I love Shasta daisies. I planted some of the 'Broadway Lights' last summer, but I love the old-fashioned kind, too. There are evergreen tufts in those spots, so I think they did well. I had to plant them inside my fence as the deer (or bunnies?) will munch them out in the open.

I love daisies too. The more the better and I use them just as you mentioned, as a filler between other perennials. I have the very old type and would like to try some other varieties that might help bridge the gap between bloom cycles. I will admit that they are sort of a pain to keep deadheaded but that's very important to keep them blooming along through the summer.

MeMo

OK, so the fragrance isn't exactly great, but so what!?
I can't imagine being without my beautiful daisies.
'Becky' is my favorite, her strong stems being a real plus.

Patti

The shastas are one of my favs. I have a ton of them. I seem to be drawn to daisy-type perennials, I have many varieties. I gave about 8-10 clumps to my neighbor, she has had trouble growing them, but she had them in the wrong spot, so she was tickled.

No Annette you are not the only one that likes Shastas. I love them. I have Becky and Broadway Lights(just purchased last year) and I can always count on Becky to give a grand display. Broadway Lights are supposed to be as showy as Becky. Time will tell, but BL did really well last summer. They are also a wonderful cut flower. Do you have a picture of your Shastas in bloom? I know everyone would love to see them.
Vikki

I also love Shasta daisies. They really brighten up the garden, especially in a dark - white color pops! When I was a kid, my friends and I always gathered bouquets of Bachelor's buttons and Shasta daisies on open fields. Maybe that's why they feel so dear to my heart.
~Natalie

My love for them is a life long affair too. When I was a child in public school, I spent hours making daisy chains from the wild/weed ones that grew in a field near my house. I used to decorate my doll carriage with them and win prizes when we had a parade at our school.
When I got married, I had to have them in my wedding flowers and now I like to make sure that I have them in my garden.
gg

Cameron, 'Broadway Lights' I don't have that one, the hunt is on :o)
Vikki, don't have any pictures but will try to take some this year.
I only have larger clumps of Highland White dream and Marconi, Cobham Gold I tracked down last year, apparently this one has been red listed whatever that means (near extinction?) I planted it out last spring and I see it's coming back. The rest I'm still nursing along, they were very small plants (single stems) in poor shape on the way to a dumpster when I rescued them. I saw a single flower on each of them for the first time last fall. The names of these ones are Silver Princess, Becky, Alaska and Aglaia. I can hardly wait to see if I've been sucessful in saving them. Whirrel Surpreme was one of my favs, but I lost it, it has a lovely green eye when it first opens up so the hunt is on for that one.

Annette

I love them. I have the Silver Princess & Broadway Lights. I bought Aglaia & Ester something, but I think they died in the drought last summer. I used to have Crazy Daisy, but it didn't come back last spring, maybe the late frost got it. I've been wanting Whirrel Pride for years, but never come across it locally. They make other plants look better I think.

Oh dear, another one to add to my list "Crazy Daisy" haven't seen that one either. A.

Annette, my neighbor feels the same way as you! She has a huge patch of shastas growing along the border between her yard & mine. I love them! They do add such a nice bit of color to that shady spot for us.

I think the tried & true perennials may go out of favor with some gardeners, but there are quite a few others who try to plant them. They've been around so long for a reason!

Tracy

I love them. For one thing, they bloom during May, my birthday month which makes them *my* flower. Plus, I remember them from my mom's gardens. Hers were always by the front porch.

And then, as they said in 'You've got Mail' daisies are such friendly flowers. :0)

I don't know what kinds I have. Mine were the first quart pots of flowers I bought for this house....long before the garden journal appeared. I've dug and divided but still have a bit of a problem with a fungus attack from time to time.

I must collect more types. Post photos everyone. I need to be enabled.

Here is a link that might be useful: Creative Soul

Well I originally started with two different kinds of shastas.....but I can't tell the difference now...don't remember the names either. I still have a large stand of them in my side garden. I have to shovel prune them every spring to keep them in control....they will take over if I don't. They tried that once.....I warned them and they haven't been quite as bad since. haha. Yes there will always be a stand of shastas somewhere in my garden. I also have had the crazy daisy in my side garden for a few years now. I was surprised this one would grow here...it was labeled zone 4 or 5 when I bought it. I think its a love hate thing with shastas. Oh ya and they are stinky things but then so are oriental lilies. :O

Sierra

I grow the old fashioned ones.A few clumps around my garden.
I have a lot of old fashioned flowers. Many hybirds that have reverted to the parent plant. Both annuals and perennials.

{{gwi:641123}}

I love them also, I will always have some. I like to use them as a ground cover for my roses. When they bloom, they make all the other colors in the garden stand out. People often forget to use white in the garden. All the other colored plants need some white around them to show off their colors. I just love that old fashioned look they bring to my garden. I just need to get some of the newer ones.
Donna

I have to love them because they are probably do better for me than any flower in my garden. I bought two of them 3 years ago at HD and have about 12 clumps now. They almost all seem to need splitting every year. The original plants are in a bed that seems ideal to their growth. It is filled in against a rock wall so it gets great drainage, has good sun and their roots can go down probably about 2 feet into great soil. If I wasn't out their carving hunks out of them every spring to give my peonies some room they could form a hedge. The flowers are about 4 feet high. I have even learned how to cut them back after blooming to keep them going into the fall.

Aside from this I think daisies should be near the top of the list for flowers that belong in a cottage garden

I did a little bit of digging and found out Shasta Daisies have been around for over 100 years.
Luther Burbank spent 17 years developing the first Shasta Daisy.
So far I've found 40 different named varieties. I knew there were quite a few but I didn't know there were that many. I wonder if they're all still in cultivation.

Annette

I have both the old kind and Becky. Last year Becky didn't do much. I hope it was just the bad growing season, ice storm, and late freeze that froze everything back. I do have a picture of the old-fashioned kind from last year.
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I lean toward the simplest flowers always.

I'm always looking for a nice white, especially in the summer, and shastas have worked out beautifully. They seem to help bring out all the other colors.

How pretty that is, gldno1. Your place looks just the way I'd like mine to - a little bit rustic and so very charming. HEAVEN! It really makes me want to walk right into the photo and wander around a bit to see what's in those beds further on and around that corner. I love it!

I too LOVE dasies and was so pleased when I found out that's my very first grand daughter's name, how lucky can a girl get? Her name is Daisy Lynn, My favorite flower and my middle name...

Sierra
I see you are in Z2, how nice to hear they will grow for you, i'm in Z4 and all the books I have list them as Z5 or higher. We do have a wild variety that grow here and when I see them I dig them up and move them to the garden, they don't seem to like the flower bed soil, prefering the ditches and fields....

Has anyone seen them for zone 4?

Karyn

Shasta daisies are one of the true perenials in my book. They come back yr after yr after yr. They also last long after the others have come and gone. I've heard about the smell but I wouldn't know as I don't smell. I just can't imagine that one flower could smell so bad to cancel out all other smells in the garden. But how would I know.
I love all flowers for the beauty and enjoyment not just for myself, but also the neighbors. Plus it is real cheap therapy (anything that is free is great). Puppy3

Annette, if it's support you're looking for, count me in. DW was a real crazy-for-daisies person when we met and had them in her wedding bouquets, and even worked into her wedding dress in some subtle way that I can't quite remember. We even had some growing in front of a rented apartment in the early days, thanks to a friendly professor with a flower garden. I remember bringing her bunches of field daisies that I would grab on my way home from work in the summer.

We still have some in a prominent place in a front corner garden, and probably will always have them somewhere.

Long live daisies.

ThinMan

In 2002, I visited Luther Burbank's home and garden. What a thrill!
Shasta will do ok here, but only for the current season.

Karyn, You shouldn't have a problem growing them in z4. You don't have to fertilize them or anything, just give them a little bit of compost in the spring and what ever you do......don't tell them they can't grow in your zone. You see, if a plant doesn't know they arn't supposed to grow in a certain zone.....they might just surprise you.

I have a friend that lives a few blocks over and swears she can't grow shastas. I think it must be to much shade and to much fertilizer in her garden. Maybe she over waters too, I'm not sure.

Sierra

A local florist use to buy all the Shasta Daisies a friend of mine could grow and cut. I think they're one of the flowers florists actually dye different colors, anyone know how this is done? Are they dipped, sprayed, or...

Annette

Annette, I've dyed white carnations by giving them a fresh cut and putting them in water to which I had added a lot of food dye.

I've never been a daisy person. At least not since the childhood days of making the aforementioned daisy chains with field daisies. You people are getting to me...think I feel the calling coming on... You all are winning a convert. Plus, the last issue of "Garden Gate" had a feature article on Becky. I'm being swamped with the idea of daisies. Right now I've only got Mount Atlas Daisies, which are tiny mounds of small daisies (similar to Alpine Daisy). I'm beginning to see a vision of a couple of Beckies along a perimeter.

Lorna

Sierra

Mums, errrr I mean Daisys the word, I won't tell them :)
Now to look up all these great suggestions and decide what I want to try. I saw some recently in the White Farm Catalog that were double.

Annette,

I have changed their color also, by the same method as Lorna. Just cut the end and put them in food colored water. Ever see the ones they do for St. Pats day? Weird day glow green. My kids used to change the color of the water every day or so and come up with multi-colored petals. Other flowers will work too.

--Karyn

I've got daisies and I love them. My Nippon daisies don't seem to be super happy. I know I am supposed to cut them back in the spring. what else? maybe not enough sun? they just kinda hang there and pout.

I cut my nippon (montauk) daisies - two times a year - once in December and again in June....

Carrie

Well dang, I would love to grow them but they do not like living this far south. They look like such happy flowers. Loved seeing them in your garden gldno.

FlowerLady

I LOVE Daisies! They are my favorite flower. I have some all over my garden.
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I love them,then again daisy's are one of my favorite flowers,and the more the merrier.
Kathi

Not a Shasta but does anyone grow Marguerites, Chrysanthemum frutescens not a hardy perennial (have to take cuttings) for me but should do well in warmer climes. I haven't grown them for years, in fact I can't really say I've seen them in the garden centers the last few years.

Annette

I love my crazy daisies but lost them last year. I plan to replace them this spring
{{gwi:227939}}

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Typical variety growing in dappled shade (take longer to bloom and grow a bit taller as they reach for sun)

{{gwi:229470}}

Carrie, Are your Nippons in full sun? I don't know why mine are so unhappy.

I've had Alaska for years and just love them. Planted Broadway Lights last year and they were okay - hope they do better this summer.
This one is very short - I've moved most of it so it borders the entire bed now. It's Snowcap.
{{gwi:641131}}

Oh I love the crazy daisies! Did you plant them from seed or plants. I MUST have some of those!

I purchased them as plants.

Daisies grow wild here. I love them in my garden!

I love how they look but can't stand how awful they smell. DH, too, complained. When the temps are high the stench is the worst :-(

I moved most of my Shasta daisies to the front yard where they will be "seen but not smelled".