Birth flower for July 25
Bee balm
Meaning: comfort, a sensitive heart
The genus is named after Nicolás Monardes, a 16th-century Spanish physician who wrote about New World plants. Its crushed leaves smell like bergamot orange, which is why it is also called bergamot. After the Boston Tea Party, American colonists are said to have brewed its leaves as Oswego tea instead of imported black tea. Bees, butterflies and hummingbirds all visit its shaggy heads.