July birth flowers: larkspur and water lily
July’s birth flowers are the larkspur and the water lily. The Victorian flower dictionaries gave the larkspur lightness or levity, with other meanings for its colours, and the water lily purity of heart.
Meaning
The Old Farmer’s Almanac gives the larkspur first and the water lily second. University of Illinois Extension gives larkspur and delphinium, and West Virginia University Extension delphinium alone. The names overlap: NC State Extension describes Delphinium as a genus whose species are commonly called larkspurs, named from the Greek delphis, dolphin, for the shape of the bud. Water lilies are Nymphaea, about 70 species of aquatic plants whose genus name is Latin for water lily (NC State Extension). 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
Frederic Shoberl explained the larkspur’s English name in 1840: it comes from the shape of the seed vessel, in which he saw “the joints and claws of a bird’s foot”. Katharine Beals (1917) records that the larkspur is one of the flowers put forward as the hyacinth of Greek myth, the flower that sprang from the blood of Hyacinthus. The modern hyacinth’s claim is disputed, she writes: one account makes the martagon lily the plant Ovid meant, and claims have been made for the gladiolus of August and for the larkspur.
Lightness, levity, haughtiness, fickleness
Kate Greenaway (1884) gives the larkspur lightness and levity, the pink larkspur fickleness and the purple larkspur haughtiness. Sarah Josepha Hale’s Flora’s Interpreter divides it by form instead: the double larkspur is haughtiness, the single fickleness. Henrietta Dumont’s dictionary (1851) gives lightness, and her longer entry “flights of fancy”. University of Illinois Extension keeps the old sense today: “playful, frivolous”. West Virginia University Extension gives July’s delphinium cheerfulness and goodwill.
Purity of heart: the water lily
Greenaway and Hale give the water lily purity of heart; Dumont’s entry on the white water lily gives purity. Beals heads her chapter on the water lily “eloquence, purity of heart”, but writes there of the lotus, which has its own pages under Buddhist and Hindu symbols.
Where you’ll see it today
whatdoesthissymbolmean.comJuly birthstone: rubyThe same month's birthstoneSee also
August birth flowers: gladiolus and poppy, 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, May birth flowers: lily of the valley and hawthorn.
Sources
- Monthly Birth Flowers, Master Gardeners of Luzerne County, Penn State Extension
- Birth Flowers by Month: Discover Your Monthly Flower & Meaning, Catherine Boeckmann, updated 17 September 2026, The Old Farmer’s Almanac
- Floriography: The meaning of flowers, Bruce J. Black and Rhonda Ferree, updated November 2022, University of Illinois Extension
- WL 173 Floriography: The Language of Flowers, Natasha Harris and Jesica Streets, 2022, West Virginia University Extension
- Language of Flowers, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, 1884, George Routledge and Sons (Project Gutenberg edition)
- The Language of Flowers: The Floral Offering, by Henrietta Dumont, 1851, H. C. Peck & Theo. Bliss, Philadelphia (Project Gutenberg edition)
- The Language of Flowers, with Illustrative Poetry, by Frederic Shoberl, seventh edition, 1840, Saunders & Otley, London (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library copy)
- Flora’s Interpreter, and Fortuna Flora, by Sarah Josepha Hale, 1856 edition, Sanborn, Carter and Bazin, Boston (Internet Archive)
- Flower Lore and Legend, by Katharine M. Beals, 1917, Henry Holt and Company, New York (Internet Archive)
- Delphinium (Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox), NC State Extension
- Nymphaea (Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox), NC State Extension
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves or stars.
Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research