Before the last sands of August slip through the hourglass,
I wanted to mention the symbolic flower for August.
It's the gladiolus.
The gladiolus is a long-stalked plant with large opened trumpet flowers
that sport a ruffled edge and an assortment of vibrant colors.
They are beautiful and delicate, given to falling over when their blossoms are full--
kind of like a Victorian lady on a fainting couch.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gladiolus#mediaviewer/File:Purple_Gladioli.jpg
Image uploaded by: twdragon 2008
So to me, glads just don't seem like an appropriate choice for August.
They seem like more of a late May, early June kind of flower.
Gladioli are just too refined and frilly to symbolize
the rough and tumble, the grit and sweat of hot August days.
By U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters
[CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
August needs a flower that's bold. Something orange or golden yellow,
something that defies the heat of the season and the scorching summer sun.
Maybe a sunflower that grows straight and upright along fields awaiting harvest.
Or coneflowers, with their crew-cut seed heads
and petals down around their prickly necks.
Perhaps even an Indian Blanket flower.
I've seen them co-mingling with sand burrs near the beach
and growing out of the burning hot sand along a Florida sidewalk.
Now that's a rugged flower.
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