These classic, cheerful white blooms are a mainstay in the flower garden. Learn how to grow a Shasta daisy in your own backyard.
Courtesy of Proven Winners – www.provenwinners.comBanana Cream Shasta daisy
There’s something special about the colorful flower gardens that blossom across the Midwest when the weather warms. Perennials like coneflower, black-eyed susan, hosta, and tiger lilies are at their best in mid-summer. Shasta daisy adds a lovely cool splash of white to these colorful beds. If you’re not already growing these beautiful daisies, here’s what you need to know.
Learn how to grow Gerbera daisies in pots.
The History of Shasta Daisies
VAL LAWLESS/SHUTTERSTOCKShasta daisy flowers are easy to grow from seed
Shasta daisy doesn’t exist in the wild; it’s a hybrid of four other daisies from around the world created in the 1890s by Luther Burbank. Burbank was an American horticulturalist and agricultural pioneer who worked mainly in California. He introduced it to the world in 1901 after 17 years of development, naming it in honor of Mt. Shasta in the Cascade Mountains. His goal in hybridizing this variety was to create a daisy that resembled the wild ox-eye daisy he’d grown up loving in Massachusetts, with the added benefits of large flowers, sturdy stems, a prolonged blooming season and staying power when cut. Shasta daisy offers all those benefits and more!
Discover more interesting daisy facts you probably don’t know.
Shasta Daisy Care
Photo courtesy of Proven Winners, www.provenwinners.comThese daisies are lovely flowers for bouquets
- Botanical name: Leucanthum x Superbum
- Zones: 5 to 8
- Light needs: Full sun or part shade (in warmer climates)
- Soil: Well-draining
A perennial, this flower blooms the first year from seed. Its stems are sturdy enough to grow 3 to 4 feet tall without needing staking, and its clumping behavior means it’ll spread to fill your flower garden beds over time. It makes beautiful bouquets (as do these top 10 flowers for a cutting garden), and its bloom season lasts from mid-June to early fall in many areas.
Well-drained, fertile soil is best, so add organic material like compost around the Shasta daisy plants each spring to enrich the soil. Regular deadheading and division every two or three years stimulates growth. It tolerates dry spells well, but a little extra water in hot, dry weather may be needed. In the fall when blooms are done, cut foliage back to just above the soil. It will return in the spring to bloom anew!
Drought-tolerant blackfoot daisy can take the heat.
Becky Shasta Daisy
ZoomTravels/Getty ImagesBecky features large white flowers
Popular varieties include the long blooming Becky Shasta daisy, known for attracting butterflies throughout the summer season and even into fall. Also beloved is Banana Cream, which features creamy yellow blooms that are long lasting in flower arrangements.
Shop Now
Psst—if you love daisies, don’t miss the April birth flower daisy gift guide.