Grow Shasta Daisies for Cheerful Bouquets

Bucket full of white, blue, and bright pink flowers with several white daisies
Spring bouquet with Shasta daisies, peach-leafed bellflower, and painted daisy

Home » Grow Shasta Daisies for Cheerful Bouquets

Shasta daisies are an old-fashioned, easy-to-grow perennial flower with a nostalgic, carefree appeal, making them cheerful additions for a bouquet. They make great, long-lasting cut flowers. They’re a cutting garden essential.

Long-stemmed and abundant, they bloom late spring to early summer and can be dead-headed to give a return performance for late summer into fall.

The flowers attract and feed bees and butterflies. The birds benefit from the seeds if left to develop.

Good in borders and in perennial cutting flower beds. 

Shasta daisies originated as hybrid by Luther Burbank, creating a line with many varieties.

The flowers and plants

There are many varieties of Shasta daisies ranging in height from under a foot to 3 ft. tall in bloom.

The classic daisy color is white, but several varieties range in color from pale yellow to a nice bright yellow.

The flowers are 2-4 in. wide and the foliage is low to about 6 in. It’s an herbaceous perennial so it dies to the ground in winter. The roots

How to grow Shasta daisies

Zones: 5-9; Sun: Full to part sun, full sun is preferred.

Full sun is best, but will tolerate part shade in hot climates. Double-flowered types do better in very light shade.

Plant them in fairly rich soil either in a perennial flower bed or in a landscape bed with good drainage. Use organic fertilizer in late fall or late winter. Mulch with compost, taking care not to smother the foliage.  

They’re easy from seed in seeding trays. Start seeds in spring and first flowers should appear in late summer. But they’re readily available in 4” pots and 6-packs and potted plants come in a wider selection than what seed sources offer.

They make a nice little patch up to 2 ft. wide which can be divided for more plants. When you have a big enough patch, divide in fall or early spring to start more patches. Divide established plants every 2-3 years.

They need only average water and they can be allowed to dry out between waterings. With rich garden soil I have watered every two weeks, except during their fast spring growth when they need more to keep up with rising temperatures.

Shasta daisies tend to be deer and rabbit resistant, but that depends on your deer pressure. I keep mine behind a deer fence.

How to harvest the flowers

Cut the daisies at the base of the stem. Please don’t leave stubs. When they’re all harvested you’ll have just the foliage left. Be sure to harvest all of them. When you do this you’ll most likely have a second bloom in later summer to fall, though not as exuberant as the spring-summer bloom.

Some people recommend cutting the flowers that are not harvested and leaving the stems remaining. This might let smaller side-shoots to develop, with some smaller flowers. It keeps the plant looking fuller in a garden, but it’s not attractive…at all.

Another reason to leave the stems is to provide a nesting habitat in the stems for tiny native bees… which are our most important pollinators! Read more about how leaving finished stems in the garden helps pollinators here.

I prefer to just plan on that low leafy look after the first bloom and have a good second bloom. I think it’s much prettier that way. And I save the standing stems for a little later in the summer with the second round of flowers.

After cutting the flowers plunge them into lukewarm water and place in a cool, darkish spot for conditioning.

'Fluffy' Shasta daisy
Shasta Daisy, ‘Fluffy’

Favorite varieties Shasta daisies

There are many pretty varieties to choose from. Most are white, but some have cream to yellow-colored petals. My favorites are:

  • ‘Alaska’, to 28 in. tall, a big flowered variety, one of the best, most popular Shastas
  • ‘Becky’, to 36 in. tall, another popular variety
  • ‘Fluffy’, to 28 in. tall with semi-double flowers that have shaggy petals

Sources for plants and seeds

Bluestone Perennials has a very nice selection of Shasta daisies

Outside Pride has Crazy Daisy seeds! *

Flowers to go with Shasta daisies

Big dark blue Scabiosa caucasica flower in a hand

Scabiosa

Perennial scabiosa has long, thin stems and last very well in the vase. Produces flowers all season long.

Pale pink and dark rose-pink daisies

Painted Daisy

An easy perennial daisy in a range of pinks from bright magenta-pink, to soft pink, to white.

Bouquet of variety of Alstroemerias

Alstroemerias

One of the very best cutting flowers you can grow! Long lasting and very easy to grow.

Pale blue cup shaped flower

Peach-leafed Bellflower

Tall spring bloomer comes in blues or white, and very long-lasting in the vase.

Deep purple flowers along a stem

Delphinium

Tall thick stems of flowers bloom in late to early summer, and sometimes again.

Spiky stem of Veronica with purple flowers and tiny native bee

Veronica

A perennial flower that blooms throughout the season in long spike in white, blues, and pinks.

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Bouquet with a large daisy with tiny daisies behind it.
Crazy Daisy with feverfew as a bouquet filler and some colorful Alstroemarias.