Church Flowers for Pentecost

Next Sunday is Pentecost. The liturgical color is red.

It is important to bear in mind that the liturgical color rules apply to the vestments and altar frontal.  There is no requirement that the flowers conform to the liturgical color.  Rather, the flower arranger must think of how the flowers will look with the vestments and frontal.  Sometimes a contrasting bloom might be more effective.

Moreover, since not all reds are the same, the best thing is to talk to the sacristan and learn exactly which vestment and frontal will be used, then plan the flowers accordingly -- whether you want to use red or a contrasting color.

My favorite church flower expert, Katharine Morrison McClinton, advises that Pentecost "calls for flame-colored flowers."  She adds, "In the Middle Ages a dove was let down from the roof of the church and balls of fire and roses were dropped [.]"

Morrison goes on to say, "The altar frontal is red and the flowers must harmonize with this.  Since it is difficult to exactly match reds and since red is often lost in the darkness of the sanctuary, it often helps to mix the red with pink or magenta to cut up the color and make it carry better."

Another church flower book has this list of flowers suitable for church arrangement that are available in red:

Amaryllis

Anemone

Camellia

Canna

Carnation

Chrysanthemum

Dahlia

Day Lily

Garden pink

Geranium

Peony

Petunia

Poinsettia

Ranunculus

Rhodendron

Rose

Snapdragon

Sweet William

Tulip

Zinnia

If you want to follow Morrison's idea of mixing pink with red, see the post Pink Flowers for Church Decoration for a list.

Image:  Flaming Parrot tulip.  Photograph by Pierre-Selim Huard.  From Wikimedia Commons.  Some rights reserved.  (Click for license.)

Text:
McClinton, Katharine Morrison; Flower Arrangement in the Church, Morehouse-Gorham Co. (New York, 1958) pp. 96-97.

Patteson-Knight, Francis and St. Claire, Margaret McReynolds; Arranging Flowers for the Sanctuary, Harper & Brothers (New York, 1961), p. 39.)

Church Flowers for the Ascension

 

This Thursday, May 9, will be the feast of the Ascension of our Lord.  The liturgical color for the vestments and altar cloths is white.  While that does not mean the flowers must also be white, flowers in the white spectrum do seem most appropriate to Christ's Ascension on clouds of glory.

In my view, tall white flowers such as delphinium, gladiolas, or callas, simply arranged, would be best since they give the sense of reaching upward.

But there are many other white flowers to choose from that can be seen to symbolize the glory and purity of heaven.

In reflecting on how this feast day was historically celebrated at different times and in different places around the world, there is a very enjoyable post at TIA by Rachel L. Lozowski.  The author states:

"The dew that covered the ground on the morning of Ascension Day was held as sacral. The Russians called this dew the tears of the earth that was weeping because of Our Lord's departure. The Dutch rose at dawn to walk through the morning dew in the fields and meadows, a custom called 'dew treading.' The walk ended at a house or inn where the flowers they had gathered decorated the early morning breakfast tables."

 Ascension image:

Andrei Rublev's Ascension icon from Wikimedia Commons.  In the public domain. 

 

Altar Flowers for Easter by Gemma

 

Gemma's altar flowers for Easter 2020.

 

 And those for 2021.