Here we have the Carnation, which is the official floral symbol for Mother`s Day, and has been for over a hundred years, since May 10 1908 when a lady called Anna Maria Jarvis, who had lost her mother a few years before, suddenly decided to celebrate mothers everywhere by arranging events in West Virginia and Philadelphia including abundant displays of white carnations. The reason for their being white was simply because that shade was her mother`s favourite, but just ten years later white carnations were being sold as the flowers to display in honour of a mother no longer living. In fact her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, had always wondered why there was not a proper nationwide day to celebrate all mothers. She liked the idea so much that she actually gave a lesson at her Church Sunday School about it. And after she died, her daughter decided to make it so.
Mother`s Day was not a proper national holiday until 1914, and it was to some extent forced upon the nation by her many campaigns. In this she had the spirit of her mother, who was very active in the State of Virginia during the American Civil War, and determined to bring food, clothing, and assistance to troops of both sides whenever they should need it, whilst personally nursing sick men from both sides during an epidemic of typhoid in the area.
However, and sadly, towards the end of her life, Anna Maria Jarvis was not happy with the way she saw it becoming less of a tribute and more of a chance to make money, and she did even try to have the day removed from the calendar, but to no avail. She died in November 1948.
Another change she would have opposed is that nowadays in America, Australia, Germany, China and Greece, Mother's Day is no longer on the 10th, but on the second Sunday in May.
Our card appears in the original Wills Reference Book part 4. The text is :
225. 50 Garden Flowers (1933) Fronts printed by letterpress in colour. Backs in grey with "Wills for Quality" at head with descriptive text. Home issue 1933
The month of issue, January, is given in the reprint of the five Wills books combined beneath a hard cover, as part of the very useful table of dates of home and overseas issues that was added to the front of the volume.
By the time of our World Tobacco Issues Index in 1956 this text had been reduced to simply "Sm. Nd. (50). Though for our Millennial update we had replaced the wording that said "Wills for Quality" at top"
There was another set of "Garden Flowers" cards by W.D. & H.O. Wills, but they are easy to tell apart because they say "by Richard Sudell" - a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society and gardening author. These were issued as a standard sized set in January 1939, and a first and second series of forty large sized cards in January 1938 and June 1939 respectively.