“The daisy is a happy flower,
And comes at early spring,
And brings with it the sunny hour when bees are on the wing.”
John Clare - The Daisy
The warmth of the late Spring sunshine sees the garden bursting into life - the height of the season also invites all windows and doors to be flung wide open for the sun’s warm rays to seep into the fabric of everyday life. We’ve also had some spectacular heavy showers which I’m not complaining about; the garden is definitely needing a jolly good drink, especially the borders and the lawn which meanders around the house.
Multiflora rosa also known as Baby rose, Bramble rose, Japanese rose, Many-Flowered rose and Rosa polyantha is beginning to bloom with its abundant clusters of small highly fragrant white to pinkish white five-petaled flowers with prominent yellow stamens. It’s large, scrambling and arching in the side border next to the Canna lilies. It’s also quite invasive, but I can see why the original owners planted it. Other than being quite ornamental, creating a spectacular display, it is a ‘living fence’ for livestock, erosion control and a perfect habitat for wildlife. Its blooms carry up to 30 blossoms and covers the foliage when in full bloom. Bright red rosehips follow after flowering - birds and small mammals devour the hips an essential food source during autumn and winter, creating seed dispersal, they’re quite decorative really. Other essential pollinators such as bees and butterflies and other pollinating insects love them, and the dense thicket offers nesting sites and shelter for birds. I have to admit, Multiflora rosa does add charm to the side border and I do rather like it. Its scent is divine.
The lawn on the other hand is not looking like a crowning glory. It’s not quite lush and velvety, smooth and neatly clipped, a work of fine art, as lawns should be, but the garden is filled with birdsong and a plethora of scented blooms. I can imagine the lawn in its heyday being a hive of activity of summer games of cricket with the odd broken window or two - everyone loves a stroll and a play on the grass.
Daisies are a delightful sign that Spring is in full swing and Summer is just around the corner. My lawn is full of them. Known as Bellis perennial, Common daisy and Lawn daisy it’s actually a wildflower, very common and underrated in my book. This dainty, humble and unassuming wildflower is so much more than a delightful blossom. It’s immortalised in folklore and myth, a true wonder for essential pollinators and wildlife, and it’s steeped in history, that goes far back many millennia.
It isn’t just ‘one’ or ‘a’ flower, but 100 flowers! Each of the small white petals is an individual flower, and the bright yellow centre is a disc of florets, made up of hundreds more of tiny flowers. These are supported by a single green stem, that grows from a small cluster of leaves - the petals are sometimes tinged with delightful specks of pastel pink and purple. The white sea carpet, which is my lawn, is a wildlife wonder. The daisy provides pollen for bees and other essential pollinators such as insects, hover flies and butterflies, but I realised the other day that it’s not just a pollen magnet, but an essential food source for birds, caterpillars and pesky rabbits which there are many in the garden, particulary rabbits - they’ve almost devoured the wild garlic. Finches and sparrows and other foraging birds love feeding on the dried daisy heads. I feel as if I’ve joined the ‘No Mow Movement’ and instead, letting the lawn grow for nature!
Daisy in old English means ‘days eye’ because the flower opens its petals at dawn and closes them at dusk. It’s seen to symbolise innocence and love. In Norse mythology, the daisy was the sacred flower of Freyja, the Goddess of Love and Fertility, making it a symbol of motherhood. In Celtic folklore, it is said that when a child passed away, God would scatter daisies over the land, and so the dainty white flower came to symbolise their pure white spirits. In Roman folklore, the story of Belides, a nymph, turned herself into a daisy to avoid the advances of the God of Seasons Vertummus. The daisy was grown in gardens in ancient Egypt and used for medicinal purposes such as coughs and for pain. Roman soldiers would collect daisies to heal wounds which is why they called it ‘wonderwort’ and ‘bruisewort.’
Everyone knows the daisy. When I was young, I used to sit in the garden playing the petal picking game “he loves me, he loves me not.”I would also pick daisies, make daisy chains and any left over put in an egg cup of water for the kitchen window. I also remember reading the classic children’s poem by Mary Howitt ‘Buttercups and Daisies.”
Welcome yellow buttercups
Welcome daisies white
Ye are in my spirit
Visioned a delight.
Coming ere the springtime
Of sunny hours to tell
Speaking to our hearts of Him
Who doeth all things well.
Achieving the perfectly light and dark striped finish on the lawn, neatly clipped, with the quest for stripes and patterns, an art in itself, which I’m sure many gardeners aspire to is not my thing. I think I’ll keep my sea of dainty white flowers, with cheerful bright open faces, and let my lawn grow for nature!
