix for container-grown stems. Both are affiliate links: if you buy through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Frequently asked questions

What is the flower for each wedding anniversary?

The common list runs carnation (1st), cosmos or lily of the valley (2nd), sunflower (3rd), geranium or hydrangea (4th), daisy (5th), daffodil (10th), rose (15th), iris (25th) and yellow roses with violets (50th). The seven lists we compared split on years 2, 4, 8 and 9, and differ in detail at year 50.

What is the flower for the 1st wedding anniversary?

The carnation is the 1st-anniversary flower in all seven lists we compared. The Knot ties it to passion and young love.

What is the flower for the 50th wedding anniversary?

The 50th-anniversary flower is yellow roses with violets in five of the seven lists. Freddie’s Flowers names yellow roses and says they are often combined with violets, and Flying Flowers lists roses alone.

Is the anniversary flower list official?

No body maintains the flower list. It appears on florist and magazine pages, and none of the seven lists cites an earlier source for its flowers. The gift-material list has a documented history, from Emily Post’s 1922 eight-entry list to a jewelers’ trade association’s expanded list that Wikipedia dates to 1937.

Do the UK and US anniversary lists differ?

The gift-material lists differ, for example cotton or paper for year 1 in the UK column and paper in the US column. The flower lists differ between individual florists, not along the UK–US line: Bloom & Wild in the UK matches The Knot in the US on years 2 and 4.

Sources

1. The Knot. Your Guide to Wedding Anniversary Flowers and Their Meanings, updated 9 September 2025 (linked in text)
2. The Knot. The Complete Guide to Traditional & Modern Anniversary Gifts by Year, updated 22 October 2026 (linked in text)
3. Bloom & Wild. Wedding anniversary flowers by year guide (linked in text)
4. Harper’s Bazaar UK. Here’s which flower represents each year of your marriage, updated 3 July 2019 (linked in text)
5. Blossoming Gifts. Every Wedding Anniversary Flower by Year (linked in text)
6. Flying Flowers. Anniversary Flowers (linked in text)
7. Freddie’s Flowers. Wedding Anniversary Flowers By Year, 10 March 2026 (linked in text)
8. Kremp Florist. Flowers That Represent Each Year of Marriage (linked in text)
9. Post, Emily. Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home, 1922. Project Gutenberg ebook 14314 (linked in text)
10. Fabry, Merrill. Now You Know: Why Are There Special Gifts for Each Anniversary Year? TIME, 6 July 2017 (linked in text)
11. Wikipedia. Wedding anniversary (linked in text)
12. Greenaway, Kate. Language of Flowers. Routledge, London, 1884. Project Gutenberg ebook 31591 (linked in text)
13. Wikipedia. Kate Greenaway, for the 1884 publication year of Language of Flowers (linked in text)
14. Tyas, Robert. The Language of Flowers; or, Floral Emblems of Thoughts, Feelings, and Sentiments. Routledge, London, 1869. Internet Archive full text (linked in text)
15. Smithsonian Gardens. The Language of Flowers, historic bloom lesson plan (linked in text)