I am joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden with a vase for Monday on this beautiful May morning.
My vase contents were decided for me this week… the farmer who mows our larger grass areas announced yesterday he was on the way. So I nipped out quick and picked an armful of the freshly opened Moon Daisies and plonked them in the pretty jug my sister gave me a few years ago. 😃
Leucanthemum vulgare
I always call them Moon Daisies, although I know they are more commonly known as ox-eye daisies. But how unromantic is ox-eye!
I found a lovely quote from a British naturalist, Marcus Woodward:
… ‘the flower, with its white rays and golden disc, has small resemblance to an ox‘s eye, but at dusk it shines out from the mowing-grass like a fallen moon.’
I couldn‘t have said it better myself!
I found some other names for it used in various parts of the world, including moon penny, moon flower, midsummer daisy, golden marguerites and butter daisy.
😃☀️😃
We still have a few in between where was mown, and harebells and cow parsley are also starting to flower. This is such a lovely time of year.
Here is a shot of the mowing in action. In the foreground you can just see the tip of the Butterfly Bed where the Alliums are the stars right now.
And a bonus photo from early this morning snapped from the window!
Have a great week, with plenty of May sunshine and hopefully no more frost! 😉
Words and Herbs 
Something so chirpy about daisies. 🙂
I agree. I associate them with lazy summers days and sunshine. 😃
Pretty flowers. Made my day. Thanks
You‘re welcome, and thanks for visiting. 😃
OX eye seems like such a brutish name for such a delicate looking flower. Interesting information you have found about this beautiful wild flower. Where I used to live I had them growing in the lawn. I loved them. I always thought of them as Mother’s Day flowers because they are usually blooming around our celebration of Mother’s Day. Wow that is a huge mower you have there. Will you leave a big swathe for the hares and birds to have nesting areas? Just think of the butterflies that would gather there too. What a wonderful field you have.
That is the neighbouring farmer mowing for us, and he will take the grass for his cattle. But there is always plenty left over around the trees and bushes we have planted. The hares were a little upset by the changes, but still have plenty of biding places. 😉
What a beautiful field and vase of daisies. When I was a child, they were my favorite flower. For some odd reason, they don’t grow very well for me, so I have daisy envy for your abundance. Yours are lovely and nothing could be more simple and precious, no matter what you call them.
Thanks Cindy. As a child I used to love making daisy chains with the smaller daisies we had in our lawn. 😃
Beautiful. I prefer your moon daisy moniker also. So glad you included a photo of the mowing field as I was trying to picture it. Lovely land.
Thanks Susie. It is a lovely spot of land up on our hill, albeit a little exposed!
They’ll always be Ox Eye Daisies to me! Although I do agree Moon Daisy is a softer, gentler moniker… They self seed so readily here I’m always pulling them out of the garden, and have to remember to dead head religiously the clumps I want to keep. They’re a perfect cut flower, especially when filling such a wonderful jug.
The names we grow up with stick, don’t they. I don‘t think any have crept into my flower beds yet but I am a vigilant weeder! 😉
How nice to have a field of daisies.
Well, a lot have now been cut, but more will come in other parts of the garden. They usually flower on and off all summer.
I love daisies, so cheery. I call them motorway daisies on account of they always pop up when a verge has been disturbed for a road or pathway. Even worse that ox eye!
Ha ha. Yes, motorway daisies is even less romantic than ox eyes! LOL!
Cathy I love your big Moon Daisies bouquet, they are divine. The jug you use as a vase is wonderful with that lovely painted tree. Daisies look great in the jar, I love them. The Marcus Woodward quote is perfect. What a lovely photo of the cute hare next to your bed of butterflies, I love it! Cathy have a fabulous week with great weather and lots of sun. Take care. Very affectionate greetings from Margarita xx
Thank you Margarita. Wishing you a lovely week too. Hope you can enjoy some spring sunshine and fresh air now. 😃
Thanks Cathy. With the mask on at a few hours established by the Government’s Alarm State. And there are too many people. I prefer to stay at home and enjoy the air and the sun on the terrace of my house safely and almost touching the trees that I have next to the terrace planted and that reach the fourth floor. Happy weekend. Very affectionate greetings from Margarita 🌼🌼😀
Oh they do look lovely, Cathy, and reminds me that I saw some growing on the verge in the village last year so will try to remember to make use of them this year. So cheerful – oh, and I hope the rabbit is well behaved and knows what NOT to nibble!
Hi Cathy. The hares (no rabbits here) are fairly well-behaved so far. We have at least three running around the garden regularly and the mowing disconcerted them a bit! They still have plenty of biding places though. Last year one nibbled an ornamently clover… I was glad it stayed at that!
Silly me, I didn’t look closely! I suppose if there is plenty of grass they might be less tempted by your cultivated plants…hope so
Good save! I LOVE daisies – I find them endlessly cheerful. ❤
Yes, cheerful and full of sunshine. 😃☀️😃
‘Moon Daisy’ seems a better name to me too! White and yellow daisies are the most cheerful of flowers. You have a glorious – and very large – grassy area. Do you have any plans to push your cultivated garden out further?
Slowly, bit by bit. One new bed will be revealed later this week. There was no garden at all here so I had to start from scratch and my partner is not really a gardener, so it is a matter of what I can manage!
OK, the size of the rabbit is freaking me out – a smaller one ate my entire vegetable garden. Love your Daisies, spring has surely set in. And what is an Ox Eye anyway?
It‘s a hare – we don‘t have rabbits here thank goodness! They have plenty of food in the rest of the garden so I am hoping they will stay away from my patio veg! Oh and an ox is probably called a bullock in the US. They actually have lovely big eyes, but nothing like a daisy!
No hares here, had to read up…seems like a better alternative to rabbits! We call them Ox or Oxen here. The daisy thing, just don’t get it….
They look like those old Paris daisies that were popular in the early 1970s. My colleague got two copies of the old cultivar with the bigger flowers! They are rad!
These are the wild form, so are all fairly small varying only in height, which adds to the romattic effect of a meadowful of them. 😃
Paris daisies would not work well in a meadow. They would get shrubby. There are a few other species of daisies that fill meadows like that in different regions, as if they are all trying to copy the original. In the absence of the real thing, we might refer to the as ox eye daisies, just because it is a name that everyone knows.
Oh- I adore them, and they always make me happy. Your whole post was spring encapsulated – especially the startled hare!
Thanks Cathy! The hares were a bit confused that their hiding places had been mown down! They still have loads of spots to snuggle down though. We see them often at the moment. 😃
Beautiful flowers Cathy and I love that quote. That is certainly a large grassed area to mow!
Thanks Anna. Yes, we are glad the farmer can do it for us. They baled it up for cattle feed already. 😃
What a pretty pitcher! And the daisies are beautiful too. Our ox-eyes will bloom in a few weeks. I always have a random smattering of them in the rock garden.
Hi Kimberley. The daisies are announcing spring is changing to summer! 😃
What a lovely choice and well-timed intervention. Our ox-eyes have just opened too. I love them. Thanks for the quote too!
I love seeing their arrival too. A sure sign that summer is near!
Looking at those daisies makes me feel that all is right with the world.
Aaah, if only….. Thanks Jason!