Flowers?

[DannyJay]

Why is it important to have flowers in your organization?

[Senusret I]

I never thought about that before.

For some organizations, they might have a ritualistic purpose (meaning they are used for reasons that you are not meant to know about).

For some, it might be a way to recognize each other by wearing one on their lapel, or in a corsage.

For some, the flower is used in funeral ceremonies.

And for others, the fraternity flower may be presented to wives and sweethearts.

But why the first person decided to have a flower associated with their organization.... I don't know.

[BuckeyeTriDelta]

Within each GLO that chooses to have a flower, the founders picked a flower that had special meaning for the fraternity/sorority. To the initiated member, the flower just isn't a flower, it has symbolic meaning. So I guess it was all up to the founders of each GLO which flower was chosen and the meaning.


ETA: Senusret beat me to the post!

[ECUJacob]

Even though I wholeheartedly agree with the answers above, here's the "official" answer from our org's literature:

Betas who gathered to celebrate the Fraternity's Semi-Centennial in 1889 were guests of the Western Female Seminary at a reception. Here, roses of the "June" or "Queen of the Prairie" variety, growing on the bush adjacent to the veranda of Peabody Hall, were presented to several Betas including Founders Knox and Marshall, at the suggestion of Leila McKee, Western's principal. Later that summer, the 1889 Convention selected the rose as our official flower. The Convention found its beauty symbolic of our principles and its hardiness suggestive of the universality of our moral aims.

[honeychile]

With Alpha Delta Pi, the Founders had drawn up the rules and ribands, and because it was May, they plucked woodland violets to place in their Bibles in remembrance of the day. That's how women's GLO flowers got started, I would imagine.

I have no idea where that tradition started, but I know that I have a ton of dried flowers in my own Bible in remembrance of special occasions.

[AOII Angel]

Honeychile, That's an interesting story. To answer the original question, flowers (especially in the time of the founding of most of the GLOs) have special meaning, ie red rose= love, yellow rose= friendship, etc. In AOII our flower is important because we use it as our main symbol. We don't have a crest (not a greek, as in the country, tradition) so we use the red rose in it's place. Also, they're just pretty! I got a dozen red roses from my parents for initiation....first flowers I ever received.