Birth symbols

April Birth Flowers: Daisy and Sweet Pea

In April the birth flowers are the daisy, for innocence, purity and true love, and the sweet pea, whose meaning is a mix of thank you, goodbye and good wishes.

Daisy

Scientific name	Bellis (the English daisy) and related genera
Family	Aster family (Asteraceae)
Native to	Europe and Africa
Blooms	Spring to fall, depending on the kind
Colors	White, yellow, pink and red

Daisy color meanings

Color	Meaning
White	Purity and innocence
Yellow	Joy and friendship
Pink	Affection
Red	Love and romance

The "day's eye" and Freyja's flower

"Daisy" comes from the Old English "day's eye": the English daisy opens by day and closes at night.
Each daisy is two kinds of flower in one: a center of tiny florets and the ray petals around it.
In Norse myth it was the flower of Freyja, goddess of love, so daisies became a gift for new mothers.

Sweet Pea

Scientific name	Lathyrus odoratus
Family	Pea family (Fabaceae)
Native to	Italy and the Mediterranean
Blooms	Spring to early summer
Colors	Hundreds of shades

A Sicilian monk's find and a French bridal flower

A Sicilian monk, Francis Cupani, found it in the late 1600s and sent seed to England and the Netherlands.
Its scent is often compared to orange, honey and jasmine.
In France it was a traditional bridal flower, for luck in the marriage.

Keeping a daisy and sweet pea bouquet fresh

Shasta daisies bloom in gardens from June to September and make easy cut flowers. Cut them in the morning, when plants are fully hydrated, and put the stems straight into water. Strip any leaves that would sit underwater. Florist gerbera daisies are fussier: their hairy stems pick up dirt and bacteria that can clog the stem and make the head droop.

Daisy seed is started indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost, and plants from seed flower the next season. Oxeye, Shasta, Gerbera and English daisies are the common garden kinds.

Sweet peas are bought for their scent, but they are one of the shortest-lived cut flowers. Cornell reports about 5 days in a vase at room temperature. They are very sensitive to ethylene from ripening fruit, which wilts petals and makes buds drop. Local stems are seasonal; in Cornell's New York trials they flowered from mid to late June.

Sweet peas are annual climbers 6 to 10 feet tall. Give them full sun, rich soil and a trellis, and sow early, since they do not like heat.

Unlike the garden pea, the sweet pea is toxic to people and animals.

Diamond is the April birthstone; its own page covers its colors and care. Six months on, an April birthday's half birthday falls in October, the month of marigolds and cosmos. Both dates can go into the Birthday Calendar as separate entries.

Birth flowers for other months

April Birth Flowers questions

Did the April birth flower list always include the sweet pea?

No. In 1907 a book of party ideas by Ellye Howell Glover gave April the daisy alone, once in the invitation to its June party and once in a birth-month calendar. The sweet pea is missing from both.

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