Garden Notes

Variegated dogwood seems to be blooming daisies

Some years ago, I planted Oxeye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum) or wild daisy in my perennial bed. I got them from a friend and since they were free, I took a few plants and placed them in several locations. The daisies liked my garden and did well, but it seemed that every year, just when the flowers were looking their best, a big wind would knock them over. At this point I usually cut them down because they just looked sad. I couldn’t figure how to keep the daisies standing up unless I grew them in their natural habitat which is a meadow. Finally, I decided to get rid them. Of course that was not a simple task, since the daisies had spread a lot of seed and  seemed to be coming up everywhere. To this day I still have a few of these daisies sprouting and mostly I still pull them out.

However, a few days ago I noticed that one of these wild daisies had grown unnoticed underneath a variegated red twig dogwood in the shrub border and was now growing up through its branches. The accidental side effect of that process made my dogwood look like it was blooming daisies.

It was an unexpected and lovely surprise. The two plants seem to be great partners with the shrub holding up the daisies and the daisies adding blooms to the shrub. I decided to let that particular daisy plant bloom undisturbed and enjoy the show.  Of course I also started thinking Immediately about what other shrubs might like a daisy partner!