April Gift Flowers

/ Bluebird Gardens/

Pheasant’s Eye Daffodils are welcoming April on my hillside. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

April Gift Flowers

I’m out of luck - or maybe out of season - to provide the traditional April gift flowers. Daisy and Sweet peas bloom much later in USDA Hardiness zone 5. Where I live, they bloom in June.

To keep the spirit of the daisy, I am substituting Pheasant’s eye daffodils for the April gift flower. Similar to daisies in shape and color, these are mid-to-late spring season bloomers in mid-Missouri.

Pheasant’s Eye Daffodils have a beautiful center. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

To give flowers from your garden, check thrift stores and garage sales for a supply of vases. I keep a handful in a garage cabinet so I can share flowers whenever the spirit moves me. There are few things that cheer someone up as much as a fresh bouquet of garden flowers.

In the Victorian-era “Language of Flowers,” daisies symbolize beauty, innocence, love or purity.

They can also mean "I'll never tell." So let’s not tell that we made a substitute, shall we?

Charlotte