BirthAlmanac
English

A custom, not a registry

Birth flowers by month

Birth flowers have no single authority, so the lists vary more from source to source than birthstones do. This is the common English list, one or two flowers per month, with the meaning each is given today. Each flower's own page sets that beside what the nineteenth-century flower dictionaries printed, where they printed anything — and the two often disagree.

A hand-coloured botanical plate of three double garden carnations on grass-like stems, one peach-and-crimson bloom and two frilled mauve blooms with darker feathered markings, shown with narrow blue-green leaves and swollen leaf-joints.CarnationJanuaryA botanical plate of the sweet violet, labelled Viola odorata, showing heart-shaped leaves and creeping runners spreading from a central rootstock, with a few small purple five-petalled flowers on slender nodding stalks and a spray of fine root hairs below.VioletFebruaryA botanical plate labelled Daffodil, showing three wild daffodil flowers with a long trumpet-shaped orange corona surrounded by pale yellow petals, on upright stems with narrow strap-shaped grey-green leaves, plus one unopened papery bud.DaffodilMarchA botanical plate of a double-flowered garden daisy cultivar, showing two red-and-white pompom flowerheads on hairy leafless stalks rising from a low rosette of spoon-shaped, slightly toothed leaves with visible root fibres.DaisyAprilA botanical plate labelled Convallaria majalis (Maiglöckchen), showing a lily of the valley plant with two broad lance-shaped leaves sheathing a single arching stem hung with small bell-shaped white flowers, a spray of red berries, a creeping underground rhizome, and numbered dissections of the flower, fruit and seed.Lily of the valleyMayA botanical plate of a cabbage rose, showing one fully open, densely double pale pink bloom and one furled pink bud with mossy sepals, on a thorny, bristled stem with toothed, dark green pinnate leaves.RoseJuneA botanical plate of a larkspur, showing a spike of open five-petalled violet-blue flowers each with a backward-pointing spur and a paler, bearded centre, arranged up a slender hairy stem with a few deeply lobed leaves near its base.LarkspurJulyA botanical plate of a scarlet gladiolus: an arched spike of five red flowers above long sword-shaped leaves, with the corm drawn at the base.GladiolusAugustA botanical plate of a bushy aster, showing a many-branched stem crowded with small white daisy-like flowerheads with yellow centres, narrow lance-shaped leaves, and numbered dissections of the florets, seed and leaf below.AsterSeptemberA botanical plate of marigolds: deep orange and yellow pompom flowerheads above finely divided dark green leaves, with a single floret drawn separately.MarigoldOctoberA botanical plate of a double-flowered chrysanthemum, showing one large, fully open deep red bloom with layered narrow petals and a smaller side flowerhead viewed from below, on a leafy stem with deeply lobed, toothed leaves.ChrysanthemumNovemberA botanical plate of the paperwhite narcissus, showing a cluster of many small white star-shaped flowers with shallow pale cups, carried in an umbel atop a tall stem with a papery bract, above two long, narrow, curving strap-shaped leaves.NarcissusDecember
MonthFlowerMeaning today
JanuaryCarnation Dianthus caryophyllusdevotion
Snowdrop Galanthus nivalishope
FebruaryViolet Viola odoratafaithfulness
Primrose Primula vulgarisyoung love
MarchDaffodil Narcissus pseudonarcissusnew beginnings
AprilDaisy Bellis perennisinnocence
Sweet pea Lathyrus odoratusblissful pleasure
MayLily of the valley Convallaria majalisreturning happiness
Hawthorn Crataegus monogynahope
JuneRose Rosalove
Honeysuckle Lonicerabonds of affection
JulyLarkspur Delphiniuman open heart
Water lily Nymphaeapurity
AugustGladiolusstrength of character
Poppy Papaverremembrance
SeptemberAster Symphyotrichumpatience
Morning glory Ipomoeaaffection
OctoberMarigold Tageteswarmth
Cosmos Cosmos bipinnatusorder
NovemberChrysanthemumloyalty
DecemberNarcissus Narcissus papyraceusgood wishes
Holly Ilex aquifoliumdefence

The meanings in the table are the ones lists print today: a custom, not a description of anyone born in that month. The nineteenth-century dictionary entries are quoted, in English, on each flower's own page.