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How to Grow Shasta Daisies: A Cheerful Guide to Planting & Care

Learn how to plant and grow shasta daisies, a classic perennial.

Botanical Name
Leucanthemum x superbum
Grown as
Perennial
USDA Zones
4a
4b
5a
5b
6a
6b
7a
7b
8a
8b
9a
9b
Toxicity
Toxic to Dogs and Cats
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Water Needs
Low
Height
1–3 feet
Spread
1–3 feet
Soil pH
Neutral
Bloom Time
Summer
Fall
Flower Color
White
Special Features
Container-Friendly
Cut Flower
Disease-Resistant
Long Blooming
Low Maintenance
Attracts Butterflies
Attracts Pollinators
Attracts Songbirds
Deer-resistant
Rabbit-resistant
Resilience
Cold Hardy
Drought-Tolerant
Heat-Tolerant
Salt Tolerant
Plant Type
Flowers
Written By: Catherine Boeckmann Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Looking to add a pop of sunshine to your garden? Meet the Shasta daisy, cheerful, low-maintenance, and endlessly charming! These classic white-and-yellow perennials are more than just pretty faces. 

With their long blooming season, pollinator-friendly petals, and fuss-free personality, Shasta daisies are a dream come true for beginners and seasoned gardeners alike. In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know to grow and care for Shasta daisies—from planting tips to keeping them blooming bright all summer long.

Shasta daisies return each year in late spring or early summer and continue blooming into early fall, forming tidy clumps about 2 to 3 feet tall and 1 to 2 feet wide. Their glossy green foliage and sturdy stems make them excellent for garden beds, borders, and long-lasting cut flower arrangements. Because they can spread over time and may self-seed, some gardeners choose to remove spent blooms or plant them in contained beds to keep growth manageable.

Buy Seeds Now

These easy-care perennials attract pollinators and provide consistent color throughout the summer, making them a dependable choice for sunny garden spaces, cottage gardens, and fresh-cut bouquets.

Planting

Where to Plant Shasta Daisies

Grow daisies in full sun for the best blooms. 

Soil should be moderately fertile—too rich, and you’ll get more vegetation than flowers. The soil should also be moist but well-draining.

To improve soil fertility before planting, loosen the soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost.

When to Plant Shasta Daisies

  • Sow seeds in containers in a cold frame in autumn or spring.
  • If you seed directly, expect blooms after one season’s growth the following spring.
  • If purchasing a plant in a container, plant in spring or early fall.

How to Plant Shasta Daisies

  • Space plants 1 to 2 feet apart. Dig a hole twice the diameter of the container.
  • When placing the plant in the hole, make sure the top of the root ball is level with the soil surface.
  • Fill around the root ball and firm the soil.
  • Water thoroughly.
  • Taller plants may need support/staking.

Growing

  • Water during the summer only if rainfall is less than 1 inch per week. Daisies are generally tolerant of dry spells once they are established.
  • Every spring, apply some compost and mulch to help control weeds.
  • As flowers fade, deadhead to extend the blooming season.
  • After the first killing frost, cut stems back to an inch or two above the soil line. (See local frost dates.)

Dividing Daisies

To keep daisies blooming their best, plan to divide them every 2 to 3 years in early spring (before flowers appear) or in late summer or early fall (after flowers fade). Signs that a plant should be divided include:

  • Less-vigorous foliage growth
  • Smaller flowers or fewer flowers overall
  • Parts of the plant appear sparse or dead (especially the center of a clump)

How to Divide Daisies

  1. Use a spade or garden fork to loosen the soil around the plant, then gently remove it from the soil, doing your best to leave most roots intact.
  2. Brush or shake off soil from the roots. Then, using a sharp knife or pruning shears, divide the plant into two or more pieces, ensuring that each piece has at least a few stems and healthy-looking roots. Discard any diseased or damaged pieces.
  3. Replant the divisions as desired (spaced about 1-2 feet apart).

Harvesting

  • Shasta daisies make for a lovely cut flower, lasting a week or more in arrangements.

Pests and Problems

Daisies are generally low maintenance and disease resistant. However, the following may occasionally be troublesome:

Types

  • ‘Becky’ is a classic variety with large flowers that grows to about 3 feet tall.
  • ‘Cobham Gold’ is a popular variety with double flower heads and a yellow disc carried atop 2-foot stems.
  • ‘Horace Reed’ is an elegant daisy with double white flower heads and incurved disk florets.
  • ‘Snow Lady’ is a fast-growing, erect, bushy perennial that blooms the first year from seed and produces single white flower heads in the summer.

Wit and Wisdom

  • Daisies are one of the April birth flowers. They are also said to symbolize innocence and hope. Learn more flower meanings here.
  • A European native, Shasta daisies are now naturalized throughout North America.

Black bees on the clover-heads drowsily clinging, 
Where tall feathered grasses and buttercups sway; 
And all through the fields a white sprinkle of daisies, 
Open-eyed at the setting of day. 
–Abba Woolson

Flowers

About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening, so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana.

Read more from Catherine Boeckmann

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Comments

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Fri, 07/07/2017 - 11:17

If your daisies appear to be curling downward, they could be wilting due to lack of water. Feel the soil around their base and if it's dry, give them a bit more water. Especially during the worst of the summer's heat, daisies are susceptible to wilting.

 <span>Marie</span> Tue, 07/04/2017 - 11:58
Do you dead head daisies?
<span>Julia Strike</span> Sun, 07/16/2017 - 15:37
I am a want to be gardener and do well with various flowers but not sure what to do when blooms are turning brown
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 07/06/2017 - 11:34

Hi Marie,

Yes, deadhead daisies to keep them blooming all summer long and into the fall.

 <span>Kathleen George</span> Thu, 04/26/2018 - 21:57
Will wait for your reply. What is best way to stop them from vole damage?
<span>Heather</span> Sat, 06/03/2017 - 22:40
Many of my daisies have "split" heads, where there are two fully formed centers that are connected in the middle (like if you split two eggs but left them a little conjoined). I thought it was just 1 head until I started looking and there are many of them. What is this?!
<span>Aya</span> Mon, 04/17/2017 - 21:31
I bought some full grown Daises a month ago, but all stems are yellow and pale now, the fully blossomed flowers dried out and fell. The weather is getting a bit hot here now but I water them daily and they are already in Compost soil. What should I do?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Tue, 04/18/2017 - 16:57

Your shasta daisies were probably forced for spring-seasonal sales. These are typically late summer bloomers. Read above. By "return every spring" that means sprout. They would mature and flower later in season. As you can imagine, their seasonal cycle went haywire when they bloomed for spring. You can try to correct that, but it might take a year or two. Retrieve the plants from the compost (if the roots are intact) and put them into the ground or in a pot. Water them normally, not daily. Plants, unlike people, do not need constant hydration in hot conditions. Please understand that there is no guarantee that these plants will come back but you will never know if you do not try. (You can also purchase a new plant, one that is/was not forced.) We hope this helps.

 <span>Maureen Earl</span> Sun, 04/16/2017 - 13:49
We had a bed of shasta daisies planted (professionally although not sure that necessarily means correctly) two years ago. Beautiful flowers the first spring. The next spring I fertilized as I read I was supposed to, and only got a few random blooms and barely any stems at all. Now, in NC it has been warm, and there are no signs of shoots starting yet. Any advice? I don't think I have had them long enough to split them, but not sure why they only bloomed the first year. Thanks!!
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Tue, 04/18/2017 - 17:11

There are, apparently, several varieties of shasta daisy. You might want to contact your professionals and ask what you have. The only other thing we can think of is pH. Sources vary; we've seen recommendations from 6.0 to 8.0; another suggests less than 7.0. Could it be that your fertilizer contained too much of the N, the P, or the K? As contrasted with, say, a balanced fertilizer? Does your soil have good drainage? They do not like to stand in water. Those would be our considerations . . .