Discover Your Birth Month Peony and Its Deep Symbolic Meaning
Get ready to meet your floral soulmate, peony lovers.
Every gardener who loves a blousy bloom knows that the peony is more than just a flower – it’s an entire seasonal event. From heirloom bushes passed down through generations in New England to heat-tolerant hybrids thriving in the Pacific Northwest, peonies have come to symbolise prosperity, romance and quiet resilience.
When it comes to birth month flowers, peonies are traditionally associated with May. However, the sheer range of colors, forms and personalities within the peony family makes them surprisingly well suited to an entire 12-month calendar.
Whether you’re drawn to the sumptuous, Victorian ballgown fullness of classic double blooms or prefer the architectural confidence of modern Itoh hybrids (a cross between herbaceous and tree peonies), there’s a cultivar that mirrors the mood of every month every bit as well as your birth month bird does. Fact.
Your Birth Month peony
To help you find the peony that speaks to your very soul, we’ve paired twelve peonies commonly available at US nurseries with the qualities they evoke – not as rigid rules per se, but as a little seasonal magic you can plant.
Read on to find yours...
January calls for strength, and Kansas delivers it in spades. An American Peony Society Gold Medal winner, this variety is celebrated for its exceptionally sturdy stems and vivid watermelon-red blooms that hold their own without staking. There’s a dependable boldness to your birth month peony, January babies. The kind that pushes through cold ground and grey days, offering a welcome jolt of color and confidence at the very start of the year.
Softness takes the spotlight in February. Shirley Temple opens in a gentle blush pink before fading to ivory, its shifting tones echoing the tender uncertainty of late winter. Romantic without being showy, this birth month peony feels perfectly suited to a month shaped by quiet affection, early hopes and the promise of change just beneath the surface.
As days lengthen and energy returns, March brings something lighter and brighter. Pineapple Fizz™ offers pale yellow blooms brushed with peach, delivering a sense of optimism without excess. It’s a birth month peony that's fresh, uplifting and just a little playful – much like the first real stretch of spring, when the garden begins to wake up in earnest.
April is rarely predictable, and All That Jazz™ embraces that beautifully. Each bloom is splashed with apricot, cream and lavender in its own unique pattern, creating a peony that feels expressive and a touch rebellious. As such, this birth month peony is a fitting match for creative spirits and anyone who thrives in moments of transition, when the garden is alive with possibility.
If one month belongs to peonies, it’s May – and if one peony rules them all, it’s the Sarah Bernhardt. This apple-blossom pink classic has graced gardens for over a century, prized for its full, fragrant blooms and timeless elegance. Grand without being overpowering, it embodies tradition, beauty and the height of the peony season itself.
June arrives with confidence, and its birth month peony, Bartzella, well and truly meets it head-on. This Itoh hybrid produces enormous lemon-yellow flowers that seem to glow in early summer light, radiating warmth and vitality. Associated with prosperity and success, it’s a peony that feels celebratory – marking the shift from spring’s gentleness to summer’s abundance.
Long evenings and lingering sunsets define July (and its summery July babies), so you'd best believe that Julia Rose captures that sense of slow transformation perfectly. Its blooms change color as they age, moving from cherry red to soft orange and finally yellow – sometimes all at once on the same plant. Harmonious and evolving, it’s a peony that rewards attention and time.
August babies carry a lot of intensity, and Scarlet Heaven rises to meet it with gusto. With single, fiery red blooms and a tolerance for heat that sets it apart, this birth month peony reflects the boldness of high summer. It’s passionate, striking and unapologetically vibrant, serving as a reminder that, even as the season matures, the garden still has plenty of fire left.
As routines return and the year begins to turn inward (hey, it's back-to-school season for a reason), September calls for something joyful. Double Bubble Pink™ delivers with its cheerful, bubblegum-pink blooms that feel nostalgic in the best way. It’s a birth month peony that speaks to friendship, memory and the small pleasures that carry us through seasonal change.
October’s beauty is often dramatic (almost as much as October babies are!), and Cora Louise leans into that mood with ease. Its wide white petals are punctuated by a deep, inky purple centre, creating a high-contrast bloom that feels sophisticated and slightly mysterious. There’s an intellectual elegance here – a birth month peony that invites a closer look as fall deepens.
Few peonies carry history quite like November's birth month beauty, the Festiva Maxima. Introduced in the mid-1800s, this heirloom variety features crisp white blooms flecked with crimson, standing as a testament to endurance and tradition. It feels like a flower that has weathered time with grace, and, for a month rooted in reflection and gratitude, it feels especially fitting.
December closes the year with richness, and Karl Rosenfield answers in kind. Its deep, velvety red double blooms feel festive and regal, evoking warmth against winter’s chill. Classic and dependable like December babies everywhere, it’s a birth month peony that brings the year full circle. One that ends not quietly, but with confidence and color.
It's important to note here that peonies don’t actually bloom according to our birthdays, but that’s part of their charm. Much like our birth month butterflies, they respond instead to weather, light and patience, unfolding in their own time each spring. Pairing these beloved blooms with the rhythms of the year, however, invites us to see them differently: not just as fleeting stars of the late-spring garden, but as lasting symbols of who we are and when we arrived.
So, whether you plant your birth month peony as a gift to yourself, a celebration of someone you love, or simply as another reason to look forward to spring, you're in for a treat: these flowers reward patience with abundance. And once you’ve grown one, chances are you’ll find room for another.
Lean into it, we say. Quite honestly, there’s always space for one more peony (and one more story) in the garden.
