Flower power
The daisy is back with even brighter colors
“That’s what the whole Sixties Flower-Power thing was about: ‘Go away, you bunch of boring people’.” This is how George Harrison explained the origins of the ubiquitous and iconic daisy that defined those years of change. People wanted to be visually excited, they wanted colors after the muted post war fashions, they wanted new ideas for interiors and they longed to get back to nature. Today the daisy is back with the iconic retro looks of the ‘60s reborn with the intense color range of the digital age.
The old fashioned Margeurite was an early hybrid of Ageranthemum frutescens. In the 60s we grew the white flowered larger form in Los Angeles as a garden shrub or as a seasonal shrubfiller where there’s frost. They lost favor decades later and have reemerged heat tolerant hybrids in a whole new range of smaller sizes, habits and flower colors. This makes the hybrids real chameleons in our desert winter gardens because the colors you choose do a lot to set the tone of this year’s palette.
Another group that can be heat sensitive are the Osteospermum hybrids, rich in nearly identical flowers with a rich range of deep blues and purples hard to get among Margeurite hybrids. Unusual petals are the hallmark of new hybrids that are perfectly tailored to modern containers.
The key to using daisies for color in your garden is the flower colors you choose. Avoid mixtures if you want dynamic looks and hand select your individual daisy colors.
Soft pastels are the best choice for blending into hot flowered desert perennials such as Autumn sage for a feminine cottage garden. Here use daisies with relatively small flowers like the desert plants so they are all texturally similar.
Neon hues are bold attention getters around cacti and succulents.They also make fine accents in modern landscaping to fill spaces with bold color and emphasize architectural lines. Neons in big pots around the house are particularly fun within a neutral palette.
Cool colors are blues, purple, white, pale pink, and pale yellow, which can create the ultimate romantic get away or to tone down glare-heavy spaces. These flower colors may use occasional spots of red or canary yellow to create dynamic contrast.
Due to the wide range of hybrids, the best way to select them is in person. Make your choices by how the flowers look to your eye because there is a lot of subtle color variation that doesn’t read online or in print. Getting the exact shade of blue or pink you need is an eyes-on task to inspect in broad daylight. Being there also lets you pick up surprises that might be in the same delivery. This is why knowing when these plants are delivered at your local garden center ensures the optimal shopping experience.
For a big bang, buy mature plants budded up and ready to bloom to start filling a small garden with instant color. One gallon pots are the optimal balance of price and maturity. Larger 2 to 5 gallon specimens are perfect for the seasonal kick off into the holidays. Smaller less expensive plants carry the garden later on after January when more mature.
Plant daisies into bare spots, to hide evidence of drought-lost shrubs and to bring bold color where you’ll see it every day indoors and out. Integrate their color into your existing landscape or interiors palette so everything flows beautifully into a single expansive indoor-outdoor composition.
Often these plants bloom in flushes. When the current blooms fade, use scissors to remove them and shape the plant at the same time. Like all bedding plants though, make sure you feed your daisies on a regular basis to keep them vigorous and blooming as long as possible. In abnormally cold or hot weather, protect them accordingly.
Let’s rise up out of the drought to make this year’s garden your testing ground for the power of flowers to create change. Start with the daisies to rekindle that excitement and color your mornings bright, day after day after day.