Birth flower for April 23
Baby's breath
Meaning: everlasting love, purity
Its botanical name, Gypsophila, means 'lover of gypsum', because it thrives in limy soil. Thousands of tiny white blooms make a cloud: Japanese calls it kasumisō, 'mist grass', and Chinese 'a sky full of stars'. Long the humble filler in bouquets, it is now often bundled on its own into big airy armfuls for weddings and graduations.