Blooms: summer (English flower of April)

Language:
innocence, gentleness (Victorian)

Mythology/Folklore

In France many young lovers test the sincerity of their affections by taking a daisy and plucking its leaflets off one by one, saying 'does he love me? A little- much- passionately- not at all.”

When an English milkmaid wanted to dream of her lover, she would put her shoes outside the door and daisy under her pillow.

According to the doctrine of signatures, daisies were used to cure eye problems.

Flower, pounded into a powder and mixed with wine, was thought to be an effective tonic. The flowers were also thought to hold the powers to cure insanity.

An ancient Celtic legend says that daisies appeared from the spirits of children who died at birth. God sprinkled these bright and lovely flowers across the earth to cheer the grieving parents.

History/ Modern use

Common name for daisy comes from “day's eye” because the whole head closes at night and opens in the morning. Chaucer called it “eye of the day.”

The English had multitude of names for the daisy including moondaisy, moon flower, or thunder flower (because it was thought to have the powers to guard one against thunder and lightening), Saint John's Flower, and bruisewort.

The German name for the flower is ganesblume, or goose floewr, presumably for the color of the petals.

In Yorkshire it is called bairnwort, or “beloved by children.”

In Sweden it is known as prastkrage, or “priest's collar,” because the bright white petals of daisies were similar to the starched white collars worn by Lutheran priests.