Pushing daisies to the top of your garden wish list

Brighten up your garden with any one of the 24,000 species of the daisy family. Most are easy to grow and can flower in winter and early spring.

Most daisies are easy to grow and several flower in winter and early spring.

What’s in a name? Call something a daisy and it might be any plant in the daisy family, Asteraceae, which has 1600 genera and more than 24,000 species. And that’s not counting the cultivated varieties (cultivars).

That distinctive daisy shape isn’t a single flower but an inflorescence or cluster of flowers. The outer petals are ray florets rather than just petals, and the centre is packed with tiny disc florets. Some common daisies are asters, cosmos, chrysanthemums, dahlias, sunflowers, marigolds, gerberas and weeds such as dandelions. Lettuce, globe artichokes and Jerusalem artichokes are food plants in the daisy family. Most daisies are easy to grow and several flower in winter and early spring. The annual cineraria (Pericallis x hybrida) is useful because it flowers in shady spots. African or Cape daisies (Osteospermum) are small perennials that thrive in poor, dry soil in full sun. Our native paper or everlasting daisies make a spectacular show in Western Australia from late winter to spring when wildflowers form carpets as far as the eye can see. These are annuals that grow readily from seed in open, sunny spots on sandy, well-drained soils. Some of the prettiest are Rhodanthe (pink and white), Waitzia (yellow) and Schoenia (pink or yellow).

Brighten Up

Marguerite daisies (Argyranthemum frutescens) flower abundantly from winter to spring, and sometimes even longer.

Federation daisy ‘Super Sublime Pink’.

Federation daisy ‘Super Sunny Days’.

Federation Daisies are a NSW-bred range of marguerites that are prolific and long flowering, and include the SuperSized series.

Federation daisy ‘Super Chameleon’.

Federation daisy ‘Super Duper’.

Q&A

My frangipani is leafless but the buds are covered in white stuff that bees appear
to be collecting in their pollen baskets. What’s going on?

Mark Warren, Perth

Your photos show mealybugs covering the dormant shoots. They’re sap suckers, and as such they secrete “honeydew”. Bees are known to collect this sweet substance from mealybugs as a food source. You can wipe off the pests or use a cotton bud dipped in methylated spirits, or simply cut off the affected shoots. Winter is a good time to do this. A native ladybird that eats mealybugs is available at bugsforbugs.com.au.

Should passionfruit vines be pruned after fruiting? And do they need fertilising?

Rod Leonarder, Sydney

Prune these vines in early spring to contain their spread and encourage more new growth, which carries flowers and fruit. Thinning out a vine improves airflow and sun penetration. Prune out woody or dead growth at the base, then trim back healthy growth by up to a third. Passionfruit are vigorous, hungry vines; apply an organic-based fruit tree fertiliser in spring, summer and autumn, out to a radius of a metre. Keep it watered and mulched.

What can I grow around a huge Norfolk Island pine in our west-facing front garden? The ground is solid with roots. Some agaves are surviving there but I’m hoping for something softer looking.

Alison Carlisle, WA

Any succulents would grow but “softer” plants include silver liquorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare), purple trad (Tradescantia pallida) and seaside daisy (Erigeron); all are tough and cover large areas quickly. In the tree’s shade, try bird’s nest ferns, clivias, any bromeliads or ground-covering Plectranthus ‘Nico’. Start with tubestock or small divisions that don’t need big holes to be dug.

Blossom by Adriana Picker.

Send your questions to [e-mail] The best question for August wins a copy of Blossom by Adriana Picker and her previous book Petal, together worth $90, from Hardie Grant