It is thought that the name “Daisy” is a corruption of “day’s eye”, because the whole flower head closes at night and opens in the morning. Chaucer called it “eye of the day”.
You have been wondering, right? Why we are called Eye of the Day? When we started our business, after moving from the controlled chaos of Los Angeles to the subdued serenity of the Santa Ynez Valley, we were buying used wine barrels from local wineries and cutting and reselling them to nurseries as large, low cost planters. We had a lightbulb moment and named the business Barrel Orphans. Upon morphing into a retail business, we needed a new name, something that defined us in some way. The eye of our lives was (and is) our daughter, Daisy… and the pieces fell together: Garden. Sunlight. Beauty. The day’s eye. Our business. She wasn’t so keen on having a garden store named for her, but as we grew from the small, barrel and fountain business on a corner in the Santa Ynez Valley to a respected and worldly destination with beautiful European garden ornamentation, planters and fountains (and much more), Daisy’s pride in our accomplishment grew as well.
When she was young, Daisy spent much of her time at the store and learned to work with customers, describe the way a particular fountain flowed and even wrote a column for our monthly newsletter detailing new additions to the store and our travels to find new merchandise. We were fortunate to be able to spend time at work together as a family and know that both the business and it’s namesake were able to benefit.
In early February of 1998 we travelled to the San Francisco Gift Show and left Daisy at home with her older cousin. While we were gone, a tremendous storm threatened Eye of the Day and ultimately devastated the property through flooding. Daisy, age eleven, rallied many of our close friends to help save whatever they could while we drove home as quickly as we could. Our hero. Our Eye of the Day. We had just signed a lease for the property in Carpinteria, and so…the new adventure began…
Next: Eye of the Day goes cosmopolitan.
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