How to Grow Beautiful Shasta Daisies

You can love them, or love them not. Daisies are an easy perennial to get along with. They like sun or partial shade, grow about three feet tall, and spread moderately fast. Shasta Daisy is hardy in zones four through ten.

The three inch blooms, white with yellow centers, open around the first of June for about three weeks. The plant will occasional put out additional blooms through the summer. Pull the blooms off when they start turning brown to keep the plant looking tidy. Give a moderate amount of water and fertilize with a liquid fertilizer every six weeks. The blooms attract butterflies and bees.

Shasta Daisy grows in the sun.

Daisies require no special care, though the clumps should be divided every couple of years as the older sections become woody and lose their vigor, resulting in fewer flowers. The clumps usually contain a number of young shoots that originate from the root clumps.

In the spring, start new plants with strong shoots that have rooted around the edges of the old clump. Plant them about ten inches apart. Plants can also be found at garden centers in the spring. Daisies are usually planted in the middle to rear of the flower bed.

Daisies can be grown from seeds started in the spring or fall. Plant the seeds one-quarter inch deep a couple of inches apart. Plants sprout in about 10 to 15 days. Thin to about 10 inches apart when the plants are three inches tall. Notice that the picture of the daisy seedling on the packet since seedlings look a lot like weeds, so be careful in weeding.

Many varieties of daisy are available as seeds, including double varieties with blooms that look like their close relatives, chrysanthemums. A few varieties may by available as seeds in garden centers, Many more are available from mail order business and E-bay.

History of Shasta Daisy.

Starting with the ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) and cross-pollinated it with the English wild daisy (Leucanthemum maximum) which had larger flowers than the ox-eye. The hybrids were then dusted with pollen from the field daisy (Leucanthemum lacustre) of Portugal.

These bloomed well, but Burbank wanted whiter, brighter flowers. He took these hybrids and pollinated them with the Japanese daisy (Nipponanthemum nipponicum), a plant with white flowers. When he got the beautiful large white daisy, he named it for Mount Shasta in Northern California near where he was working. The Mountain and flower both have white tops for part of the year. The Shasta daisy was introduced to the public in 1901.

Due to their long stiff stems and extended vase life, daisies make some of the best cut flowers and are often used in florist's bouquets.

The scientific name is Leucanthemum maximum. Varieties include: "Alaska": 24" tall, 3"-4" blooms; "Fiona Coghill": 30" tall, 3.5" blooms, double, frilly petals;
"Snow Cap" : 18" tall, 4" blooms; "Snow Lady": 8"-12" tall, dwarf.