But ever-reliable Shasta daisy keeps on smiling

I’VE said it before, and I’ll say it again: This year’s gardening season is well behind compared to last year, at least two weeks behind.

Further evidence of this is that I am growing three different varieties of tomatoes this year – well-known and tried and tested varieties – Moneymaker, Alicante and Ailsa Craig. All three are growing well, but it is Alicante that is out-performing the other two, with the fruit crop being much heavier and larger. However, on all three varieties the fruit is still green!

Some of the fruits are showing early signs of beginning to ripen – and again it is Alicante. Last year I was picking tomatoes at the beginning of July.

It’s not only the tomatoes which are behind. I am also growing a number of varieties of peppers and chillies and again I am pleased with the quality of the plants, but despite producing lots of flowers they are only just beginning to form the fruits. This time last year these too were much further ahead.

I just hope the extra wait this year for my tomatoes and peppers is still worth the effort!

What has been worth the effort this year (and they are coming into full bloom) are my Shasta daisies (Leucanthemum × superbum). The traditional Shasta daisy has a particular significance to me because it brings back memories of my grandmother taking me to visit her friends’ gardens and getting me to pick bunches of them. It was part of my formative years and got me interested in gardening, as the Shasta daisy was one of the first flowers I grew.

To be honest it was probably a good choice as they are pretty easy and quite forgiving to the novice gardener.

Actually the traditional Shasta daisy is very much like the Ox-eye daisy you see growing at roadside edges, only much taller and with a larger flower. It makes a good cut flower and lasts quite a few days in the vase.

Plant breeders have been busy over the years and quite a few new hybrid forms of the Shasta daisy have been developed. Last year I grew two relative new hybrids, Leucanthemum × superbum “Sunny side up” and Leucanthemum × superbum “Banana Cream”. Both hybrids are stunning plants, yet are quite different to look at: Banana Cream, as its name suggests, is a yellow-flowering form of the Shasta daisy, which makes it rather unusual, though the plant is rather smaller growing at around 60 cm tall.

“Sunny side up” is more like the traditional white-flowering form which also has a yellow eye, but what makes this flower more stunning is that the white petals are doubled-layered and reflex.

I hope you also agree that Leucanthemum × superbum “Sunny side up” is a stunning plant from my photograph of the plant now it is in full flower.

As I said Shasta daisies are very easy to grow and have few problems. They also seem to perform well on dry soils, though they do like to be in the full sun. The other good thing about them is that they are also very easy to propagate – I simply lift and divide the clumps in early winter.

To keep them flowering longer, make sure you dead-head them on a regular basis – something I keep saying for many flowering plants!