Shasta Daisy

White daisies are simply beautiful. The colour white is the greatest garden gift, and the daisy flower shape is delightful. With a petal pattern we can all draw, daisies are cute, childlike, and gently romantic - timeless floral friends.

 Please don't blow over!
More Shasta Daisies

Every summer my garden is home to ever-expanding clumps of white perennial daisies - I call them Shasta daisies. They seed, they spread, they flower, they fall over - leading a most uncomplicated flower-life, each year the same.

Shaggy Shastas

Then I have one smaller clump of shaggy Shastas. They are shorter, less aggressive, and - ahem - less smelly than the usual ones.

 A beautiful flower.
Shaggy Shasta Daisy

Smell is a serious problem with these easy care flowers. For summer there's nothing nicer than a blue vase full of large white daisies. Unfortunately last time I picked a handful to proudly display on the hall table there were very rude comments about a Moosey cat forgetting his or her house-training. So unfair! Sorry, Shasta daisies - you just don't smell nice enough!

Oddly, checking in my Botanica's reference book (there is a Mount Shasta in Washington state where they were first noticed) I find no mention of odour. Hmm... Perhaps one of the Moosey cats did disgrace himself (or herself) all those summers ago!

 These lovely white daisies grow in many places in my garden.
It's Shasta Daisy Time!