Countdown to Spring: Daisy

My wedding bouquet featured daisies. The florist was appalled and pushed me to choose roses instead, but I insisted. I love them. I've tried to grow Shasta daisies, but the plants didn't last.  And the Shasta daisy flowers needed staking. The ones pictured here are ox eye daisies or field daisies.  Farmers and ranchers will be appalled by what I write here--I let them grow wild in my lawn. I stole this idea from an artist whose lawn is covered in daisies in the spring. Why the controversy?  The flowers are considered a weed because they are non-native and spread in native habitat.  (This is a good reason to keep them in check, which I do.  I grow them only in the cultivated part of my yard.) And cattle will not graze in daisy fields due to the bad taste. However, they are beloved by pollinators of all sorts. Due to the recent upsurge of bee deaths, I try to encourage plants that provide food. I grow weeds for bees!  To prove I'm not a hypocrite, I let dandelions grow in my lawn, too. And clover. It's a good thing I don't live in a cookie-cutter community of emerald green lawns, or I'd be in trouble. 

Here's what they look like in the lawn.

Pollinators love them!