Church Flowers for the Annunciation

UPDATED MARCH 20, 2026:  I updated this post today to highlight the liturgical context.

I've put up various posts about flowers related to the Solemnity of the Annunciation of Our Lord (upcoming on March 25).  This post is an effort to integrate the series.

First, it should be noted that although this feast is not a holy day of obligation, it is one of the most important in the Church. It is essential to bear in mind that the Annunciation was when the incarnation actually took place -- after Mary gave her fiat.  This is when Our Lord was made flesh, although He was not visible to the world until the Nativity.

Secondly, it is not just a feast but a Solemnity - the highest sort of feast day. And, along with Laetare Sunday, other solemnities and certain feasts, it is an exception to the general rule that there should be no church flowers during Lent.  (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, section 305.)

Third, although Our Lady was very much a part of the Annunciation, and we celebrate her role, it is interesting to note that according to the current liturgical calendar, this is a feast of Our Lord. Thus, formally speaking, it is not technically a Marian feast day by the modern calendar.  Perhaps that is a distinction without a difference since in a devotional sense it certainly is a Marian feast day and historically it was so considered.

As a feast of Our Lord, the liturgical color is white.  McClinton (who I think must have been a high-church Anglican), states that the feast of the Annunciation "calls for blue and white flowers.  White iris or Madonna lilies are appropriate and can be used together with blue iris or Delphinium."

If you are thinking of using white flowers, see the post White Flowers for Church Decoration for ideas.  Also see Gemma's post on flowers for Marian feast days, which includes some blue flowers.

McClinton's old English table of flowers associates the following blooms with this feast day:

Madonna lily (same as Annunciation lily)
Daffodil (Mary's Star)
Marigold
White iris
Narcissus (see Daffodil)
Almond blossom
Our Lady's Smock

I've done posts on most of these flowers which you can find via the above links.

You can find some interesting lore about practices during this feast day here.  And you can find the history of the feast day here

Image:  Blue delphinium - Photograph by Andreas Fink.  From Wikimedia Commons.  Click for license.

Source for text:  Katherine Morrison McClinton, Flower Arrangement in the Church (Morehouse-Gorham Co., 1958), pp. 45, 93.)

Happy St. Joseph's Day

 Here are some special images of St. Joseph for today.  They are from the Cuzco school of religious painting.  I especially like them because I think they reveal St. Joseph as the nobleman of the House of David he is, divinely chosen to be the foster father of Jesus and the chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Flowers for the Solemnity of St. Joseph

Tomorrow, the universal church celebrates the Solemnity of St. Joseph, one of the few Lenten days during which altar flowers are permitted.  The liturgical color for vestments and altar frontals is white.  That is the color for feasts of saints who are not martyrs as well as feasts of Our Lord and Our Lady.  (As far as I know, this applies whether the feast is a solemnity or not.)

There is no one specific color universally associated with St. Joseph in devotional tradition.

Apparently in Italian culture red prevails as the color to honor St. Joseph because of preventing famine in Sicily during the middle ages, despite the association of red with martyrdom.

Catholic iconography often employs brown or green with Joseph because of his earthly profession as a carpenter.  If you want to do that, you might find some ideas here and here.

Most frequently in European art, the white lily is featured in connection with Joseph  And then there is the association of Joseph with the tuberose -- the Vara of San Jose. White tuberose surely would make a lovely arrangement, emphasizing Joseph's purity and spirituality.  Unfortunately, tuberose purchased commercially can be very expensive, as can easily be seen with a quick web search.   

A possible substitute for tuberose might be white alstromeria, the blossoms of which have brown specks and the leaves of which are a nice green if the stems are fresh, thus bringing in the green and brown associated with St. Joseph.  Alstromeria is long-stemmed, long-lasting, and nowhere near as expensive as tuberose.

I personally favor the idea of two simple vases of alstromeria for tomorrow's feast day rather than an elaborate arrangement.  Somehow it seems to fit!