Who knew there are so many designated days of national celebration? Until I started The Daily Artisan blog and began content planning, I had no idea.
Today, January 28, is National Daisy Day!
From what I can tell, every day of the year has a handful of these designated national days. While some themes are not of much interest to me, others are – and it just so happens that starting with today, there are five consecutive ones I’ll be featuring in my blog.
Stay tuned on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday for the next four that will be featured in this series of posts by The Daily Artisan!
January 28 – National Daisy Day
Who doesn’t like daisies? They’re in the same ballpark as apple pie, baseball, and ice cream cones. Daisies represent happiness, purity, fun, and innocence. Why shouldn’t they have their own national day of celebration and recognition?
Daisies are a perennial plant – and a perennial favorite!
I was surprised to learn that technically, daisies are considered weeds. I’d rather call them flowers, and I think most people do. Depending on which experts you’re hearing from, I’ve seen estimates of the number of daisy species anywhere from 11,000 up to 33,000.
Let’s just all agree there are a lot of them out there.
When I think of daisies, I think of something without pretense, and something that’s pretty and fun and carefree. My mind’s eye can see a seven-year-old boy, for example, bringing home a handful of white and yellow daisies he picked to give to his mom after little league practice.
They’re that sweet and tender.
Coincidentally, to my reference of “mind’s eye,” the word “daisy” is derived from “day’s eye” because daisies open in the daytime and close at night just like our eyes do when we wake in the morning and sleep at night.
In addition to the traditional daisies with white petals and yellow centers, there are others with more vibrant colors, and these can be quite dramatic – especially the large Gerbera Daisy. I love photographing daisies for a lot of reasons, including they don’t seem to take themselves too seriously! (I swear different flower types have personalities. At least it seems that way when I’m taking pictures of them.)
When you’re photographing daisies, you’re actually getting two flowers for the price of one. They have small flowers in the center arranged in what’s called the disc floret, and the large petals arranged around the center are called the ray floret.
If I’d had my choice today, I would have found a massive field of daisies to photograph! But since I don’t know of such a place, I went out and bought some and brought them home for pictures. I selected the beautiful Gerbera Daisy in a deep orange color, and really enjoyed photographing them with different studio backdrops and vessels.
So, before you wonder when you see some of the photos below, no, today is not also National Tulip Day.
Apparently, the Netherlands celebrated this on January 15, so I missed it by a couple of weeks.
However, when I was out flower shopping today and making my way to pay for the orange daisies in hand, I spotted some gorgeous, orangish/pinkish/yellowish tulips.
The daisies and the tulips just seemed to belong together so both came home with me!
Enjoy the photographs as we honor the daisy – and belatedly, the tulip!
Do you get daisies for your house? Tulips? What are your favorite flowers? Be sure to comment below!
Tune in Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday for the remaining four posts in this series of The Daily Artisan!
