October birth flowers: marigold and cosmos
October’s birth flowers are the marigold and the cosmos. In the Victorian flower dictionaries the marigold meant grief; the cosmos has no entry in them, and its meanings come from modern lists.
Meaning
The Old Farmer’s Almanac gives the marigold first and the cosmos second. University of Illinois Extension gives calendula, the pot marigold, and West Virginia University Extension gives cosmos alone. Two plants share the name marigold. The marigold of the old books is Calendula officinalis, the pot or garden marigold. The French and African marigolds are Tagetes, a genus native to Central and South America; NC State Extension explains the common name as a shortened form of “Mary’s gold”. Cosmos, Cosmos bipinnatus, came into American gardens from Mexico or tropical America (NC State Extension).
Origin and history
The calendula takes its name from the calendar. Frederic Shoberl wrote in 1840 that it blossoms the whole year, so the Romans called it the flower of the calends, “in other words, of all the months”. Katharine Beals (1917) gives the same derivation and adds that in France, England and America it is a flower of late summer and early autumn. In the saints’-day Calendar of Flowers that Henrietta Dumont printed in 1851, the marigold falls on 25 March, the Annunciation, and the African and French marigolds, both Tagetes, on 18 and 21 August.
Grief, jealousy, sacred affection
Kate Greenaway (1884), Shoberl and Dumont give the marigold grief. Shoberl describes a miniature painting of Grief as a pale young man, his head bowed under a wreath of marigolds, and says that combined with roses the marigold stands for “the bitter sweets and pleasant pains of love”. Greenaway gives the French marigold jealousy and the African marigold “vulgar minds”. Sarah Josepha Hale reads the yellow marigold as sacred affections, because Catholics devoted it to the Virgin Mary. Beals gives cruelty in love, and tells the French poet Rapin’s story of four wood-nymphs of Diana, all in love with Apollo, whom Diana changed into gold-flowers. University of Illinois Extension today gives calendula “cruelty, grief, jealousy”.
Cosmos, a modern addition
Cosmos has no entry in the dictionaries of Greenaway, Shoberl, Dumont or Hale. West Virginia University Extension gives October’s cosmos “order and harmony”.
Where you’ll see it today
whatdoesthissymbolmean.comOctober birthstones: opal and tourmalineThe same month's birthstoneSee also
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, June birth flowers: rose and honeysuckle.
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)
- Calendula officinalis (Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox), NC State Extension
- Tagetes (Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox), NC State Extension
- Cosmos bipinnatus (Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox), NC State Extension
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Last reviewed September 30, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research