Nothing humble about these daisies
Colourful and vibrant, daisies come in many forms and add charm to any garden
There’s a basic prettiness and innocence about daisies – probably because they evoke childhood garden memories of picking them from the lawn and making daisy chains.
However, the lawn daisy is but one of a massive family, the asters, which has more than 23,000 different species and can be found all over the world, from the poles to the tropics.
Did you know that lettuce belongs to the daisy family? We grow it for its edible leaves but if you have ever let it flower to collect seed, you will see it has small yellow daisy flowers. The majority of daisies are instantly recognisable by their central disc and surrounding petals which radiate like sunrays. The name daisy is believed to be from the Old English ‘daes eage’, meaning day’s eye, referring to the way the flower opens at dawn. And at this time of year many daisies, such as dahlias, chrysanthemums and heleniums, play an important role in our gardens providing late summer blossoms right through to early autumn. My favourite late summer daisy can be seen now. It’s Echinacea purpurea or the coneflower. You’ll recognise its picture from products in your local pharmacy or health store, where it is sold as an immune system booster and relief from colds and flu.
In gardens, it’s a key element in the planting style known as New Perennial developed by Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf in the 1980s.
This informal way of planting mixes North American prairie natives and grasses and is widely used in contemporary schemes today.
E. purpurea has a rusty orange central cone and purple petals, and is attractive to bees and butterflies. Due to its popularity, breeders have been busy making varieties in different colours – ‘White Swan’ is very elegant and ‘Tomato Soup’ creates a vivid warm red splash. Plant in welldrained soil, preferably in full sunshine.
More traditional British border examples are Asters or Michaelmas daisies. These are invaluable for providing flowers in September and October. However, many are susceptible to mildew so it’s best to choose mildew-resistant varieties. For example, aster novi-belgii are prone to mildew but the New England asters, novi-angliae, have good resistance.
‘Little Carlow’ is a popular variety at the moment – it forms lovely mounds of gorgeous violet blue flowers with no staking or spraying required. ‘Monch’ is also a reliable variety with lavender blue flowers. Just make sure you keep it watered during dry spells in the summer and you’ll enjoy loads of flowers in the autumn.
Sunflowers are annuals grown from seed planted in situ in March and April. Did you realise that these are also from the daisy family?
They’re always a fun addition to the garden and a good way of getting children interested in
growing from seed. They’re also economically important for their oil and seeds.
There are some interesting cultivars, such as ‘Claret’, which produces delicious chocolatefrom coloured blooms. They make great cut flowers and, like many daisies, attract beneficial insects which will in turn eat less desirable insects such as aphids.
Calendulas, also in the daisy family, are good for attracting hoverflies, lacewings and ladybirds which will hoover up aphids, whiteflies and blackfly.
For this reason, they are often planted in veg patches and beside tomato plants. They also look very pretty. ‘Indian Prince’ is a spicy orange variety – just sow in situ either in the autumn or next spring.
My final daisy selection is a lesser-known species, but one that I have been spotting with increasing frequency at the back of herbaceous borders.
It’s very tall, up to two metres, and has large paddle-like leaves, so if you like something dramatic, Silphium perfoliatum might be for you.
It has yellow daisy flowers which appear in mid-summer and last through to autumn. It has very robust stems – in my garden it hasn’t required staking but may do in more windy or exposed areas.