The Simplicity Of The Daisy

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

These hardy and unpretentious low-growing plants can appear in the most unexpected place in the garden, striking with the grace of inflorescences, a rich palette of flower colors. They combine simplicity and splendor so harmoniously that one cannot help but agree how exactly they correspond to their name

Rod Daisy

Among several dozen species of herbaceous perennial plants of the genus Bellis, the perennial daisy is more often grown in culture. True, if it grows in one place for more than two years, then its flowers become smaller, the color turns pale, and therefore it is grown as a biennial.

The daisy does not come off high from the surface of the earth, which does not prevent it from attracting the attention of flower growers, as well as bees and other small living creatures. Leafless pubescent peduncles rush to the sky from the rosette of spatulate leaves. Each peduncle is crowned with a magnificent inflorescence of two types of flowers. The middle of the inflorescence consists of tubular bisexual flowers surrounded by reed unisexual flowers, which are popularly called petals.

Graceful inflorescences are born from early spring to autumn, if annoying weeds are promptly removed, trying to hide, or even displace modest miniature neighbors.

Varieties

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Perennial daisy (Bellis perennis) - many varieties of this species have been bred, which differ in the shape of the corolla of the reed flowers, the degree of doubleness of the inflorescences, and the diameter of the inflorescences. Today, terry varieties are more in vogue, the inflorescences of which can be mistaken for flowers of other ornamental plants, for example, dahlias, they grow so large and fluffy. Inflorescences of various shades of the red palette have a special charm, but for lovers of other colors of the rainbow, there are varieties with white and pink petals.

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Round-leaved daisy (Bellis rotundifolia) - a rosette of round leaves protects white inflorescences, casting a sky-blue tint.

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Forest daisy (Bellis sylvestris) - dresses up her petals in red robes.

Growing

Daisies love sunny places, but they can also withstand partial shade.

They have no predilections for soils. But the damp winter earth has a destructive effect on them. Severe frosts can also destroy rhizomes lying close to the surface of the earth, although, in principle, the plant is cold-resistant.

Watering is required during dry times, but daisies grown in pots and containers constantly need slightly damp soil. Potted daisies also need to be transplanted in a larger container in the spring.

Despite their small growth, daisies grow into a lush bush, and therefore, when planting seedlings in open ground, a distance between individual specimens of up to 20 cm should be maintained.

Healing properties

Lovers of novelty add young leaves and flower buds to salads, curd dishes, soups.

In the old days, they tried to treat people with a sick soul with daisy tincture. There were no statistics on how successful this treatment was.

The combination of simplicity and grace gave birth to the association of innocence and purity, which rarely anyone can preserve for a lifetime. Therefore, daisies were used to decorate the last orphanage of children and young people who died early.

Reproduction

An unpretentious daisy in cultivation, and multiplies easily, in the usual ways: by sowing seeds, cuttings or dividing an overgrown bush.

If you wish for spring flowering, sowing seeds is carried out in the summer. The emerging seedlings are determined in personal cups filled with peaty soil and kept in a sheltered place until spring transplantation into open ground.

Enemies

Daisies, although small in stature, are very resistant to diseases and pests. But some fungi still sometimes manage to get to their roots or leaves in order to spoil the natural beauty.