Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Leucanthemum (superbum Crazy Daisy) - what now?

FiddlingOnFiddlingOn Posts: 84
in Plants
I bought a couple of this plant beginning of July and hoped it would be the sort that you could deadhead and new flowers would sprout and keep going for a long while. However, by mid August all the flowers and buds that were on it when I bought it had had well and truly finished and no new buds appeared despite my assiduous deadheading. Perhaps I should have chopped it right down :/ at the end of flowering. Could anyone please tell me whether, in their experience,  this is the sort of plant that lends itself to repeat blooming. If not, I think I'd rather not wait until next Summer but take them out now and invest in a different plant with a bit longer flowering period.



Thanks for any input.

Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    I always chop mine down immediately after flowering and often get a 2nd flush or sporadic flowering after that.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • HeyHo!HeyHo! Posts: 113
    Those daisies prefer full sun to flower rampantly.  I moved one half of a plant where it is in semi shade near a tree but still gets sun. They do not flower as much as the ones in full sun away from overhanging trees. I do remove all dead flowers drastically after flowering and they do give flower for a few months.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    You need to cut the flower stalks right down as near to the ground as you can as soon as the flowers start to fade,  not just take the heads off.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • FiddlingOnFiddlingOn Posts: 84
    Thank you all for your replies. They are in a sunny position. It sounds like I should have chopped to the bottom of the flowering stalks to get new flowers instead of just a few inches below the flower. It's probably too late now but evidently worth bearing in mind for the future if I end up keeping them.  
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Yes - always take the stem right back to a joint, or the base, depending on the plant.
    Apart from anything else, it looks better  :)
    They're newly planted, so not fully established either, so they should be bigger and better next year, although 6 weeks of flowers is pretty good from any flowering plant  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957
    I was about to post the same question. I deadheaded mine in a similar fashion. Then I noticed tons of new growth in the middle of the plant so cut all of the old back.

    This was it about a month ago:



    What do I do with all of this new growth? Leave it and cut it down to the base in late Autumn or next Spring? 


Sign In or Register to comment.