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Plate 1 A tall spike of gladiolus flowers beside a poppy with four broad petals

August birth flowers: gladiolus and poppy

August’s birth flowers are the gladiolus and the poppy. The Victorian flower dictionaries gave the red poppy consolation; the gladiolus has no entry in them, and its meanings come from modern lists.

Birth flowers. Also called August birth flower, birth flower for August.

Meaning

The Old Farmer’s Almanac gives the gladiolus first and the poppy second. University of Illinois Extension gives gladiolus and dahlia; West Virginia University Extension gives the poppy alone. Gladiolus, the sword lily, is a genus of more than 300 species from Africa, Madagascar and Eurasia in the iris family, with long sword-shaped leaves (NC State Extension); Hilderic Friend’s Flowers and Flower Lore explains that the name “means a small sword”. The poppy of European fields is Papaver rhoeas, the corn poppy, which NC State Extension notes became a symbol of the losses on the battlefields of the First World War. Penn State Extension’s Master Gardeners say the meanings rest “on folklore and tradition passed on through generations” and vary with the source and the time.

Origin and history

The gladiolus has no entry in the dictionaries of Kate Greenaway, Frederic Shoberl, Henrietta Dumont or Sarah Josepha Hale. Dumont mentions it only as a plant that changes colour: the great corn-flag, Gladiolus grandis, “changes its colour several times in the course of the day”. Katharine Beals (1917) names it among the flowers claimed to be the hyacinth of Greek myth, which sprang from the blood of Hyacinthus, along with the larkspur of July. Its meanings today come from modern lists: University of Illinois Extension gives “strong character, give me a break, I’m really sincere, you pierce my heart”.

Consolation, sleep and extravagance: the poppy

The books split the poppy by colour. Greenaway (1884) gives the red poppy consolation, the scarlet poppy fantastic extravagance and the white poppy “Sleep. My bane. My antidote.” Hale gives the scarlet poppy fantastic extravagance too, and the white “forgetfulness, or consolation”. Shoberl (1840) explains the red poppy’s consolation by the use of the plant’s juice to bring sleep. Dumont gives consolation, and Beals consolation and oblivion. The modern extension lists read it through sleep: West Virginia University Extension gives August’s poppy eternal sleep, and University of Illinois Extension “eternal sleep, oblivion, imagination”.

Ceres and the poppy

Shoberl gives the Greek story: Ceres created the poppy to soothe her grief while she searched for her daughter Proserpine, whom Pluto had carried off. Beals tells it at more length. Flora, with the help of Somnus, made a flower for Ceres, who slept after drinking from its seed; and poppy seed was sown with corn and wheat to keep the goddess of agriculture from destroying the crops.

Where you’ll see it today

whatdoesthissymbolmean.comAugust birthstones: peridot, spinel and sardonyxThe same month's birthstone

See also

Poppy, July birth flowers: larkspur and water lily, January birth flowers: carnation and snowdrop, February birth flowers: violet and primrose, March birth flowers: daffodil and jonquil, April birth flowers: daisy and sweet pea.

Sources

  1. Monthly Birth Flowers, Master Gardeners of Luzerne County, Penn State Extension
  2. Birth Flowers by Month: Discover Your Monthly Flower & Meaning, Catherine Boeckmann, updated 17 September 2026, The Old Farmer’s Almanac
  3. Floriography: The meaning of flowers, Bruce J. Black and Rhonda Ferree, updated November 2022, University of Illinois Extension
  4. WL 173 Floriography: The Language of Flowers, Natasha Harris and Jesica Streets, 2022, West Virginia University Extension
  5. Language of Flowers, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, 1884, George Routledge and Sons (Project Gutenberg edition)
  6. The Language of Flowers: The Floral Offering, by Henrietta Dumont, 1851, H. C. Peck & Theo. Bliss, Philadelphia (Project Gutenberg edition)
  7. The Language of Flowers, with Illustrative Poetry, by Frederic Shoberl, seventh edition, 1840, Saunders & Otley, London (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library copy)
  8. Flora’s Interpreter, and Fortuna Flora, by Sarah Josepha Hale, 1856 edition, Sanborn, Carter and Bazin, Boston (Internet Archive)
  9. Flower Lore and Legend, by Katharine M. Beals, 1917, Henry Holt and Company, New York (Internet Archive)
  10. Flowers and Flower Lore, by Hilderic Friend, 1884 (preface dated November 1883), Internet Archive, Cornell University Library copy
  11. Gladiolus (Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox), NC State Extension
  12. Papaver rhoeas (Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox), NC State Extension

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Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research

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