The Orange Blossom: Florida’s Perfumed Emblem

November 15, 1909

On this day, the orange blossom was named the official state flower of Florida. It was a choice as inevitable as it was fragrant, for what else could capture the essence of that sunlit land? The groves in bloom are its perfume, its signature, its very breath.

The decision so inspired poet William Livingston Larned that he composed a piece in its honor, simply titled Florida’s State Flower. It ends with these tender lines:

“Whenever you see the spotless bud,
You know ’tis Florida the fair.
And wafted to you comes the scent
Of all the blissful regions there.

The rose may have its followers,
The violet its standard, too;
The fleur-de-lis and lily fair
In tints of red and pink and blue;

But just a scent,
On pleasure bent,
Of orange sweet,
The nostrils greet,
And from our dreams, the castles rise,
Of groves and meadows ’neath calm skies.”

How Vita Sackville-West would have approved of such sentiment, for she too believed flowers to be more than ornament: they are character, memory, even destiny. The orange blossom, with its snow-white petals and intoxicating fragrance, is not merely a flower of Florida — it is Florida. To encounter it is to be transported instantly to sunlit orchards, to meadows humming with bees, to skies serene and forgiving.

Other states may boast their roses or violets, their lilies or irises, but Florida’s emblem carries within it a promise — a breath of warmth in winter, a whisper of blossoms in perpetual bloom. The orange blossom is no shy wildflower. It is a herald, a perfume that insists upon being remembered. And indeed, once scented, it never is forgotten.