July's birth flower: Delphiniums
After the warm June we had, there's so much promise held in the coming July, and that's something we feel is embodied in this month's birth flower: the Delphinium.
Known to some as 'Little Larkspur' or 'Elijah's Chariot', the perennial Delphinium is a herald of summer. We adore the shape of this flower, with it's long stem of globes that spring open in a pentagon of blue.
The July birth flower is named for the Greek word 'delphis' which means dolphin. It might seem a little tenuous at first, but if you look closer at an individual bloom in all its glory, it's hard to mistake the shape of the marine mammal.
Delphiniums have some wonderful symbolism that really adds to the charm of this July birth flower: we especially like the meaning 'ability to transcend the bounds of space and time' - what a gorgeous sentiment! There's also meaning like 'ardent attachment', 'levity' and 'hilarity', all sweet and endearing if you're looking for a flower with a little extra message in it for a loved one or someone you can't stop thinking about.
There are also possible powers, for the more magically-minded of you, with some believing delphiniums have the power to drive away scorpions - although we can't condone attempting to use a stem of July's birth flower to waft away one of these barbed arachnids (yes they have eight legs)!
The perennial flowers once a year in early summer while annuals, aka 'Consolida' or 'Larkspur', flower all summer long, and the blooms are slightly smaller than it's perennial sibling.
While delphiniums come in white and pinks, perhaps the most common colouring you'll see is blue. This flower is one of the few "true blue" blooms out there, as the colour doesn't occur as commonly in flowers as pink, orange or yellow. The paler sky blues have a delicate whimsy about them, but our preference is for the bombastic cobalt blues in varieties like Black Knight, King Arthur, Fenella and Faust.
