The French Daisy
Love’s True Destiny Revealed in a Single Flower
She sits in a field; hair kissed gold by the setting sun. A single flower rests in her hand; dreams swirl with the clouds above as she begins to pluck, revealing the true heart of the one she loves. She wants to know. She needs to know. She must know.
The French Daisy Love Poem
He loves me a little.
He loves me a lot.
He loves me passionately.
He loves me madly.
He loves me not at all.
She continues around the flower, love’s fate hangs in the balance of the few remaining petals. Her heart skips. The final petals fall, and love’s true destiny is revealed, “He loves me passionately”.
While the American daisy is simply “yes” or “no” (“he loves me, he loves me not”), the French daisy is a flower poem of subtly nuanced love. All daisies have a varying petal count. Our French Daisy bracelet topper has 33-petals which translates to “He loves me passionately.”
The French Daisy is the Symbol
of Love’s Destiny
A Design Detail Note
The final step after assembly – the flower goes to the “petal adjuster” who goes around the perimeter of the flower, not plucking but adjusting (turning, bending, twisting) each petal with petal pliers, to give it a realistic flow and look. Petal adjusting may not seem complicated but when we first made our French Daisy it took about a month for our petal adjuster to perfect the process. We are pleased to say he has mastered the art and now does a magnificent job every time of bringing realism to every flower.
Surprise Daisy Garden
I built this heart-shaped rock terrace about ten years ago. Heart Rock Beach, in our neighborhood, is where we collect heart-shaped surfacing stones to top the stone wall surrounding the terrace. In recent years, I’ve been surprised as daisies have taken over the patio space in the month of June. The daisies grow in the spaces between the tumbled bluestone. In recent years, they grow thick and lush. Because I have several patios, I just let them go wild until July.
Anyone who visits in June is always shown the heart rock daisy terrace. I think it’s interesting that daisies have chosen this romantic patio to claim as their own.
Yes, the heart rocks are at the back of the terrace. We are expanding the surfacing with heart-shaped rocks as we collect more stones.
Daisies at Heart Rock Terrace
This is a close up of the daisies rooted between the tumbled blue stone of the terrace. Some years the self-seeding daisies are so thick you can’t see the blue stone.
French Daisies
In Spring and Fall
There are spring daisies, called Shasta daisies, that bloom in Maine in June. They grow everywhere all over America. They are a hybrid developed in the 1890s from Oxblood daisies. Shasta daisies are smaller. There are also fall daisies called Montauk, which originally came from coastal Japan. They grow on woody, bushy stems and are 2 to 3 feet tall. They bloom in late September through October until after the first frost. Both types are part of the daisy family. Both daisies are beautiful, and both types are part of the French Daisy poem.
