Birthday
HydrangeasAustralia is a country where the seasons are reversed and many flowers grow nowhere else on Earth. That has shaped its own flower traditions: wattle instead of tulips in September, chrysanthemums for Mother's Day in May, rosemary on a day of remembrance. Here are the symbols, festivals and etiquette worth knowing if you travel there or send flowers to Australia.
Golden wattle, the national emblem
Golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha) officially became Australia's floral emblem in 1988, the bicentenary of European settlement. Sprigs of wattle frame the coat of arms, and the national colours, green and gold, echo the plant. National Wattle Day is celebrated on 1 September, the first day of the Australian spring. For other countries' emblems, see national flowers of the world.
A flower for every state
Each state and territory has its own emblem: the bright red waratah in New South Wales, the kangaroo paw in Western Australia and Sturt's desert pea, with its black centre, in South Australia. Many of these plants are endemic and found only in Australia.
Festivals
- Floriade, Canberra — a spring flower festival (September–October) and one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, with hundreds of thousands of bulbs and annuals in Commonwealth Park.
- Carnival of Flowers, Toowoomba (Queensland) — held every September since 1950, with a parade of floral floats.
- Jacaranda Festival, Grafton — since 1935, in late October and November, when the town turns purple. The jacaranda is South American but has become a symbol of the Australian spring.
- Western Australia's wildflower season — from July to November thousands of species bloom across the region, many of them endemic.
Flowers and days of remembrance
- Mother's Day falls on the second Sunday in May, as in the US. But in Australia it is autumn, and the flower of the day is the chrysanthemum — "mum" for short.
- Anzac Day (25 April) honours Australian and New Zealand service personnel. People wear a sprig of rosemary, which grows on the Gallipoli peninsula where Anzac troops landed in 1915.
- Remembrance Day (11 November) — red poppies, as in the UK and Canada.
- Christmas falls in summer. Instead of fir trees and poinsettias there is the NSW Christmas bush (Ceratopetalum), with its red calyces, and Christmas bells.
What people give
- Bouquets of native plants are popular: proteas, banksias, leucadendrons, kangaroo paws and wattle. They last well and dry beautifully.
- There are no rules about odd or even numbers of flowers.
- Funeral flowers are usually sent to the funeral home, and families often ask for a donation instead.
Important for travellers
Australia has some of the strictest biosecurity rules in the world. Fresh flowers, seeds, bulbs and plants cannot be brought in without being declared and inspected, and breaches carry heavy fines. To surprise someone in Australia, order from a local florist.
FAQ
When is spring in Australia?
September to November: seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are the opposite of Europe's.
Which Australian flowers can be found in Ukraine?
Mostly proteas, leucadendrons and kangaroo paws, imported as cut flowers. For more traditions see our articles on the USA and Japan.
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Author: Maria Svitlovir
Graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of Biology and Medicine (2001). BSc in Biology, MSc in Horticulture. Writes about plants, works at a garden centre selecting and repotting plants, and contributes to plant reference guides.
