flowers by month

List of Birth Flowers By Month of the Year

Stop and smell the roses. Fresh as a daisy. Nip it in the bud.

What do these expressions have in common? Their allusions to flowers, of course.

Blossoms have their place at altars and holidays, births and deaths … and we even have specific flowers for each month of the year.

Dainty flowers for every month

It’s true! Most people don’t realize that birth flowers by month are a thing, possibly originating as far back as the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

By the time floriography, the language of flowers, caught on in Victorian times, though, birth month flowers were firmly cemented in culture.

You need look no further than this handy guide for everything birth flowers, this year and every year!

Snowdrop flower
Snowdrop

January birth flowers: Snowdrop and Carnation

Snowdrop is one of the first flowers of the year to appear, dipping its head above lingering snowbanks. This beautiful, delicate, January birth flower has a classic bent green stem, with a gently bobbing cap of white petals.

These are an ideal flower for winter weddings, as they can be forced in greenhouses with great success.

Carnation

Carnations are another classic flower for any celebration. These versatile flowers come in almost every color of the rainbow, with plenty of variegated and ruffled options besides.

Violet flower
Violet

February birth flowers: Violet and Primrose

Although neither violets nor primroses awake from their winter slumbers in February naturally, these birth flowers by month are a popular February birth flower.

Violets, with their purple, violet and pink hues – often with delicately marked throats – symbolize loyalty.

They are, as such, a great addition to any romantic gesture, from a small bouquet to the big day.

Primrose

Primroses come in every hue of the rainbow. This February birth flower is easy to match to attire like pocket squares at celebrations that require color coordination. They are also hearty, and make a good potted plant.

Daffodils flowers
Daffodils

March Birth Flowers: Daffodils and Jonquils

Daffodils and jonquils are sometimes confused for one another. Each March birth flower hails from the genus Narcissus, and have the classic yellow blooms on tall, green foliage.

They both also have the same bunching habit, growing in clumps in gardens and woodlands where they’ve naturalized.

Nevertheless, while they’re hard to tell apart, you’ve certainly seen both.

Size Does Matter

The main difference between the two is size. Jonquils are smaller, with more delicate rounded flowers and shorter leaves. Daffodils are taller, their petals more triangular, their leaves more sword-shaped.

Because of their similarities, though, they look lovely together in arrangements.

Daisies flower
Daisies

April Birth Flowers: Daisies and Sweet Peas

April showers bring May flowers, but they also bring April flowers – and when it comes to April birth flowers, daisies and sweet peas are the showstoppers.

Daisies are beloved everywhere for their sunny yellow centers and surrounding white petals, though larger varieties such as Gerbera come in almost any shade imaginable.

Sweet Pea

Sweet peas are less well-known, mostly because this April birth flower colonizes roadsides and English gardens, but rarely make an appearance at the florist.

However, these divine-smelling blooms are the perfect complement to any celebratory bouquet, ranging from white to pink, lilac to deep purple.

Hawthorn flower
Hawthorn flower

May Birth Flowers: Hawthorn and Lily of the Valley

Hawthorn is not a popular modern flower, it has been a popular and symbolic bloom for ages. This May birth flower belongs to the rose family, Rosaceae, and looks like a cherry or apple blossom, growing in pink and white clusters.

It’s not hard to imagine it on a necktie, that’s all we’ll say.

Lily of the Valley

Lily of the Valley makes more frequent appearances at today’s floral shop, with its tiny, white, bell-shaped flowers and light, sap-green leaves.

Together or separately, these flowers are perfect additions to celebrations of love.

Rose flower
Rose

June Birth Flowers: Rose and Honeysuckle

June is the time of roses, from wild to cultivated, small to large, dainty white to the deepest flush of burgundy.

Roses have nearly their own language, ranging from red roses (romantic love) to pink (gentleness) to yellow (happiness). White roses can also mean love, or they can be used at funerals.

If there is one June birth flower we think of when it comes time to celebrate, it is the rose.

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle, on the other hand, can meet the yellow rose smile for smile. This ever-so-happy bloom smells absolutely heavenly, which explains why generations of children have sucked out its nectar on summer days.

With trailing stems and sunshine-colored or white flower heads, it’s also a nice birth month bloom.

Water Lily flower
Water lily

July Birth Flowers: Water Lily and Larkspur

These two blossoms are nothing alike, except in their classical beauty.

Water lily has a lotus-shaped bloom, with rings of petals and oodles of colors to choose from: white, salmon, light pink, dark pink, red, violet and purple.

Larkspur

Larkspur is as tall and narrow as the water lily is short and white, with clusters of small blooms piled on a stalk. The July birth flower has simple blooms of roughly an inch, ranging from light blue and violet to cerulean and purple.

You may also see this perfect flower referred to as delphinium.

Poppy flower
Poppy flower

August Birth Flowers: Poppy and Gladiolus

The word poppy conjures to mind fields upon fields of bobbing red and pink flowers, perhaps due to that unforgettable scene from The Wizard of Oz, and perhaps because they’re just such a classic late-summer bloom.

Whatever the case, poppies range from pink to white to salmon to a purple so dark it almost looks black. This August birth flower is one of the most dramatic of all the birth flowers by month.

Gladiolus

Gladiolus is equally dramatic in its own way, with tall stalks of blooms, almost like iris flowers arranged vertically on a long green sword. In summertime, many bouquets will feature gladiolus at the center, representing strength and integrity.

Aster flower
Aster

September Birth Flowers: Aster and Morning Glory

September’s flowers are sweet, charming, cottage-garden varieties.

Both aster and morning glory grow readily in all sorts of environments, hardly needing hothouse care to thrive. They are beloved of gardeners because they are so easy to grow and because they flower prolifically during the summer and fall.

September Birth Flower Winners

Asters are pink, purple, lavender and white, with star-shaped flowers and sturdy centers. They symbolize strong love.

Morning glories symbolize affection with a trumpet shape, without distinct petals but with a distinctly different colored throat, with the outside usually ranging from blue to pink to purple. Sometimes, this September birth flower is entirely white.

Marigold
Marigold

October Birth Flowers: Marigold and Cosmo

Marigolds, with their warm colors and small ruffles, seem almost made to celebrate the month of Halloween. They are pungently scented and sturdy, making them a nice choice for more architectural flower construction, such as a curtain behind an altar.

Of course, the October birth flower also work beautifully for table arrangements, bouquets, boutonnieres and more.

Marigold

As much as marigolds are structurally sound, cosmos are light and airy. They first bloom in the summer months, but they continue to put out beautiful, frilly-petaled blooms until the first frost hits.

Gathered together in large drift-like bouquets, they bring a perfect hint of fall to any October wedding or party.

Chrysanthemum flower
Chrysanthemum

November Birth Flowers: Chrysanthemum and Peony

While many sources of birth flowers by month will tell you November only has the chrysanthemum, that’s not so!

The peony is also listed as a November birth flower in many places – though they will have to be hothouse peonies, as this globe-shaped, bold bloom typically isn’t seen out of doors until June.

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum makes a bit more sense during the fall. Mums, as they’re more casually called, are common sights on doorsteps and in front beds, even this late in the year.

When the frost gets to be too much for them, they can last even longer brought indoors. For that reason, they make excellent wedding and party decorations in all colors of the rainbow.

Narcissus flower
Narcissus

December Birth Flowers: Holly and Narcissus

The last of the birth flowers by month are narcissus and holly. Remember daffodils and jonquils? Well, narcissus is their tiny cousin.

Those mini-daffodils you see in grocery stores and along flower beds in spring are narcissus flowers, which range from white to yellow to orange-centered. For a December birth flower, though, the classic narcissus shade is creamy white.

Holly

Holly needs no explanation, does it? With shiny green leaves and deep red berries, it symbolized cold winter months to people 5,000 years ago – and it still does today.

Match it with red or green wedding ties for an amazing statement during the long winter!

Put Flowers to Work for You!

Ready to celebrate each month with its proper birth flowers? At ties.com, we have every neatly tailored option you could possibly imagine to complete your outfit, your groomsmen’s, your kid’s or your grandpa’s.

No special day is complete without the right getup, so come check us out today!

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