April birth flowers: daisy and sweet pea
April’s birth flowers are the daisy and the sweet pea. The Victorian flower dictionaries gave the daisy innocence; for the sweet pea they gave delicate pleasures or departure.
Meaning
The Old Farmer’s Almanac gives the daisy first and the sweet pea second. The extension services put the sweet pea first: University of Illinois Extension lists sweet pea, daisy and peony, and West Virginia University Extension gives the sweet pea alone. The daisy of the old books is Bellis perennis, the English or lawn daisy (NC State Extension). The sweet pea, Lathyrus odoratus, is a fragrant climbing annual of the bean family, native to the Mediterranean; its species name means fragrant (NC State Extension). Penn State Extension’s Master Gardeners say the meanings rest “on folklore and tradition passed on through generations” and vary with the source and the time.
Origin and history
Neither flower was an April flower in the saints’-day Calendar of Flowers that Henrietta Dumont printed in 1851: the double daisy falls on 28 January, the midsummer daisy on 11 June and the sweet pea on 17 July. The daisy’s old English name was Day’s Eye, Frederic Shoberl wrote in 1840. Shoberl and Dumont both tell the classical story of its origin: Belides, one of the Dryads who watched over meadows, was dancing with Ephigeus when Vertumnus, the god of orchards, fell for her, and she was changed into the daisy to escape him. From her, Shoberl says, comes its Latin name, Bellis.
Innocence: the daisy in the flower books
Kate Greenaway (1884), Shoberl and Dumont give the daisy innocence; Sarah Josepha Hale’s Flora’s Interpreter gives beauty and innocence. Greenaway adds meanings for other daisies: the garden daisy, “I share your sentiments”, and the wild daisy, “I will think of it”. Katharine Beals (1917) notes that some writers dedicate the daisy to infancy on the authority of a Celtic story from the poems of Ossian.
Delicate pleasures or departure: the sweet pea
Greenaway gives the sweet pea delicate pleasures. Hale gives it departure, with the verse “Here are Sweet Peas, on tiptoe for a flight”. Modern lists keep both readings: University of Illinois Extension gives “goodbye, blissful pleasure, thank you for a lovely time”, and West Virginia University Extension gives April’s sweet pea good wishes, friendship and kindness.
Where you’ll see it today
whatdoesthissymbolmean.comApril birthstone: diamondThe same month's birthstoneSee also
Daisy, January birth flowers: carnation and snowdrop, February birth flowers: violet and primrose, March birth flowers: daffodil and jonquil, May birth flowers: lily of the valley and hawthorn, June birth flowers: rose and honeysuckle.
Sources
- Monthly Birth Flowers, Master Gardeners of Luzerne County, Penn State Extension
- Birth Flowers by Month: Discover Your Monthly Flower & Meaning, Catherine Boeckmann, updated 17 September 2026, The Old Farmer’s Almanac
- Floriography: The meaning of flowers, Bruce J. Black and Rhonda Ferree, updated November 2022, University of Illinois Extension
- WL 173 Floriography: The Language of Flowers, Natasha Harris and Jesica Streets, 2022, West Virginia University Extension
- Language of Flowers, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, 1884, George Routledge and Sons (Project Gutenberg edition)
- The Language of Flowers: The Floral Offering, by Henrietta Dumont, 1851, H. C. Peck & Theo. Bliss, Philadelphia (Project Gutenberg edition)
- The Language of Flowers, with Illustrative Poetry, by Frederic Shoberl, seventh edition, 1840, Saunders & Otley, London (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library copy)
- Flora’s Interpreter, and Fortuna Flora, by Sarah Josepha Hale, 1856 edition, Sanborn, Carter and Bazin, Boston (Internet Archive)
- Flower Lore and Legend, by Katharine M. Beals, 1917, Henry Holt and Company, New York (Internet Archive)
- Bellis perennis (Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox), NC State Extension
- Lathyrus odoratus (Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox), NC State Extension
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Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research