Dwarf Shasta daisy
Long a stalwart of cottage garden-style plantings the Shasta daisy, or Leucanthemum superbum is a perennial daisy with a long tradition and a firm favourite of gardeners. In the last few years there has been a flurry of new compact varieties with flowers with varying degrees of doubleness, tousling of petals and shades of pale yellow, often darkest when opening, then fading to the normal white.
The original Shasta daisy was created by famous American plant breeder Luther Burbank who, after 17 years’ work, launched it in 1901, naming it after snow-capped Mt Shasta. Varieties, such as ‘Phyllis Smith’ and ‘Wirral Supreme’ have been taller, 90cm (3ft) or more high, but in recent years, because of the garden centre trade, plants such as double-flowered ‘Macaroon’, yellow double-flowered ‘Luna’ are being bred to be shorter, around 60cm (2ft) high, but some, such as 35cm (1¼ft) tall ‘Victorian Secret and 30cm (1ft) tall ‘Bridal Bouquet’, bred by American Terra Nova Nurseries, are pushing the boundaries of compactness.
Their breeding has also bred out the musky odour these plants have historically possessed, rendering them less suitable as cut flowers. This means the Shasta daisy now has far more uses and positions in the garden, from the mid-border for taller, longer-established varieties, to front of the border and pots and containers for the modern shorter varieties.