Birth flower for February 13
White plum blossom
Meaning: Grace
White plums are often said to smell sweeter and stronger than red ones. Almost every plum in Japan's eighth-century poetry anthology, the Man'yoshu, is a white plum, since red varieties arrived later. Most trees at Yushima Tenjin in Tokyo are the white variety Shirokaga, and the orchards of Xinyi Township in Taiwan, planted for their fruit, turn the hills white each winter.