Birth flower for May 21
Oriental poppy
Meaning: consolation, imagination
Oriental poppy has some of the largest flowers in the poppy family, with crumpled orange petals marked by black blotches at the base. Around 1700 the French botanist Tournefort collected its seed near Armenia and brought it into European gardens. After flowering its leaves die back in high summer and it rests, sending up fresh foliage in autumn.