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State Flowers

State Flower of Ohio

Flower: Scarlet Carnation (Dianthus Caryophyllus)

President William McKinley often kept a bouquet of carnations in the White House. He was likely to give the carnation he was wearing to a visitor who admired it, replacing it with a fresh flower from the bouquet.

Even before McKinley’s death, a carnation league had been formed to promote the McKinley carnation as Ohio’s state flower. But there was concern that it might embarrass McKinley because the project originated with his political friends. However, there were no objections when a bill to adopt the carnation was introduced in 1904.