Birth flower for June 3
Eustoma
Meaning: Lasting love, grace
Eustoma, also sold as lisianthus, is no relative of the true bellflower: it belongs to the gentian family and comes from North America, yet in Japan it is called "Turkish bellflower", for reasons nobody agrees on. Wild plants bear simple purple cups, but decades of work by Japanese breeders created today's ruffled, rose-like doubles. Taiwan grows it in quantity too, shipping winter crops to Japan, and it is a wedding-bouquet favourite.