The Oxeye Daisy (part of the Aster Family) also known as Marguerite or field daisy, was introduced to Canada from Europe with the early settlers.
Leucanthemum is from the Greek meaning ‘white- flowered’ while vulgare (Lat.) means common.
You'll find it growing wild in meadows and disturbed areas. It flourishes on our land and you can see dots of white absolutely everywhere right now. There are daisies in my raised beds, vegetable gardens, flower gardens and all throughout the meadow. This is such a cheerful sight and it brings me a lot of happiness and hope that they'll come back year after year.
When I lived in the far North where only the hardiest of things can grow wild, I used to buy daisies and plant them in my garden every spring. When we first moved here I bought some and a neighbor chuckled at me for paying money for and planting them in my garden. Now I know why! Seeing the field awash with daisies is sort of dream like. (almost as good as a field of lavender).
The young spring leaves are edible but very strong in flavor and extremely bitter. One or two leaves in a big salad is about all I can tolerate. We prefer to pluck the petals and toss them into salads which is very lovely.
You can make a soothing bruise salve with the daisy, by infusing the flowers in oil, just follow my recipe for thyme lavender salve but replace the thyme/lavender with daisies.
You can also dry them for later use which is what we've been doing. My husband has been gathering a basket of them for me every day so I don't miss out once I am feeling better. He did have to learn that you must 1. give the flower a little shake before picking and 2. always leave the flowers outside in a basket so all the little bugs have time to escape before bringing them in.
In the language of flowers Daisy means: patience, beauty, cheerfulness & loyalty. It is said that the daisy offers milder/weaker benefits similar to its cousin chamomile which is well worth studying if you happen to have an abundance of daisies like we do.
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