Birth flower for June 4
Water lily
Meaning: Purity, enlightenment
Water lilies open in daylight and fold shut in the evening, as if going to sleep, which is why Chinese and Japanese call them "sleeping lotus." An old Japanese name, hitsujigusa, is said to come from blooming around the hour of the sheep, about 2 p.m. The botanical name Nymphaea honors the water nymphs of Greek myth, and Claude Monet painted around 250 water lily pictures in his garden at Giverny.