Pronounciation: Cra-SAN-the-mum su-PER-bum

Hardiness zones
Sunset All
USDA All

Landscape Use: Flowering accent plant for cool season mesic gardens.

Form & Character: Formal, sometimes a bit stiff, nostalgic, festive, pure, bright and cheery.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, herbaceous perennial grown as a cool season annual in Phoenix. Vegetative habit is clumping and matting to 2-feet tall with equal spread except when stems bolt to 4 feet to produce flowers.

Foliage/Texture: Medium dark green leathery spatulate foliage with light serration; medium texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Perfect white rays flowers to 3-inches across with yellow centers, fruit inconspicuous.

Seasonal Color: White flowers in spring in lower deserts of Arizona and southeast California, elsewhere flowering occurs during summer.

Temperature: Shasta daisy grows best when temperatures range between 40^o and 95^oF.

Light: Partial sun best in Phoenix. In the desert, absolutely avoid placement of Shasta daisy plants in blazing western exposures. Sites with eastern exposures and morning sun are best.

Soil: Shasta daisy are tolerant of all soils but those that are highly alkaline. It does best in soils that are well drained and have a slight organic content.

Watering: Shasta daisy grows well in evenly moist soils. In the desert Southwest, this means that regular and frequent irrigations are a necessity for survival especially during hot summer months. Less water is needed in higher elevations of the southwest and will depend on frequency of summer monsoon rains.

Pruning: Remove spent flower stalks during fall and early winter.

Propagation: Seed, or division in fall to early spring.

Disease and Pests: Slugs

Additional comments: Shasta daisy is an old-fashioned garden cut flower plant that is a wonderful border 'perennial' for any mesic garden. Shasta daisy performs well in Flagstaff, Prescott, and Payson gardens during summer months (actually performing better than in Phoenix). Flowers sometimes attract bees. There are many named cultivars.