ShareThisMy grandmother's name was Daisy, and Marguerites were her favorite flowers.
Commonly known as bush daisy, Marguerites are among the most common bedding plants for summer. Though a daisy flower may be easy to identify, it is in fact the most complex and highly evolved of all flower types. In the botanical texts that order plants from simplest to most advanced, the daisies and their composite family are always at the tail end.
"Daisy" is a common name derived from the Celtic. The flower not only looks at the sun, it also opens with its rising, and closes at sunset each day. The petals around the edges are called rays. The smaller disk in the center has the real flowers. These open in a minute spiral that is most easily seen on the head of a mammoth sunflower, also a daisy.
In the garden, all plants with daisy flowers, be they perennials, annuals or shrubs, are members of the composite family and thus related. When it comes to bedding plants, this relationship can be mind-boggling, with so many similar species and hybrids. One of the most prolific forms, which I find to be excellent filler for the summer garden, is the Marguerite.
These plants have undergone a great deal of breeding in the last decade, introducing a wide range of daisy petal colors from deep burgundy to pink, white and yellow. Major breeders both here and in Europe have developed their own line of hybrids, but there isn't that much variation between them. For this reason I buy what's in the store rather than seeking out a specific variety.
My preference is to buy Marguerites in 1-gallon pots for immediate visibility in the garden. For $5 you get a large well-shaped plant in full bloom. Buying this size is a lifesaver for short-season northern gardens because the flowers start out bold and keep going until season's end. This size also creates the beautiful mounding color so common in English gardens. It's the perfect choice for contributing that super-abundant cottage look.
For budget gardeners, Marguerites are more affordable in quart sizes or smaller pots. This size allows you to buy more plants for your dollar, but they take some time to reach a good size. This may not be doable in short summer climates, but where the summers are long and warm, this is a great way to flesh out space for very little investment. If well watered and regularly fed, the plants grow quickly and fill out to the gallon size in just a few weeks.
Marguerites produce so many blooms on each plant that they are treated a bit differently in the garden. If you have time, you can use scissors to snip off the spent blooms every day or two, which encourages new bud production. This may be too laborious for larger plantings; many gardeners use hedge clippers to shear off all the stems at once to encourage a fresh flush overall.
So if your house is on the market this summer, Marguerites will make it stand out. They are the perfect solution for a special event or a garden party on short notice. And if it's been a tough spring and your early plantings have fizzled, take heart, for like a comforting grandmother, Marguerites are there to make everything right again.
(Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist. Her blog, the MoZone, offers ideas for cash-strapped families. Read the blog at www.MoPlants.com/blog. E-mail her at mogilmer(at)yahoo.com. Also, join her online for the Garden Party social networking at Learn2grow.com.)
YARDSMART
