September birth flowers: aster and morning glory
September’s birth flowers are the aster and the morning glory. In the Victorian flower dictionaries the China aster meant variety, and the morning glory affectation or affection, depending on the book.
Meaning
The Old Farmer’s Almanac gives the aster first and the morning glory second; University of Illinois Extension and West Virginia University Extension give the aster alone. Two plants go by aster in the old books. The China aster reached Europe, Frederic Shoberl wrote in 1840, when the Jesuit missionary Father d’Incarville sent its seed to the royal garden in Paris about 1730. The wild asters are the starworts: NC State Extension describes the New England aster, a perennial of eastern North America with purple rays, flowering in late summer and autumn. The common morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea, is a twining annual vine native to Mexico and Central America, in the bindweed family, Convolvulaceae; its flowers open in the morning and close in the afternoon (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
In the saints’-day Calendar of Flowers that Henrietta Dumont printed in 1851, September is the asters’ month. The golden starwort falls on 7 September and the Italian blue starwort on 8 September, and on 29 September, the feast of St Michael and All Angels, comes the Michaelmas daisy, Aster tradescanti. The China aster falls earlier, on 11 August. Kate Greenaway (1884) gives the Michaelmas daisy a meaning of its own, farewell, and Dumont gives the American starwort welcome.
Variety and afterthought: the China aster
Greenaway gives the China aster “variety” and “afterthought”; Shoberl and Dumont give variety, and Shoberl explains why. The first plants had single flowers of one colour, but cultivation produced double varieties in so many colours that they became one of the principal ornaments of the garden. The name, he notes, comes from the Greek word for star. Sarah Josepha Hale gives love of variety. University of Illinois Extension today gives the aster “daintiness, patience”, and West Virginia University Extension gives September’s aster love.
Affectation or affection: the morning glory
Greenaway gives the morning glory affectation. Hilderic Friend, in Flowers and Flower Lore, says it “speaks of Affection”. The books read its relative the convolvulus in several ways: Greenaway gives the convolvulus bonds and the major convolvulus extinguished hopes, and Hale gives it worth sustained by affection.
Where you’ll see it today
whatdoesthissymbolmean.comSeptember birthstone: sapphireThe 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)
- Flowers and Flower Lore, by Hilderic Friend, 1884 (preface dated November 1883), Internet Archive, Cornell University Library copy
- Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox), NC State Extension
- Ipomoea purpurea (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