Marguerite Daisies for Impact!

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I’ve taken too long of a break from this Horticulture blog!  As our Holiday Light Show (HLS) finished up on December 30th, my efforts now shift to all of our 2017 plant ordering.  I still have about 50 seed catalogs to peruse but I always consider that task one of my favorites at RBG!  The HLS went quite well with a great surge of visitation during that last week between Christmas and New Year’s eve.  We don’t have final attendance numbers yet but it will be in excess of 25,000 guests which, while less than last year, is still quite respectable considering the weather we had in December.  A big thank you goes out to our staff and volunteers involved with this huge event although we are still looking at three months of taking down the HLS and getting it efficiently packed away.  I’ve been taking some time at home which also includes organizing some orders and sifting through photos of my 2016 trial garden visits.

I continue to run across a wide range of really cool Marguerite daisy (Argyranthemum frutescens) selections that are quite lovely.  The color range includes whites, cream, pinks and yellows.  Flowers range in size from 1″-2″ wide on average.  The single forms all have a yellow center but the neat double forms offer some excellent interest as well.  We’ve displayed Marguerite daisies (also called cobbitty daisies) at the gardens in the past and they’ve always done quite well with strong flowering throughout the summer.  This plant, native to the Canary Islands, is an annual in our climate and prefers full sun, decent soils and adequate moisture.  Heights will range from 18″ to 30″ or so in our climate although pinching back a plant can increase flowering on a shorter specimen.  They don’t mind the heat although flowering will slow a bit with intense temperatures.  I’ll certainly be looking for many of these selections with all these photos taken this past year.  Varieties do not come true from seed and all of these are offered as vegetative selections (plugs, rooted cuttings or plants).  The variety above is Angelic™ Candy Pink.

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Angelic™ Ruby

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Angelic™ Snow

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‘Beauty Yellow’

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Day-Zee® Double Vanilla

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Day-Zee® Red

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Day-Zee® Vanilla

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Glory™ Pink

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Go Daisy® Fully Ruby

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‘Honeybees Double White’

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‘Honeybees Yellow Cream’

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Sassy® Double Yellow

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‘Sole Mio Improved’

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‘Summit Pink’

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‘Summit Yellow’

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Vanilla Butterfly®

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Pure White Butterfly™

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Day-Zee® Double White