May has two birth flowers the Lily of the Valley and Hawthorn: one is a tiny poisonous bloom found in more royal wedding bouquets than any other spring flower, and the other is a thorny tree whose blossoms were so sacred in Celtic folklore that the Irish government rerouted a highway rather than cut one down.
Both may birth flower varieties pass through my Los Angeles flower studio every spring. Brides ask me for lily of the valley all spring, and I put it in bridal bouquets more than almost any other accent bloom.
For larger floral installations, hawthorn branches bring a raw texture no other spring-flowering bloom can match. Both of these May flowers move fast at the LA flower market once spring hits.
Why Does May Have Two Birth Flowers?
Two birth flowers ended up assigned to May because different regions grew different spring blooms in different flowering seasons. The lily of the valley is a shade-loving flowering ground cover. The hawthorn is a blossoming tree native to three continents. They share almost nothing.
On a design level, this May birth flower pairing is a gift. One bloom is petite and perfumed, just 12 inches high. The hawthorn grows 15 to 30 feet tall.
Wildly different scales. When clients call about a May birthday arrangement, I ask which birth flower sounds more like the recipient, and that narrows the bouquet in seconds.
May Birth Flower #1: Lily of the Valley
Photo credit: Flickr
A Spring Bloom With a Deceptive Name
Despite its name, this May birth flower (Convallaria majalis) belongs to the asparagus family, not the lily family. The flower's Latin name translates to "belonging to May." Each plant sends up arching flower stems lined with tiny white bell-shaped blooms that top out at 6 to 12 inches.
You only get two to four weeks of blooms each spring before the flowering window closes.
Older names for this May birth flower include Our Lady's Tears and May Bells. The French call this lily Muguet. Left alone in a garden, the flowering plant spreads through rhizomes faster than gardeners expect.
I have seen lily of the valley colonize a Brentwood side yard in three seasons.
Mythology Behind This May Birth Flower
Christian legend holds that lily of the valley flowers sprang from the Virgin Mary's tears. That origin story is why this May bloom carries flower symbolism of purity and motherhood. The English version is more vivid: St. Leonard fought a dragon in a Sussex forest, and lily of the valley sprouted from his blood.
That section of St. Leonard's Forest is still called The Lily Beds, and the flowers return every spring.
France turned this birth flower into a national May tradition. In 1561, King Charles IX received a lily of the valley sprig and began gifting the flower to every woman at court each spring. That May Day custom became La Fête du Muguet.
Today, roughly 60 million sprigs of lily of the valley sell across France every May 1st. Anyone can sell the blooms tax-free for that single day.
The Most Toxic Flower in a Wedding Bouquet
Every part of this May birth flower is poisonous. The lily of the valley plant contains around 30 glycosides, with convallatoxin being the most toxic. These poisonous compounds act on the heart like digitalis. Severe cases end in cardiac arrest.
Even vase water left after the flower stems have been removed can poison a pet.
Royalty has carried this May bloom in wedding bouquets for over a century. Grace Kelly chose lily of the valley for her 1956 Monaco wedding, and the British royal family continued the flower tradition for decades after.
Princess Diana included the lily bloom in her 1981 bridal bouquet, and Kate Middleton went further in 2011 by building her entire wedding flower arrangement around lily of the valley blooms.
In Holland, newlyweds plant this May birth flower in their garden as a gift of renewed devotion.
Lily of the Valley Color Meanings
All those royal bouquets shared one bloom: white lily of the valley. White is the most common flower color. The Victorians tied the white flower to purity and humility, and in their flower language, sending lily of the valley told the recipient "you have made my life complete."
Pink lily of the valley is harder to source. The pink variety signals romance and tenderness, a natural fit for romantic bouquets or anniversary arrangements.
This birth flower's link to motherhood connects it to Mother's Day flowers, since the bloom window overlaps with the holiday every spring. I carry birthday flowers featuring lily of the valley during its flowering season for May birthday recipients who want that flower symbolism layered into their gift.
May Birth Flower #2: Hawthorn
Photo credit: Flickr
More Tree Than Cut Flower
You won't find this May birth flower in a hand-tied bouquet. The hawthorn is a tree in the rose family, not a cut flower stem. Each spring the hawthorn produces dense blossom clusters from white to pink to deep red, backed by sharp thorns over an inch long.
A single hawthorn tree can live over 400 years, and that longevity gave this flowering plant sacred status in Celtic folklore.
Sacred Tree, Forbidden Indoor Flower
Celtic folklore gave hawthorn a name that still carries weight: the Fairy Tree. A solitary hawthorn in a field was sacred, and cutting the tree invited misfortune.
In 1999, Irish authorities altered a motorway to preserve a lone hawthorn that folklorist Eddie Lenihan called a fairy meeting tree. The Irish Times covered the flower story. The hawthorn still blooms alongside the M18.
A firm rule persisted: never bring hawthorn blossoms indoors. The Folklore Society's 1982-84 plant survey found 23.5% of unlucky flower entries referred to hawthorn blossoms, more than double any other bloom.
Trimethylamine in hawthorn flowers is the same compound in decaying tissue, which explains the superstition.
That indoor ban did not stop brides in ancient Greece from wearing hawthorn flower crowns at wedding ceremonies. In English legend, Joseph of Arimathea's staff sprouted into a flowering hawthorn tree at Glastonbury that still blooms twice yearly.
Every December, a flowering hawthorn sprig is still sent to the British monarch. I wrote a flower color meanings guide if you want to see how bloom color layers into your floral arrangements.
Which May Birth Flower Fits Your Person?
| Category | Lily of the Valley | Hawthorn |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Bridal bouquet gifts, Mother's Day | Large floral installations, folklore lovers |
| Message | You have made my life complete | I will protect you through every season |
| Personality | Understated, loyal, stronger than they appear | Bold, protective, full of contradictions |
| Fragrance | Sweet, heady, iconic in flower perfumery | Musky, earthy, polarizing |
| Vase Life | 5-7 days as cut flower stems | 3-5 days cut; 400+ years as a tree |
| Color | White, pale pink blooms | White, pink, red blossoms |
| Zodiac | Taurus (loyal, Venus-ruled) | Gemini (dual-natured, Mercury-ruled) |
Both May birth flowers belong in the same spring arrangement. I have set lily of the valley stems at the base of hawthorn branches in seasonal centerpieces, and the contrast between those tiny bloom bells and the wild, thorned tree silhouette pulls people in every time.
May Birth Flowers and Your Zodiac Sign
Taurus (April 20 - May 20): Venus rules this zodiac, and lily of the valley mirrors every Taurus trait. The May birth flower returns to the same garden patch each spring, like a Taurus returning for the people they love. Pair lily of the valley blooms with soft green foliage in a spring arrangement for a May Taurus birthday.
Gemini (May 21 - June 20): This zodiac is ruled by Mercury, and hawthorn is a May birth flower of opposites. The hawthorn tree produces generous spring blossoms while hiding thorns sharp enough to draw blood.
A Gemini born in May would love knowing their May birth flower once rerouted a highway and the hawthorn still gets a flowering branch delivered to the British monarch at Christmas.
Picking the Right May Birth Flower
One May birth flower sprouted from a saint's blood. The hawthorn sprouted from a biblical staff.
These two May flowers have appeared in royal wedding bouquets and outlived more stone buildings than you can count. For a May birthday, choose the birth flower that fits the person. The gentle loyalist gets lily of the valley blooms. The fierce protector gets hawthorn.
If you want both May flowers in one bouquet, call me at the studio and we can build a birthday flower arrangement that plays those two birth flower personalities against each other. Browse our birthday bouquets to see what spring flowers are in season, or check our other birth flower guides:
