The Amazing Daisy
The daisy is a well known, cheerful flower that everyone knows, but did you know that it grows on every continent except for Antarctica? How about that it is the birth flower for the month of April? In this post we will be talking about facts and myths surrounding this beautiful flower. We would also like to wish everyone born in April the happiest of Birthdays!🌼
❁The name itself perhaps comes from the Old English word “daes eag,” which supposedly means “day’s eye,” in relation to the fact the they open up at dawn.
❁Daisies belong to Asteraceae or Compostiae, the Aster family, which consists of 23,000 individual species, all having star-shaped flowers.
❁Daisies were first known to be cultivated around 2,200 BC by the Egyptians, who used them for medical purposes.
❁In Native American legends the daisy is a symbol of the sun - representing life, truth, and joy.
❁According to Norse mythology they are Freya’s sacred flower, and thus are a symbol for fertility, love, sensuality, motherhood, and childbirth.
❁A Roman myth has the nymph Belides turning herself into a daisy to escape from the enamored god of seasons/gardens/agriculture, Vertumnus.
❁The Botanical (scientific name) of the Daisy is Bellis perennis, which is in relation to the Roman myth.
❁The Roman myth is also one reason why they are a symbol for transformation and chastity.
❁In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the character Ophelia hands Queen Gertrude a daisy to let her known that her husband was not to be trusted.
❁ Also, in Hamlet, Shakespeare had Ophelia wear a chain of daisies to show her innocence.
❁In the 1993 film, Tombstone, Doc Holliday says such phrases as “You’re no daisy. No daisy at all.” This meant that the person was not good at all.
❁Wordsworth wrote a poem called “To The Daisy.”
“But now my own delights I make,
My thirst at every rill can slake,
And gladly Nature’s love partake
Of Thee, sweet Daisy!”
❁ In the Victorian era, when the language of flowers was a big thing, if a woman received a bouquet of daisies from the man that she was interested in, it meant that the feelings were mutual.
❁ Daisies actually come in a variety of colors other than white, such as yellow, pink, red, purple.
❁ The daisy family was classified in 1792.
❁ Each one is technically two different flowers - the petals being considered one, while the tiny disc-shaped petals that form the center are another.
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Happy 8th Birthday, Zeke!🧡💛🖤