How to get shorter Shasta daisies

Credit: Fimb

Q: I love the look of the daisies in our garden in Victoria, B.C. but they have become tall and tend to fall over. Is there a way to reduce the height and size of the blooms for next year? I cut them right back in the fall.

Tall or not, I love Shasta daisies for their cheery summer presence, deer resistance and tendency to self-seed. Cutting your daisies back early in the season may thicken the plant and give you shorter stems – it’s worth a try. And, certainly cutting them back in the fall is a good idea and will give them a fresh start each spring. That said, the most reliable way to have shorter-stemmed daisies in your garden would be to plant one of the semi-dwarf cultivars. I have both long- and short-stemmed versions of Shasta daisy in my garden and all are vigorous and excellent July-August bloomers. A couple possible choices for you are Leucanthemum superbum ‘Snow Lady’, about a foot tall, or ‘Silver Princess’, which reaches about a foot and a half.