Daisies suggest innocence.
The name comes from the Old English dægeseage, day’s eye, so called because of the pupil-like yellow center of this round white flower, and from the habit of daisies to shut their petals when the sun is gone.
The Greeks tell this story of the daisy’s origin. One morning the wood nymphs decided to dance on the sunny edge of the forest, where the orchards began. The god of the orchards, spying them at their games, drew near to watch. One nymph in particular stung him with her beauty, and he fell instantly in love and rushed at her. But she and her sisters vanished, taking refuge in the form of daisies, growing there at the edge of the forest.
The daisy, wrote poet Walter de la Mare, “makes a skylark of every heart.” Botticelli used the daisy in his paintings to symbolize the innocence of the Baby Jesus.
