Flowers have a reputation for being feminine, but they’re every bit as beloved by men as they are by women. Despite being loved equally by men, men do not receive floral gifts quite as often as women. So, when you choose to give a man a floral arrangement, you might be surprised by how much he loves and appreciates it. In this guide, we’ll run through some of the best types of masculine flowers that are perfect to gift to the guy in your life.
Tips on Giving Men Flowers
While society is moving away from stereotypical ideas of colors and gender, we still recommend avoiding delicate pastels when selecting a color pallet for your male recipient’s floral arrangement. It’s better to choose bold colors and even monochrome bouquets that feature shades of blue, purple, red, black, green, or white.
When working with a florist to design a bouquet for a man, it’s also a good idea to tell your florist. This way, they can make better choices regarding the overall design. They can then make it appear stronger and more masculine rather than frilly and feminine. For example, your florist might use more greenery as fillers than delicate, wispy flowers like baby’s breath.
Additionally, you should also consider the container or vase that the floral arrangement or live blooming or tropical plant will be contained in. For a man, we recommend avoiding pastel or clear-colored crystal vases. Instead, choose a container that has a more natural or even geometric shape in a muted color and a material like ceramic, stone, cement, or wood.
What Occasions Are Suitable for Giving Flowers to a Guy?
Father’s Day
Father’s Day is the perfect day to honor your father and/or any father figures in your life. Most florists have a variety of Father’s Day floral arrangements to choose from, but if you aren’t sure what type of flowers would be best for your father, remember that roses are the official flower of Father’s Day. So, a bouquet or box of roses in a vibrant color (except red – red roses symbolize romantic love) will make the perfect gift.
Birthdays
You can also mark a man’s birthday with a floral arrangement. If you know your recipient’s favorite flower or color, that can help you choose a design. Otherwise, you can send a bouquet of the recipient’s birth month flower or pick a design that you think reflects his own style and that he will love.
Anniversaries
While many women expect to receive flowers on their anniversaries, men appreciate the thoughtful gesture, too. You can choose to send a bouquet of flowers chosen for the anniversary year. (Each milestone has a different designated symbolic flower.) If you aren’t sure, then red roses are always appropriate for celebrating romantic occasions.
Valentine’s Day
Did someone say romantic occasion? Well, Valentine’s Day is the quintessential romantic event of the year, so red roses are always appropriate on Valentine’s Day. If you know your guy isn’t crazy about roses, choose any bloom in a deep red (symbolizing romantic love) or a vibrant orange (symbolizing passion) hue.
Promotions
If you want to congratulate a man on a promotion, a variety of flowers symbolize success, prosperity, and victory. These include amaryllis, daisies, and gladiolus flowers. Any flower in the color purple represents prosperity, wealth, and nobility which are also appropriate symbolic sentiments for marking a promotion.
Graduation
To congratulate a graduate, orange flowers symbolize excitement, and green is the color of good luck. Asters symbolize wisdom, and clematis flowers represent intelligence – both of which your recent graduate will have.
Engagement
White roses are a traditional floral selection for celebrating an engagement. Chrysanthemums are also an excellent choice as they represent good luck and long life. Peonies symbolize best wishes and a happy marriage, making them a great choice for an engagement gift as well.
Sympathy
Traditionally, any combination of any type of white flowers is an appropriate sympathy gift to convey your deep condolences. Flowers in white are a symbol of mourning and sympathy. Simply pick an elegant-looking arrangement in a muted container and include a note that conveys your feelings of sympathy.
Get Well
A bright bouquet is a great way to send well wishes to someone who is sick or recovering from a medical procedure. Yellow or orange flowers like daisies, daffodils, tulips, and gerberas all make excellent choices for a friend who could use some uplifting energy.
20 Best Types of Masculine Flowers:
1. Sweet William
Dianthus barbatus, commonly called sweet William, is one of the few flowers representing masculinity. The ruffled pink and white flowers are also associated with gallantry and courage.
The flower’s genus name comes from Greek words meaning flower of God, and the species name comes from the Latin word for beard or barbarian.
The flower has additional associations with battle as its common name is said to honor Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, who led British forces to victory against the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
2. Tulip
Tulips are another excellent choice for men. In general, they symbolize perfect and deep love. This can be any type of love, such as the romantic love shared between partners or the unconditional love between parents and children.
As with most flowers, the different colors of tulips have different symbolic meanings. For example, blue tulips symbolize being “one of a kind” while purple tulips represent elegance and admiration, yellow tulips happiness, orange tulips friendship, red tulips love, and attraction, black tulips power and strength, and green tulips symbolize new beginnings and hope.
3. Carnation
Carnations are another type of flower that can be considered masculine. The different colors have different meanings.
A red carnation represents a beating heart and love, while pink conveys gratitude, white is for good luck, yellow shows disappointment or rejection, and light red is for admiration.
Carnations are the January birth flower, which makes them a good choice for a male recipient with a birthday in January.
Additionally, they have a spicy, clove-like scent that your recipient will love
4. Orchid
Pink orchids have a strong connotation with motherhood and femininity, but white, green, yellow, or orange orchids are lovely choices for male recipients.
White orchids are elegant and stately in their appearance. Plus, they represent humility, safety, and faith.
Green orchids look exotic and symbolize good fortune, good health, nature, blessings, and longevity.
Yellow orchids symbolize new beginnings and friendship, and orange orchids represent enthusiasm and boldness.
5. Sunflower
Sunflowers have a bold, beautiful, and rustic appeal that makes them a good choice for a floral gift for a man. In love, they symbolize unconditional love, trust, and unwavering faith. They also represent loyalty and adoration, which can be a nice message to send to a father figure on a birthday or in recognition of an accomplishment.
6. Rose
Roses are an excellent gift for any man in your life. A monochrome arrangement featuring only roses makes a bold, masculine statement. You can choose roses in any color, but it’s best to stick with bolder hues while remembering that different colors of roses have different symbolic meanings.
For example, red roses are strongly associated with romantic love, yellow roses symbolize friendship, orange roses represent passion and desire, lavender is a symbol of enchantment, green represents new beginnings and abundance, white is innocence, ivory is for grace and charm, black means change and courage (in addition to mourning), and blue roses symbolize the mystery, uniqueness, and the unattainable.
The rose is also the official birth flower of June and the official flower of Father’s Day. This makes a bouquet of roses a great choice for a June birthday celebration or a Father’s Day gift.
7. Gerbera
Gerbera daisies aren’t true daisies, but they do have large, daisy-like flower faces that come in some of the brightest colors available.
Generally, gerbera daisies symbolize cheerfulness and celebration. Arrangements of all gerberas or bouquets featuring gerberas are a good choice for congratulatory gifts, birthdays, and get-well flowers for men.
8. Dahlia
Dahlia flowers have rows upon rows of geometrically symmetrical petals that give the flowers a hypnotic brand of beauty. Their symbolic meanings include steadfastness, kindness, beauty, and commitment. They come in a wide array of vibrant colors.
For men, black dahlias are often recommended due to their strong and enchanting appearance. Featured alone or paired with other black or white blooms, they can make quite a statement.
9. Anthurium
Anthurium blooms are rarely featured alone in a bouquet. You’ll often find them included with other flowers or sprouting from a live plant. If your recipient doesn’t mind caring for a plant, we recommend the living form of anthuriums. The plants have glossy, deep-green, spade-shaped flowers, and the blossoms feature similarly shaped leaf bracts in tropical shades of red or pink with yellow or white spadices. Thanks to their heart-shaped blossoms and leaves, these plants symbolize hospitality. This makes anthurium plants an excellent choice for a housewarming or host gift.
10. Scabiosa
Scabiosa flowers, commonly called pincushion flowers, have spiky globe-shaped inflorescences that resemble pincushions. They come in various colors and typically symbolize purity, peace, and love.
In the case of the mourning widow scabiosa (which features almost-black petals), the flower symbolizes unfortunate love. Scabiosa flowers can come together to make striking flower arrangements for men in white or deep shades of red, burgundy, and nearly black.
11. Hydrangea
Hydrangea flowers are another excellent choice for a man. They can be arranged on their own or in a bouquet with other kinds of flowers. The best hydrangea colors for men are blue, white, or green. As is the case with many types of flowers, different colors of hydrangeas have different symbolic meanings. These include:
- Blue – Apology, understanding, and gratitude
- Purple – Understanding, pride, and royalty
- Pink – Sincere emotions, true feelings, and romance
- White – Vanity, purity, grace, and boasting
- Green – Good health, good fortune, youthfulness, longevity, and prosperity
12. Anemones
Anemone flowers have a striking and bold appearance with large, rounded petals surrounding dark, spikey, eye-like centers. Their symbolic meanings vary greatly. In Greek mythology, they’re associated with both the arrival of spring and the death of a loved one. In the Victorian language of flowers, they symbolize forsaken love. Modern meanings include sincerity (white anemones), forsaken love (red and pink anemones), and protection (purple anemones).
13. Calla Lily
The symbolic meanings of calla lilies are a bit counterintuitive. On one end of their symbolic spectrum, they symbolize life and fertility. On the other end, they commonly symbolize death. Besides their confusing symbolism, calla lilies are simple and elegant flowers, making them a good choice for a more masculine floral design. Choose white, yellow, dark purple, burgundy, or black.
14. Peace Lily
Peace lilies are most commonly gifted as living plants. They have stunningly lush, green, glossy foliage. When in bloom, they produce white space-shaped bracts that surround yellowish spadices. The plants symbolize purity and innocence and represent peace and tranquility. They also have powerful, air-purifying benefits, making them an excellent addition to any man’s home or office. Peace lilies are appropriate for any occasion but make an especially lovely housewarming or office-warming gift.
15. Alstroemeria
Also called Peruvian lilies, alstroemeria flowers symbolize devotion and friendship. They’re among the most popular flowers used by florists in bouquets and other floral designs. They bloom in bright colors, and their petals feature small tiger-like stripes in dark shades of brown and black, giving the flowers some additional visual interest.
16. Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemums are another excellent flower choice for men. They are a symbol of cheerfulness, good luck, and friendship. Additionally, various colors of chrysanthemums have their own unique symbolic meanings. Chrysanthemums are the birth flower of the month of November, so they’re perfect for celebrating a man’s November birthday.
One of the most exciting aspects of chrysanthemum flowers is the sheer variety available to choose from. They come in just about every color and shade you can imagine. Plus, their blossoms come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. So, you can use them to create just about any bouquet aesthetic you think your recipient would enjoy.
17. Bird of Paradise
Exotic flowers of all sorts are often recommended as good flowers to give to men. Birds of paradise are probably the most popular and alluring. Plus, they’re usually readily available in most floral shops. These flowers feature vibrant shades of orange, yellow, red, and purple spikes, and they symbolize thoughtfulness, love, and faithfulness.
18. Marigold
Marigold flowers symbolize power and strength, and they are often considered a good flower choice for a man. When gifting marigolds, however, it’s prudent also to remember their association with Dia de Los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) and their symbolic place in these celebrations, where they are thought to attract the souls of loved ones who have passed away.
19. Gladiolus
Gladiolus flowers grow in showy clusters along tall, sturdy stalks. They’re shaped like swords and symbolize a strength of character, integrity, sincerity, faithfulness, remembrance, and honor. If you see these qualities in your male recipient, then gladiolus flowers are an appropriate choice. They are also the official birth flower of August, making them an excellent gift for a man’s August birthday.
20. Craspedia
Craspedia flowers are commonly called billy buttons. These fuzzy globes of yellow are a popular addition to men’s boutonnieres, and they can also add a rustic, whimsical, and cheerful appeal to any floral bouquet. Billy buttons symbolize good health, which means they’re the perfect addition to a get-well bouquet.
Types of Masculine Flowers FAQs:
What Flowers Symbolize Masculinity?
Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) symbolizes masculinity and represents gallantry.
What Are the Best Occasions to Gift Flowers to Men?
There are several occasions when flowers are an appropriate gift for a man, including birthdays, Father’s Day, engagements, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, promotions, graduation, and for sympathy.
What Flowers Symbolize Strength?
Several flowers symbolize strength. Some of the most popular flowers that symbolize strength include gladiolus, marigold, allium, ansomnia, phacelia, astrantia, potentilla, valeriana, columbine, echinacea, and snapdragon.
What Flowers Have Dark Meanings?
Many different flowers have dark symbolic meanings and connotations. These can vary depending on the culture. Generally, the color black symbolizes death and mourning, and this is true for many black flowers, as well. For example, despite their beauty, black dahlias are a symbol of evil and dishonesty. Orange lilies can symbolize hatred. Lily of the valley flowers represent tears, poison, and loss. Red spider lilies are also symbols of farewell and death.
Types of Masculine Flowers: The Final Word
When giving the gift of flowers to a man, the main things to remember are your recipient, their personality, and their personal taste. Be sure to add a personalized greeting or sentiment with a care or florist’s note, and your recipient will be sure to receive your message and enjoy your lovely and thoughtful gift.
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