Disillusioned of Epsom

All of my life I have been attached to a flower known to me as the Michaelmas daisy, partly because I like it, partly because of my association with Michaelmas Day, otherwise once an important day, a quarter day, in the rural calendar. Thomas Hardy knew all about it.

However, today I learn that the Michaelmas daisy is also known as the aster, is usually blue of some kind and grows in our front garden, as illustrated. There are also lots of them at Wisley.

What I thought was the Michaelmas daisy is actually the dog daisy, a large white daisy with yellow centre, also known as the oxeye daisy and properly as leucanthemum vulgare, with this last name being oddly similar to chrysanthemum, some of the bing images for which look very like dog daisies. There must be some link somewhere, although the best that bing can do is the flower shop at reference 1. Also known as a boutique floral studio and for 75$US I could 'join us for drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and candid flower time, where you'll learn how to make the perfect centrepiece for your thanksgiving feast'.

I got my name from my mother, a Canadian, so I wondered whether Canadians do things differently. But all I have managed to find out so far that the dog daisy is native to the Old World, is considered to be an agricultural pest in many parts of the New World, and in Canada is, or was (hard to make much sense of the legal documents turned up by bing on this point) a secondary noxious weed.

PS: further investigation reveals that the 'anthemum' bit is nothing more than a version of the ancient Greek word for flower, used by lots of botanists when naming their finds. How boring.

Reference 1: http://www.anthemum.com/.