PlantFiles: Shasta Daisy
Leucanthemum x superbum

a good ole daisy. I actually purchased mine cheaply at the end of season and never expected them to bloom, the 1 man garden center i purchased them from even said they had already bloomed so dont expect another but wait untill next year. so I planted in hopes for next year and was surprised to see a bloom in late fall right up till first snow. Its been 2 years now , and as long as they are cut down right after first bloom in summer- i get another bloom in late fall right around the time of mums. its nice to see those last few flowers as they are being covered by snow. I also started some from seed- and they are growing almost carefree.
I dont see this daisy as being invasive as i have found others to be. That could be our cold winters in CT keep it in check!

I bought 3 small plants last summer and shoved them in my "nursery garden" to see how they'd do before moving them into a permanent bed.

They bloomed in 2006 from start to late fall! They provided plenty of long lasting cut flowers for myself and neighbors who admired them.

This spring the Shastas had spread - a lot. I decided to divide them into much smaller clumps and place them in various beds throughout my yard. I am finding they look lovely planted with Black-Susan, coneflower, roses, anything blue, or just alone in their daisy bed.

If they happen to become invasive, they've had many neighborhood admirers who I'd be happy to share with.

I LOVE this plant!

Received as a gift from one of my favorite neighbors. I have the sneaky suspicion they are going to be enthusiastic growers, so they are planted in a place where I can afford to let them go rampant.

These flowers grow like crazy in my garden in Park City Utah. They don't get a lot of water but a lot of sunshine. They ended up grow too tall and the weight of them made them bend over and rest on the ground. WHAT can I do about them growing too tall? Also... now that they are slowly going to seed should I dead head them or cut them down to the stem?

I have transplated some of my shasta daisy plants numerous times - and they always do fine and get bigger each year! Pruning really helps the bloom time to last longer!

I love Shasta daisies to brighten a garden; they just bloom and bloom! When they seed elsewhere, I just leave them until I am ready to put something else there. I've read they are hardy in zones 3-11. Light aids germination of seeds.

I love the daisy itself. The plants flowers beautifully and they stay large and long lasting. The only problem is that the beetles absolutely LOVE this plant! They eat the daisies like crazy and it makes me mad.

This is our second year with shasta daisies and they came back just fine from a rough winter. They make a nice companion plant to our roses and as long as they stay in bounds, we're happy with them.

Such a standard classic, it cheers up any area. I have lots to learn about this one. It took a long, long time for it to bloom again after deadheading, over two weeks!

I live in Zone 8 and I love shastas. The flowers seem to glow at night. This is a really good plant to have if you don't like to water and it stays green all year round in this area. I don't ever water mine and they grow like crazy (I grew mine from seeds). They do spread very easily. The best thing about this plant besides that it is a beautiful cut flower is that it brings all kinds of beneficial bugs, ie. ladybugs, assassin bugs, lacewings, praying mantis, and spiders. I plan to plant new ones around my roses. The only negative thing about this plant is that once the flowers fade you have to deadhead them or your garden will look very untidy.

KDEPetrillo,

I would suggest that the offensive daisy that you have had such a difficult time eradicating is not "Shasta Daisy", but, rather "Oxeye Daisy" (one of the Shasta's 4 progenitors). It is difficult, unless one is a Botanist, to tell the difference, except, being a hybrid in whose parentage Luther Burbank (when he developed this flower) included the "Nipponese" or Japanese daisy, when held side-by-side, the true Shasta's petals will be far longer and far whiter than that of the common "Oxeye". In fact, the entire inflorescence would be a great deal larger and whiter, overall...

The Oxeye originated in Great Britain (where it is almost a noxious weed) and came to the U.S. in feed for livestock on ships, then became feral on the East Coast.

In the late 1800s-early 1900s Burbank took the Oxeye, and by crossing it with 2 other white daisies and then,finally, with the "Nipponese", made the "Alaska" Shasta (single-petalled, large inflorescence, tall -- approx. 3-3 1/2 ft.) plants. Later, he crossed that with a "matricaria-like" daisy which grows wild here in Northern Calif. to make a double/triple fringe-petalled variety called "Marconi" and a triple/quadruple petalled variety called "Esther Read". Now, there are, by some accounts, over 200 varieties (or more)...

But the true Shasta does not have the invasive characteristics of its great grandfather, the common Oxeye.

And, even if you started out by planting Shasta seeds, if those original plants were allowed to "go to seed", because it is a hybrid, the odds are that none of those seeds would grow "true to the form" of the mother plant. In fact, it would be the Oxeye lineage that would dominate -- since it is the hardiest and closest to the wild of all its parents.

I agree with you, though, the "Oxeye" IS a nuisance! ;o)

I absolutely love this plant!!! I love it's white blooms with yellow centres!!! What has inspired me to grow the plant was that a family friend grows them and they don't fertilise, look after or even water it!!! It is so tough. They recently gave me 4 large plants. They are settling in very well in their plastic pots. They are beautiful, easy care plants for almost everyone to try! pokerboy

I'm surprised to see so many "positives" on this plant: I found it to be invasive, and the foliage has a TERRIBLE smell. I had 3 or 4 plants and tore them all out.

i planted my shasta daisies last year after we moved into our new home. at first, i was concerned they would not grow but throughout the winter they became real thick. my father-in-law put some miracle-gro on them in the spring and they grew real fast by producing many blooms! they are so beautiful that i will thin them in the fall and place in other areas around the exterior of my home. what i love about them is that they are so easy to care for!

The Shasta daisy is a great addition to my border garden and it makes a nice cut flower...BUT...IT STINKS! Smells kind of like something dead actually. So I just let it grow outside and surround it with other fragrant flowers at its feet to cover the stench. It's happy in about half-day shade here in central Texas zone 8. I tried it from seed, but it takes 2 years to bloom and I was impatient, so I just bought a little start this year from my local nursery in February and planted it under my pear tree in the front yard along with about 40 other flowering plants. Color all summer. Just don't inhale around the Shasta!

I raised nine groups from seed last year. The anticipation is killin me but they look real good and healthy.Stand about two feet tall,but alas no blooms yet.
They have the "stems?" look like grass with little spiky leaves comin off the sides some one tell me if this is the pre cursor to..... Blooms??????
thx rnh

I grew this plant from seed several years ago. It lasted here several years before I replaced it with a full grown plant from Lowe's. It doesn't have the longevity in NW Florida as in other locations, but it's so charming I can't resist!

I grew Shasta Daisy from seed in Atlanta, Georgia. The seed was easy to start, and the little dark green rosettes grew rather quickly for a perennial, and I was able to set them out in the ground by late that first Summer. They bloomed the next Summer and slowly spread over the years. I probably had them in too much shade, but we were in the middle of a four year long drought, and nothing much was surviving in full sun--I had sporadic bloom until the Fall. I grew several varieties--'Alaska' was over two feet tall, and 'Silver Princess?'--I think that is the name--was about a foot tall, but the flowers looked the same.

The Shasta Daisy was developed by the famous plant hybridizer Luther Burbank in his greenhouses North of San Francisco, California. You can tour what is left of his greenhouses and workshops, as they have been turned into a park--kind of a botanical tourist attraction. It is named, of course, after that most beautiful of snow capped mountains, Mount Shasta in Northern California.

One of my favorite flowers, they make good cut flowers, lasting a week or so. I divide mine every year or so. Smaller clumps will produce fewer but larger blooms. Make sure to fertilize or the stems get leggy and the plants fall over and need staking. The original 8 plants I started from seeds 4 years ago have produced 22 plants from division.

Makes a interesting (4 ft) hedge when planted in a row against a fence. They totally hid the fence with all the flowers. I planted them every other with Purple Coneflower, a purple and white temporary hedge!

I grew this plant from seed a few years ago; It was very easy to grow and I still have it growing in my garden and producing flowers from mid summer to the first frosts. The plants are now quite large and seem very undemanding and suffer no particular predation or disease.

This plant is also known as Chrysanthemum maximum. Grows to two or three feet tall, has white flowers with yellow centers. There are many cultivars within this species, including single flowering, double flowering varieties, and several different heights. Best cultivated in full sun or part shade, well draining soil. Easy to care for, low maintenance plants, can propagate from seed, division, or cuttings.