June birth flowers: rose and honeysuckle
June’s birth flowers are the rose and the honeysuckle. In the Victorian flower dictionaries the rose meant love, with a different message for almost every colour and kind, and the honeysuckle generous and devoted affection.
Meaning
The Old Farmer’s Almanac gives the rose first and honeysuckle second; University of Illinois Extension gives the rose alone and West Virginia University Extension the honeysuckle alone. The honeysuckle of European hedges is Lonicera periclymenum, a twining vine of Europe and North Africa whose name comes from the Greek for “to entwine around” (NC State Extension). The rose’s colours each have a page in the language of flowers: red, white, yellow and pink. Penn State Extension’s Master Gardeners say the meanings rest “on folklore and tradition passed on through generations” and vary with the source and the time.
Origin and history
Kate Greenaway’s Language of Flowers (1884) gives the rose, plain, as love, and then lists more than thirty kinds and colours of rose with messages of their own: the deep red rose is bashful shame, the white rose “I am worthy of you”, the yellow rose decrease of love and jealousy, and a white and a red rose together unity. Katharine Beals (1917) gathers the classical stories. The rose was dedicated to Venus. In Anacreon’s telling the earth offered the gods a green branch with a tiny bud, which opened into a white rose when Jupiter had it sprinkled with nectar. In another story, Venus stepped on a thorn as she hurried to the wounded Adonis, and the red rose grew where her blood fell. Henrietta Dumont (1851) gives the same fable for the red colour of the rose, and Sarah Josepha Hale says the rose was originally white until the goddess’s blood coloured it.
Rose meanings by book
Frederic Shoberl (1840) and Dumont’s dictionary give the rose love. Dumont’s longer entries give the red rose “beauty and love” and the white rose “I would be single”, where Greenaway has “I am worthy of you”. Hale agrees with Greenaway on the deep red rose, bashful shame, and gives the white rose sadness.
Devotion or inconstancy: the honeysuckle
Greenaway, Shoberl and Dumont’s dictionary give the honeysuckle generous and devoted affection. Shoberl reads it from the way a young honeysuckle wraps itself round the trunk of an old oak. Dumont’s longer entry, on woodbine or honeysuckle, shortens it to affection. Hale, writing of North American plants, splits it: the coral honeysuckle is fidelity, the wild honeysuckle inconstancy. Greenaway gives the coral honeysuckle “the colour of my fate”, and West Virginia University Extension gives June’s honeysuckle “pure happiness, fires of love”.
Where you’ll see it today
whatdoesthissymbolmean.comJune birthstones: pearl, moonstone and alexandriteThe same month's birthstoneSee also
Red rose, White rose, January birth flowers: carnation and snowdrop, February birth flowers: violet and primrose, March birth flowers: daffodil and jonquil, April birth flowers: daisy and sweet pea.
Sources
- Monthly Birth Flowers, Master Gardeners of Luzerne County, Penn State Extension
- Birth Flowers by Month: Discover Your Monthly Flower & Meaning, Catherine Boeckmann, updated 17 September 2026, The Old Farmer’s Almanac
- Floriography: The meaning of flowers, Bruce J. Black and Rhonda Ferree, updated November 2022, University of Illinois Extension
- WL 173 Floriography: The Language of Flowers, Natasha Harris and Jesica Streets, 2022, West Virginia University Extension
- Language of Flowers, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, 1884, George Routledge and Sons (Project Gutenberg edition)
- The Language of Flowers: The Floral Offering, by Henrietta Dumont, 1851, H. C. Peck & Theo. Bliss, Philadelphia (Project Gutenberg edition)
- The Language of Flowers, with Illustrative Poetry, by Frederic Shoberl, seventh edition, 1840, Saunders & Otley, London (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library copy)
- Flora’s Interpreter, and Fortuna Flora, by Sarah Josepha Hale, 1856 edition, Sanborn, Carter and Bazin, Boston (Internet Archive)
- Flower Lore and Legend, by Katharine M. Beals, 1917, Henry Holt and Company, New York (Internet Archive)
- Lonicera periclymenum (Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox), NC State Extension
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Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research