This list covers 45 flowers, ranging alphabetically from “Baby’s Breath” to “Busy Lizzie.” You’ll find delicate wildflowers, hardy garden perennials, flowering shrubs, and even a few tropical curiosities, each with its own bloom shape, color, and growing habit. People grow these flowers for cut arrangements, garden borders, pollinator-friendly plots, and landscaping, while many also carry symbolic meaning in bouquets and floral traditions.
Flowers are the reproductive structures of flowering plants, built to attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds while producing seeds for the next generation. Some, like the Bee Orchid, take mimicry to an extreme by shaping their petals to resemble a female bee and lure male bees into pollinating them. Others, like Bluebonnets, have become cultural icons, carpeting entire fields and even earning the title of state flower.
Below you’ll find the table with the flower name, scientific name, growing region, color, meaning, and description.
Flower: the common name you’ll recognize the plant by, useful for quickly finding a specific flower in the list.
Scientific Name: the Latin genus and species, helpful if you want to search for growing guides or confirm you have the right plant.
Growing Region: where the flower originates or grows naturally, so you know what climate and conditions it prefers.
Color: the typical bloom colors, handy for planning a garden palette or matching a bouquet.
Meaning: the symbolism traditionally tied to the flower, useful if you’re picking blooms for a gift or special occasion.
Description: a short overview of what makes the flower distinct, from its shape and size to where and how it’s commonly used.
Flowers
| Flower | Scientific Name | Growing Region | Color | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baby’s Breath | Gypsophila paniculata | Eastern Europe, Central Asia | White | Everlasting love, purity |
| Bachelor’s Button | Centaurea cyanus | Europe | Blue, pink, white, purple | Hope, delicacy |
| Balloon Flower | Platycodon grandiflorus | East Asia | Blue, purple, white, pink | Honesty, unchanging love |
| Balsam | Impatiens balsamina | South and Southeast Asia | Pink, red, white, purple | Impatience, touch-me-not |
| Basket Flower | Plectocephalus americanus | Central United States, Mexico | Lavender, pink, white | Elegance, resilience |
| Bat Flower | Tacca chantrieri | Southeast Asia | Dark purple, black | Mystery, protection |
| Bearberry | Arctostaphylos uva-ursi | Northern Hemisphere | White, pink | Resilience, endurance |
| Beardtongue | Penstemon spp. | North America | Pink, purple, red, white | Attraction, admiration |
| Bee Balm | Monarda didyma | North America | Red, pink, purple | Compassion, sweet virtue |
| Begonia | Begonia spp. | Tropical and subtropical regions | Red, pink, white, yellow, orange | Caution, individuality |
| Bellflower | Campanula spp. | Europe, Asia, North America | Blue, purple, white | Gratitude, constancy |
| Bells of Ireland | Moluccella laevis | Western Asia | Green | Good luck, prosperity |
| Belladonna Lily | Amaryllis belladonna | South Africa | Pink | Splendid beauty |
| Bindweed | Convolvulus arvensis | Europe, Asia | White, pink | Humility, uncertainty |
| Bird of Paradise | Strelitzia reginae | South Africa | Orange, blue | Freedom, joyfulness |
| Bird’s-eye Primrose | Primula farinosa | Europe | Pink, lilac | Youth, first love |
| Bird’s-foot Trefoil | Lotus corniculatus | Europe, Asia | Yellow | Revenge, retribution |
| Bishop’s Flower | Ammi majus | Mediterranean, North Africa | White | Sanctuary, refuge |
| Bitterroot | Lewisia rediviva | Western North America | Pink, white | Endurance, survival |
| Black-eyed Susan | Rudbeckia hirta | North America | Yellow with dark brown center | Justice, encouragement |
| Blanket Flower | Gaillardia spp. | North and South America | Red, orange, yellow | Unity, togetherness |
| Blazing Star | Liatris spicata | Eastern North America | Purple, pink | Happiness, playfulness |
| Bleeding Heart | Lamprocapnos spectabilis | East Asia, Siberia | Pink, white | Compassion, romantic love |
| Bloodroot | Sanguinaria canadensis | Eastern North America | White | Purity, protection |
| Bluebell | Hyacinthoides non-scripta | Western Europe | Blue | Humility, everlasting love |
| Bluebonnet | Lupinus texensis | Texas, United States | Blue | Devotion, imagination |
| Blue Flax | Linum lewisii | Western North America | Blue | Domestic virtue |
| Blue Poppy | Meconopsis betonicifolia | Himalayas, China | Blue | Mystery, rarity |
| Borage | Borago officinalis | Mediterranean | Blue | Courage, bravery |
| Bottlebrush | Callistemon spp. | Australia | Red | Vitality, warmth |
| Bougainvillea | Bougainvillea spp. | South America | Purple, pink, red, orange | Passion, beauty |
| Bridal Wreath | Spiraea prunifolia | East Asia | White | New beginnings |
| Broom | Cytisus scoparius | Europe | Yellow | Humility, neatness |
| Buttercup | Ranunculus spp. | Northern Hemisphere | Yellow | Cheerfulness, childishness |
| Butterfly Bush | Buddleja davidii | China | Purple, pink, white | Attraction, rebirth |
| Butterfly Pea | Clitoria ternatea | Southeast Asia | Blue | Elegance, tranquility |
| Butterfly Weed | Asclepias tuberosa | North America | Orange | Let me go |
| Buttonbush | Cephalanthus occidentalis | North America | White | Unity, gathering |
| Baby Blue Eyes | Nemophila menziesii | California, United States | Blue | Innocence, purity |
| Bee Orchid | Ophrys apifera | Europe, Mediterranean | Pink, brown | Deception, mimicry |
| Bluestar | Amsonia spp. | North America | Blue | Trust, harmony |
| Bugloss | Anchusa spp. | Europe | Blue | Falsehood, deceit |
| Bat-faced Cuphea | Cuphea llavea | Mexico | Red, purple | Whimsy, playfulness |
| Bittersweet Nightshade | Solanum dulcamara | Europe, Asia | Purple | Truth, bittersweet memory |
| Busy Lizzie | Impatiens walleriana | East Africa | Pink, red, white, orange, purple | Impatience, motherly love |
Descriptions
Baby’s Breath
A cloud-like filler flower with tiny blooms on wiry stems, prized in bouquets and wedding arrangements for softening bolder flowers and symbolizing innocence.
Bachelor’s Button
Also called cornflower, this cheerful wildflower once grew wild in European grain fields and is now a popular cottage-garden and cut-flower favorite.
Balloon Flower
Named for its puffed, balloon-shaped buds that pop open into star-shaped blossoms, this hardy perennial is a long-blooming staple of Asian gardens.
Balsam
A fast-growing annual whose ripe seed pods burst at the lightest touch, producing dense clusters of ruffled, rose-like flowers along upright stems.
Basket Flower
A tall thistle relative topped with fringed, cornflower-like blooms and a woven, basket-textured base, thriving in prairies and dry grasslands.
Bat Flower
A striking tropical rainforest flower with wing-like bracts and long whisker-like bracteoles, resembling a bat in flight and often grown as an exotic curiosity.
Bearberry
A low, hardy evergreen shrub bearing small urn-shaped flowers followed by red berries, thriving in cold, sandy, or rocky northern habitats.
Beardtongue
Named for the fuzzy sterile stamen inside each tubular bloom, this drought-tolerant perennial draws hummingbirds and bees to gardens and dry meadows.
Bee Balm
A fragrant, shaggy-flowered perennial in the mint family, long used in herbal teas and beloved by pollinators for its nectar-rich blooms.
Begonia
A diverse flowering plant genus grown for its waxy blossoms and often colorful, asymmetrical leaves, popular in shaded gardens and containers.
Bellflower
Named for its dainty bell-shaped blooms nodding from slender stems, this cottage-garden perennial thrives in rockeries, borders, and alpine settings.
Bells of Ireland
Despite its name, this unusual flower comes from Syria and Turkey, valued for its tall spikes of pale green, bell-shaped calyxes rather than petals.
Belladonna Lily
A leafless bulb that sends up bare stems topped with fragrant, trumpet-shaped pink flowers in late summer, native to the Cape region of South Africa.
Bindweed
A twining vine with funnel-shaped flowers resembling small morning glories, considered a persistent weed in gardens and farmland across temperate regions.
Bird of Paradise
A dramatic tropical flower shaped like a bird in flight, with vivid orange and blue petals emerging from a beak-like sheath.
Bird’s-eye Primrose
A small alpine wildflower with clusters of pink blooms and a yellow eye, found in damp meadows and mountain grasslands of Europe.
Bird’s-foot Trefoil
A low-growing legume with clover-like leaves and clusters of small yellow flowers, named for its seed pods that fan out like a bird’s foot.
Bishop’s Flower
Also called bishop’s lace or false Queen Anne’s lace, this airy flower produces flat, lacy white clusters popular in cottage gardens and bouquets.
Bitterroot
A drought-hardy succulent wildflower of the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest, prized historically for its edible root and delicate, many-petaled blooms.
Black-eyed Susan
A rugged, sunny wildflower with golden petals surrounding a dark cone-shaped center, common in meadows and roadside plantings across the continent.
Blanket Flower
Named for its warm, blanket-like bands of red and orange, this heat-tolerant daisy relative blooms prolifically through summer in dry, sunny soils.
Blazing Star
A tall prairie native with dense, feathery spikes of purple flowers that open from the top down, attracting butterflies in great numbers.
Bleeding Heart
A shade-loving perennial famous for its heart-shaped blooms that dangle in a row along arching stems, each with a drop-like inner petal.
Bloodroot
An early-spring woodland wildflower with a single white bloom wrapped in a leaf, named for the reddish sap found in its rhizome.
Bluebell
A woodland spring bulb that carpets forest floors in nodding, bell-shaped blue flowers with a sweet fragrance, especially iconic in Britain.
Bluebonnet
The state flower of Texas, this spring annual blankets fields in dense spikes of blue, pea-like blossoms tipped with white or purple.
Blue Flax
A slender, drought-tolerant wildflower with delicate sky-blue blooms that open each morning and drop their petals by afternoon.
Blue Poppy
A prized ornamental poppy with luminous sky-blue petals, native to high-altitude Himalayan meadows and notoriously difficult to grow outside cool climates.
Borage
An edible herb with star-shaped blue flowers historically believed to instill courage in those who consumed them, still used in salads and drinks today.
Bottlebrush
Named for its cylindrical flower spikes bristling with long red stamens like a bottle brush, this shrub is a magnet for nectar-feeding birds.
Bougainvillea
A vigorous flowering vine known for its papery, vividly colored bracts surrounding tiny true flowers, widely grown in warm coastal and tropical climates.
Bridal Wreath
A deciduous shrub whose arching branches become smothered in tiny double white blooms each spring, traditionally used in wedding decorations.
Broom
A wiry, drought-hardy shrub covered in bright yellow pea-like flowers each spring, common on heathland and once used to make actual sweeping brooms.
Buttercup
A familiar glossy-petaled wildflower found in meadows and lawns worldwide, its shiny yellow blooms a childhood symbol of sunny, carefree days.
Butterfly Bush
A fast-growing shrub with long, fragrant flower spikes that draw butterflies and bees in large numbers throughout summer and fall.
Butterfly Pea
A twining tropical vine with vivid deep-blue, pea-shaped flowers often used to make a naturally blue herbal tea and food coloring.
Butterfly Weed
A milkweed relative bearing clusters of bright orange flowers, essential to monarch butterflies as both a nectar source and caterpillar host plant.
Buttonbush
A wetland shrub producing round, pincushion-like white flower clusters that resemble small buttons and attract bees and butterflies near ponds and streams.
Baby Blue Eyes
A low, spreading California native wildflower with cup-shaped, sky-blue blooms that carpet fields and roadsides in spring.
Bee Orchid
A remarkable wild orchid whose furry, patterned lip mimics a female bee, tricking male bees into attempting to mate with it and pollinating the flower.
Bluestar
A native perennial with clusters of star-shaped, pale-blue spring flowers and foliage that turns golden yellow in autumn.
Bugloss
A rough-leaved perennial closely related to borage, producing sprays of small, brilliant blue flowers on bristly stems through early summer.
Bat-faced Cuphea
A compact tropical bedding plant whose small flowers resemble a tiny bat’s face, with dark purple “ears” and a red “nose,” beloved by hummingbirds.
Bittersweet Nightshade
A sprawling, mildly toxic vine with small star-shaped purple flowers featuring bright yellow centers, followed by red berries in autumn.
Busy Lizzie
A shade-loving bedding plant valued for its nonstop, brightly colored blooms, one of the most widely grown flowering annuals worldwide.