April Birthday Flower

The long day I shope me for to abide,
For nothing els, and I shall nat lie,
But for to looke upon the daisie,
That well by reason men it call may
The daisie, or els the eye of the day,
The empress and floure of floures all,
I pray to God that faire mote she fall,
And all that loven floures for her sake.

Chaucer, The legend of good women

Daisy is the common name of many species of similar appearance, but the best known is Bellis perennis, the common or English daisy. Its name, as Chaucer makes clear, derives from the Old English dæġes ēaġe, or day’s eye, because it opens by day and closes at night. The daisy is native to western, central and northern Europe, but has become naturalised in temperate climates all over the world. Depending on how you look at it, it’s either a delight to the eye or an invasive weed. The larger varieties, with white, pink and red flowers up to six centimetres across, are grown as biennial bedding plants. The plant has also been known as woundwort and bruisewort. In Roman times, army surgeons would take sacks of daisies into battle, extract the juice, and use this to soak bandages. As a birth flower for April, the daisy is associated with purity and innocence.

Lathyrus odoratus: Its English and Latin names give an inkling of the heady pleasures that await. A native of southern Europe, it was first sent to England from Italy by a monk, Franciscus Cupani, in the seventeenth century. The sweet pea was a relatively undistinguished plant, and we have one man to thank for its spectacular diversity and popularity: Henry Eckford, a Scottish gardener who rescued it from obscurity in the late 19th century and cultivated over a hundred varieties. These range from pale pinks and violets to vivid reds and blues. Breeders have created bicolour and streaked patterns, and picotees, whose edges are a different colour to the rest of the flower. You may even find shifters, which change colour as they age in the vase: Turquoise Lagoon, for example, shifts from pink to blue. The sweet pea is one of the birth flowers for April. It is particularly associated with pleasure, and also with saying goodbye.

Lathyrus odoratus: Its English and Latin names give an inkling of the heady pleasures that await. A native of southern Europe, it was first sent to England from Italy by a monk, Franciscus Cupani, in the seventeenth century. The sweet pea was a relatively undistinguished plant, and we have one man to thank for its spectacular diversity and popularity: Henry Eckford, a Scottish gardener who rescued it from obscurity in the late 19th century and cultivated over a hundred varieties.

These range from pale pinks and violets to vivid reds and blues. Breeders have created bicolour and streaked patterns, and picotees, whose edges are a different colour to the rest of the flower. You may even find shifters, which change colour as they age in the vase: Turquoise Lagoon, for example, shifts from pink to blue.

The sweet pea is one of the birth flowers for April. It is particularly associated with pleasure, and also with saying goodbye.

January: Carnation or snowdrop
February: Violet or primrose
March: Daffodil or jonquil
April: Daisy or sweet pea
May: Lily of the valley or hawthorn
June: Rose or honeysuckle
July: Larkspur or water lily
August: Gladiolus or poppy
September: Aster
October: Calendula or cosmos
November: Chrysanthemum
December: Narcissus (paperwhite) or holly