Elizabeth Reich
- Dec 21, 2022
- 2 min read

Completing the Birth Flower Series

Happy Birthday January! Happy Birthday February! With this blog post I am closing out a 12 painting series all about the birth month flowers.

January's Birth Month Flower: Snowdrop

January's Birth Month flower has a distinct bell like shape. The Snowdrop's botanical name Galanthus nivalis has something to do with Galantamine. Which is a treatment for mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. This is an alkaloid derived from the bulbs and flowers from the Galanthus and Amaryllidaceae (Narcissus) plant family. The flower is commonly known as Snowdrop. The genus name is derived from the Greek words gala (milk) and anthos (flower). While nivalis is from the Latin and means snow.

Snowdrop's symbolism is optimism, hope, celebration and innocence.

Many legends are about this flower celebrating the arrival of spring or some story of hope. The Victorians had their own symbolism – sadly that of death, seeing these flowers as bad luck.

My research has four hopeful legends. I am going with these, and have called my artwork: Jubilee, because many of us celebrate at winter's end.

Interested in checking out the legends? This website provides a good summary: www.flowermeaning.com/snowdrop-flower-meaning/

My other resource:

www.almanac.com/content/january-birth-flowers

February Birth Month Flower: Violet

February's Birth Month flower has over 400 species worldwide, and a family name of Violaceae. The violet I decided to focus on has the botanical name Viola papilionacea. Commonly known as the Wild Violet. These flowers are viewed by some as a persistent weed. Described as a perennial that tends towards weediness with heart shaped leaves.

I can attest to their persistence. I have them popping up in my lawn, rock paths, and along with the garden flowers. I find them pretty, so I leave them, see the blog post titled Wildflower or Weed to learn why. I also enjoy that I will see new green shoots in mid winter and little twinkles of purple color in mid to late February. They persist into the summer months. Their color arrives right at the time I need some.

I recently read that the young leaves and flowers are edible. Offering vitamins A and C, not sure if I want to pick the ones growing in my lawn.

Purple violets symbolism: truth and loyalty, modesty and humbleness, and remembrance. Their name is derived from the Latin viola which means violet flower or violet color. During the Victorian era giving a bouquet of these flowers was a reminder of: