April birth flowers: daisy and sweet pea
The traditional birth flowers for April, what they meant in the Victorian language of flowers, and how to grow them.
English daisy (in the UK, simply daisy)
Bellis perennis
Rosettes of spoon-shaped leaves and small white daisies with yellow centers, often tinged pink, in spring and summer. (RHS)
In the language of flowers
“Innocence” (Greenaway, Dumont).
Growing it
Grow in full sun to part shade in rich, consistently moist, well-drained soil; it doesn’t like drought. It’s a perennial, but in the US it’s often grown for a single season. It flowers from May to July in Missouri and is hardy in USDA zones 4 to 8 and throughout the UK.
Sources: RHS, Missouri Botanical Garden
Sweet pea
Lathyrus odoratus
A climbing annual that holds on with tendrils, with fragrant, ruffled, pea-shaped flowers. (RHS; Missouri Botanical Garden)
In the language of flowers
“Departure” (Greenaway).
A gentle flower for a goodbye; on a birthday, it can stand for setting out into a new year.
Growing it
Grow in full sun in rich, well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter; it does best in cool summers and struggles in heat and humidity. It flowers from late spring into summer (May to July in Missouri), and it’s an annual, sown each year.
Take care: The pods and seeds aren’t edible, for people or pets. (RHS)
Sources: RHS, Missouri Botanical Garden
About birth flowers
Birth flowers are a tradition, not a rule: lists vary a little, and no one body sets them. The meanings here come from two Victorian flower dictionaries, Kate Greenaway’s Language of Flowers (1884) and Henrietta Dumont’s The Language of Flowers (1851). Both are free to read on Project Gutenberg.
How each flower looks and grows comes from the Royal Horticultural Society and the Missouri Botanical Garden, linked under each flower. Where US and UK names differ, the US name comes first.