November Birth Flower: Chrysanthemum (and Peony) Meanings

The November birth flower is the chrysanthemum, or mum, a fall bloomer that meant cheerfulness, truth and love in Victorian flower dictionaries and long life in Chinese art. Many modern lists add the peony as a second November flower, though peonies bloom in late spring and The Old Farmer's Almanac lists only the chrysanthemum.

What is the November birth flower?

The short answer is the chrysanthemum. The Old Farmer's Almanac names it as the November birth flower, and the Farmers' Almanac calls it the official one. The peony shows up on many modern lists as a second choice.

The name is a small gift in itself. "Chrysanthemum" comes from the Greek chrȳsánthemon, built from chrys-, meaning "gold", and ánthemon, meaning "flower". So November's flower is, quite literally, a gold flower.

The mum you buy today, Chrysanthemum × morifolium, is a complex hybrid of five Chinese species, and it does not flower until autumn. That timing is built in. Mums are short-day plants: the length of the dark night is what tells them to bloom. Long autumn nights make the chrysanthemum birth flower a natural fit for November.

I grow mums in pots at home, and here in Saudi Arabia mine flower in the cooler months, from late autumn into winter.

Born a month earlier or later? See the October birth flower and the December birth flower, or browse all twelve months in our birth flowers guide.

Is the peony a November birth flower too?

It depends on which list you read. The Farmers' Almanac says "the peony stands as the recognized alternative November flower." The Old Farmer's Almanac gives November the chrysanthemum alone.

Lists differ because the tradition grew out of regional habits, "not because of a single agreed-upon origin," as The Old Farmer's Almanac puts it. I couldn't find a source that says who first added the peony to November, so I won't guess.

The seasons don't help the peony's case. Garden peonies bloom in May to early June, half a year away from November.

Old calendars point to mums instead. Dumont's 1851 Language of Flowers includes a "Calendar of Flowers" with one flower for each saint's day. It puts the Indian chrysanthemum on October 7 and a late-flowering creeping chrysanthemum on October 28. Its November list has no chrysanthemum and no peony.

My honest answer: the chrysanthemum is November's flower. Give peonies if the person you're celebrating loves them.

Chrysanthemum meaning, then and now

Ask what a mum means and you'll get different answers depending on the century and the country. In the US today, The Old Farmer's Almanac gives the chrysanthemum the meaning of friendship, loyalty and honesty. Older and wider traditions add more layers.

In Victorian flower dictionaries

Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers, published in London in 1884, gives mums their meanings by type and color:

• Chinese chrysanthemum: cheerfulness under adversity
• Red chrysanthemum: "I love"
• White chrysanthemum: truth
• Yellow chrysanthemum: slighted love

Not every Victorian book agreed. Dumont's 1851 American Language of Flowers has no chrysanthemum entry in its list of meanings at all.

In Chinese and Japanese tradition

In Chinese art, the chrysanthemum "reflects autumn and symbolizes longevity," according to The Met. It is also one of the "Four Gentlemen", along with plum blossom, orchid and bamboo. Each of the four stands for a noble virtue of the ideal Confucian scholar.

In Japan, the flower is part of the imperial crest, a chrysanthemum with 16 double petals. A 16-petal chrysanthemum design also appears on Japanese passports. nippon.com notes that the flower reached Japan around the Heian period (794–1185) and links it to Chōyō, a festival held on September 9.

When mums mean mourning

Here is the part most November birth flower guides skip. In modern flower language, white chrysanthemums stand for mourning, sympathy, remembrance and respect. In Belgium, families often place chrysanthemums on the graves of relatives for All Saints' Day (Toussaint). In East Asia, and particularly in China, mums are more often tied to death, grief and mourning.

So for a birthday, choose warm colors, and skip white if the person grew up with these traditions. If you need flowers for a loss instead, our guide to funeral flower meanings can help, and flowers that mean death explains how different cultures connect flowers with mourning.

Chrysanthemum colors and meanings

Color changes everything with the November birth flower, and some meanings have flipped since 1884. The middle column comes from Greenaway's 1884 dictionary; the "today" column comes from the Farmers' Almanac. A dash means Greenaway lists no meaning for that color.

Color	Victorian meaning (Greenaway, 1884)	Meaning today (Farmers' Almanac)	Good for
Red	I love	Romance, love, passion, courage	A partner's birthday
White	Truth	Mourning, sympathy, remembrance, respect	Sympathy, not birthdays
Yellow	Slighted love	Happiness, joy, celebration	Friends, family and coworkers (not a romantic card)
Pink	—	Gentleness, affection, optimism	Mom, grandma or a close friend
Purple	—	Good health, get well, luxury, longevity	A grandparent, or a get-well bouquet
Orange	—	Excitement, enthusiasm	A milestone birthday or a coworker
Green	—	Renewal, rebirth, youth	A fresh start, like a new job or home

Yellow and white are the two to watch. Yellow went from slighted love to pure joy, and white went from truth to mourning.

Chrysanthemum shapes you'll see at the florist

If you're shopping for the November birth flower, you'll find mums in far more shapes than you might expect. The National Chrysanthemum Society sorts them into 13 different classes. You don't need to learn them all to shop, but three looks are easy to tell apart:

• Spider mums have "long tubular ray florets that hook or coil at the end", so the flower looks loose and wild.
• Pompon or button mums look like small, tight balls of petals, often several to a stem.
• Daisy-like mums look like a daisy: one ring of petals around an open center.

Peony, November's second birth flower

When people talk about the November birth flower peony, this page uses the common garden peony, Paeonia lactiflora, as the example. The Missouri Botanical Garden says it is native to Tibet, China and Siberia, flowers in white, pink or crimson, and came to North America in the 1800s. Its name goes back to the Greek paiōnía, a word related to Paiā́n.

Peony meaning

The peony's meaning is even less settled than the mum's:

• Greenaway (1884): shame and bashfulness.
• Dumont (1851): anger, chosen "from its red and fiery hues."
• Chinese art (The Met): the peony "alludes to spring and denotes wealth."

If you write about the meaning in a birthday card, the Chinese reading is the kindest one to borrow.

Can you find peonies in November?

Not from the garden. Garden peonies bloom in May to early June. If you have your heart set on peonies for a November birthday, ask your florist what they can get.

November birth flower and birthstone

November also has two birthstones: topaz and citrine. GIA describes citrine as a yellow to brownish orange variety of quartz, and topaz comes in a wide range of colors. That makes the November birth month flower easy to match with its stones:

• Citrine with yellow or bronze mums. The warm tones pick up each other.
• Blue topaz with white or green mums. A cool, calm pairing. Keep the white for occasions where it won't read as mourning.

For every month's flower and stone together, see our guide to birth flowers and birthstones.

November birthday flower gift ideas

A few November birth flower gift ideas, from fresh to forever:

• A bouquet in warm colors. Red for a partner, yellow, orange or pink for everyone else. Use the color table above to pick.
• A pot of mums. A living gift that suits the season.
• A birth-flower print or necklace. A chrysanthemum print or pendant lasts long after the flowers fade, and it is the safe choice for homes with pets.

More ideas for every month are in our birth flower gifts guide.

Are mums and peonies safe for cats and dogs?

No. The ASPCA lists the chrysanthemum as toxic to dogs, cats and horses. Signs include vomiting, diarrhea, drooling, poor coordination and skin irritation. It lists the peony as toxic to dogs, cats and horses too, with vomiting, diarrhea and depression as signs.

If the birthday person has a cat or dog, skip the real flowers and choose a November birth flower print or a piece of jewelry instead.

We have a cat at home, so I keep my potted mums on the balcony or up high, out of our cat's reach.

When I arrange mums at home, I strip off any leaves that would sit under the water, trim the stems, and change the water every day or two. A little greenery tucked in between the blooms makes a small bunch look fuller.

What to write in a November birthday card

A few of these lines borrow the November birth flower's meanings: "I love" for a red mum comes from Greenaway's 1884 dictionary, long life from Chinese art, and friendship from The Old Farmer's Almanac. Copy any line as it is, or change a word to make it yours.

One check before you send: if you use the red-chrysanthemum line, send red mums with it. And keep yellow mums away from a romantic card, since in 1884 yellow meant slighted love.

November birth flower FAQ

Sources

• The Old Farmer's Almanac, Birth Month Flowers and Their Meanings
• Farmers' Almanac, November Flower Lore
• Kate Greenaway, Language of Flowers (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1884): Project Gutenberg and archive.org scan
• Dumont, The Language of Flowers (Philadelphia: Peck & Bliss, 1851): Project Gutenberg
• NC State Extension Plant Toolbox, Chrysanthemum × morifolium
• Missouri Botanical Garden, Paeonia lactiflora
• SharathKumar et al., Frontiers in Plant Science, 2021
• The Met, Extravagant Display
• Harvard Art Museums, Cultivating Virtue
• nippon.com, The chrysanthemum and the imperial crest
• US Army Garrison Benelux, All Saints' Day honors the deceased
• NYBG Plant Talk, Countdown to Kiku
• GIA, November Birthstones
• ASPCA, Chrysanthemum and Peony
• Dictionary.com, chrysanthemum, chrys- and peony