Bellis perennis - Common Daisy Seeds

The Bellis perennis is none other than the wild common daisy, which can be found all over our parks and gardens, sprinkling our lawns with their tiny, naive, white to pink daisies. This small medicinal plant, often used in homeopathy, is perfectly hardy and survives year after year because its flat, low-laying rosette that develops secondary roots. Its flowers, in the form of tiny daisies with a yellow heart, announce the arrival of spring. It is very easy to naturalize in the sunny areas of the garden, whatever the climate.

Bellis perennis is a plant of the large Asteraceae family, which originates from all over Europe, but also from the Orient. Its Latin name means "eternal beauty" and it is the religious symbol of the Virgin Mary. It is a herbaceous plant that forms a biennial rosette (whose life span does not exceed 2 years) which multiplies and perpetuates itself through adventitious roots that in turn form new biennial rosettes. This small native plant colonizes large areas, both vegetatively and by spontaneous self-seeding. It adapts to a wide range of soils and climates. The basal rosettes, 10 to 15 cm wide, are composed of hairy, oval, spatulate evergreen leaves with crenate margins, borne on petioles. The plant blooms from March to November, depending on weather conditions. The flowers are small inflorescences with 2 cm wide capitulum. Each flower head is composed of fine, more or less white ligules ('petals'), tinged with purple pink on the underside, surrounding a small, bright yellow central disc where tiny sterile flowers are gathered. The 'flowers' are carried 5 or 10 cm above the ground by small hairy stems that emerge from the rosettes of leaves.

There is no simpler plant than this wild daisy. It is naturally charming in large groups, but can also be planted more sparsely, in the middle of other plants with smaller flowers or bushier foliage. Forget-me-nots, but also buttercups, pansies and yellow primroses are all wild plants that will accompany it well in our gardens, just as they do spontaneously in nature. In the language of flowers, the daisy represents innocence and attachment. You can even taste it since daisy petals are edible; so sprinkle your salads by plucking their petals, a little, madly, passionately or not at all!

Beauty secret: Daisy flower macerated oil (flowers macerated in oil) is an ointment appreciated by women who wish to firm up the skin of their cleavage.