Birthstones by Month, and How to Wear Them

Winter: garnet, amethyst, aquamarine

Garnet is January's, and it is not only red. It comes in green and orange too, though the deep red is the one people picture. Amethyst, for February, is the purple the Greeks believed kept a clear head. Aquamarine takes its name from seawater, and sailors once carried it for calm crossings. It is March's gem, and one of the sturdier ones.

Spring: diamond, emerald, and June's three

April has the diamond, the hardest thing in nature. May has the emerald, whose green has meant spring for as long as anyone has written about gems. Many emeralds are treated to improve their clarity, so they are cleaned gently and kept away from heat.

June has three. The pearl is the gem made inside a living shell, soft and luminous. Alexandrite is green by day and red by lamplight, and very rare. Moonstone holds a pale glow that moves across it as it turns.

Summer: ruby, peridot, spinel, sapphire

Ruby, for July, is the red of the gem world, as hard as sapphire and second only to diamond. August has peridot, a bright lime green, and spinel, which comes in reds and pinks so fine that for centuries it was mistaken for ruby. September has sapphire: blue above all, but found in every color except red.

Autumn and the year's end

October's opal carries flashes of every color in one gem, and no two are alike. Its companion, tourmaline, comes in more colors than almost any other gem. November has topaz and golden citrine. And December has its blues: turquoise, worn for thousands of years; tanzanite, found in one place on earth; bright zircon, which is a gem in its own right and has nothing to do with the imitation that borrowed part of its name; and blue topaz, the clear blue that many lists add.

Which ones to wear every day

A ring lives a harder life than a pendant, and not every gem is made for it.

The softer gems share one rule: keep them out of ultrasonic and steam cleaners. A soft cloth is all a pearl or an opal wants. Bring any of them by and we will clean it the way that gem should be cleaned.

A gift that says one thing

A birthstone is rarely chosen for oneself. It is chosen for a mother, with a gem for each of her children. For a daughter turning sixteen. For a wife, in the month you met.

For the gem that belongs to a year instead of a month, see Anniversary Gifts by Year.

Come and tell us who it is for. At any of our three Tulsa showrooms we will lay the gem in your hand, in more than one shade, and help you find the piece that carries it. And if it should hold a whole family's months at once, our own goldsmiths will make it.