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Alliance, Ohio, The Carnation City

A red carnation is the state flower of the state of Ohio in the USA. The reason for this is of interest to those who value carnations as buttonholes. A red carnation was often worn by the American president William McKinley. His interest was apparently kindled when visiting his friend the physician and amateur horticulturalist Dr. Levi L. Lamborn in Alliance Colorado. He had imported six carnations from France in 1852. It is recorded that on admiring one red bloom Dr Lamborn picked the bloom and placed it in his friends buttonhole. This was a fragrant bloom and was subsequently named “Lamborn Red”.
William McKinley became the twenty-fifth President of the United States on November 3, 1896 and wore his favourite carnation then and on subsequent occasions. Apparently he was again wearing one at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in September 1901 and shortly after giving it to a “shy young girl” he was assassinated. In 1904 the red carnation was named the official Ohio floral emblem by the State Assembly and in 1959, the Ohio Legislature named Alliance, Ohio the “Carnation City”.
Ohio website