I have more yellow daisy plants of various species than I have ever had before. But each one is welcome in its way, this one not the least. The plant is a native of the Chihuahua Desert and, like Tetraneuris aucalis, is very visibly a desert plant with its dry, aromatic foliage, tightly held against the stems. As for yellow daisies... well, many of the local desert natives are yellow daisies, from Damianita to the little annual chinchweed to Viguiera, the goldeneye.
Being native to the high desert, it is distinctly cold-hardy, said to survive winter lows around 0*F (-18*C). Good drainage is recommended; so far it has accepted my soil well, though admittedly, it is in one of the best-draining parts of the garden. It is said to respond well to heavy pruning should it become too woody. Curiously, it receives more shade than I realized when I first positioned it; this has not been a problem so far. Still, I would like to try one in the Dry Corner with its more intense sunlight, but I'm not quite ready to take a cutting off this little plant yet.
The flowers are small, perhaps an inch across, but with so many buds, it should be brightly visible anyway. All in all, it's a very attractive plant with a sense of being still by its nature a wild variety just transplanted into a garden setting. This is not to say it is in any way coarse; far from it - it is a very refined plant and not expected to grow much more than 2 ft (61 cm) tall and wide. Perhaps it is most accurate to simply say that it looks very much at home here in my little bit of nearly raw desert.
so lovely to see these pretty plants in their native habitat, and all those buds waiting to open with more blooms ...Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI saw even more buds on it this morning :D It looks like it will be quite a daisy extravaganza! Yes, there is something special about having these plants growing in their natural habitat (or nearly!), but in a garden setting...
DeleteYou can never go wrong with yellow daisies in my book. I'm looking at adding more natives to my garden too.
ReplyDeleteI think mixing the natives in gives me a sense of having a reliable backbone for the garden - at least in this climate... As I say, that gives a wide choice of yellow daisies ;-)
Deletethat looks like a yellow cousin to our blue kingfisher daisy Felicia.
ReplyDeleteAs a daisy-flowered, evergreen, woody sub-shrub, it certainly has some similarities. The leaves, however, are needle-like, reminiscent of conifers, in fact, with a resinous fragrance.
DeleteIt's a pretty little thing and good to read it is enjoying your garden Amy.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Angie! It started so slowly, I couldn't tell whether it was going to survive, let alone settle in and be happy. So I'm thrilled :)
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