Mississippi turned to its schoolchildren to decide its state flower. During a 1900 contest with more than 23,000 students voting, the magnolia overwhelmingly won, beating the cotton blossom and the cape jasmine handily. It took five decades for legislators in Jackson to make it official, but they did mention the schoolchildren’s decision in the resolution.

Early in his political career, Ohio native William McKinley ran for Congress against a horticulturist, Dr. Levi Lamborn. The two were friends, despite political differences, and the horticulturist would send McKinley a scarlet carnation (Lamborn carnation) for good luck before each of their debates. McKinley won and continued to wear the flower on his lapel. Three years after his 1901 assassination, Ohio chose to honor its native son by naming the scarlet carnation its state flower.

While sagebrush is common in the Southwest, it is not a true desert shrub. It has both deep taproots and wider surface level roots so that it can take advantage of Nevada's light rainfalls and prolonged droughts. Volatile oils in sagebrush make it unappealing cuisine for foraging animals, but it has been used by Native Americans to make teas with healing properties.

Perhaps not as colorful as the offerings from others in the Union, the noble pine cone reflects the cold weather and independent streak of Maine, the “Pine Tree State.” Maine even sent pine cones as its representation in the National Garland of Flowers arrangement the United States prepared for the 1893 World’s Fair.

Delaware named the peach blossom its state flower in 1895, at a time when the fuzzy little stone fruit was a critical crop for the state. Sadly, just after the turn of the 20th century, Delaware was hit with viral disease spread by aphids that wiped out many of the state’s peach orchards. Many farmers turned to growing other kinds of fruit, and today only three major peach orchards survive in Delaware.

Now so linked to Kansas that it is known as “The Sunflower State,” the sunflower also appears on Kansas’ flag and state quarter. However, 19th-century critics despised the plant’s dense, rampant growth and called for it to be destroyed. Today, the sunflower is used for everything from healthy snacks to biodiesel fuel.

While the forget-me-not officially became a state flower in 1959 when Alaska became a state, its ties to the Last Frontier go further back. Early pioneers who went north during the Klondike Gold Rush named the forget-me-not as their floral emblem. As Alaska’s population grew, the little blue flower endured — the background of the Alaskan flag is even partly inspired by the forget-me-not's color.

Oranges are a billion-dollar business in Florida, so it makes sense that the state has chosen to honor all parts of the orange tree. Orange blossoms are renowned for their pleasant scent; Queen Victoria wore the fragrant flower instead of a tiara during her 1840 marriage ceremony to Prince Albert, and they’ve been a royal wedding tradition ever since.

While the cactus appears in all manner of Western depictions, the saguaro (pronounced sa-WAH-ro) grows only in a specific area of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. This exclusivity made the saguaro’s waxy white blossom the perfect choice to represent the Grand Canyon State. The flower is critical for feeding long-nosed bats and Mexican long-tongued bats that migrate through the saguaro's habitat.

The rose is the official bud of five states. Georgia has the Cherokee Rose; Oklahoma has the Oklahoma Rose, and Iowa has the wild rose. New York honors the straightforward rose, and North Dakota claims the Wild Prairie Rose (Latin name Rosa arkansana) as its state flower. If that weren’t enough to leave other plants green with envy, the rose is also the national flower of the United States.