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Get the iPhone app Browse the guideOxeye Daisy
Leucanthemum ircutianum
Also called Moon Daisy, Dog Daisy, Marguerite
About Oxeye Daisy
Oxeye daisies are tough native perennials. They produce cheerful white petals around yellow centres through summer. Bees and pollinating insects visit them constantly.
- Type
- Herbaceous perennial
- Height
- 1–3 ft
- Spread
- 1–2 ft
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Low once established
- Soil
- Average, well-draining soil
- Hardiness
- Hardy to -20 °F
- Flowers
- May to August
- Growth
- Upright, clump-forming
- Toxicity
- Not known to be toxic
- Native to
- Europe and temperate Asia
How to recognise it
- Spoon-shaped basal leaves
- Rounded scalloped leaf margins
- Low spreading ground-level rosette
- Grows in tidy clumps
Caring for Oxeye Daisy
Watering
Every 6 days- How often
- Water when the top inch dries out
- How much
- 0.5 gal per plant
- When
- Morning
- Tips
- Drench the soil rather than wetting the crown.
Feeding
- How often
- Once a year in spring
- What to use
- Thin layer of garden compost
- When
- Early spring
- How
- Spread a handful around the base
Pruning
- When
- Late autumn or early spring
- How
- Cut dead flower stalks down to the basal leaves
- Tips
- Keep the green ground leaves intact over winter.
Jobs it will ask for
- Rinse the daisy leaves Spray the leaves lightly with your hose to clean off dry soil.
- Mulch around the base Spread a thin layer of compost around the plant before cold weather arrives.
Through the year
Spring
Clear weeds around the crown to give new flower shoots space.
Summer
Deadhead faded blooms to encourage more flowers to form.
Autumn
Cut back tall spent stems to ground level.
Winter
Leave the green bottom leaves to protect the crown from frost.
What to watch for
- Aphids clustering on fresh flower stems
- Rinse them off with a firm jet of water from your hose.
- Crown rot from waterlogged winter mud
- Grow in freely draining soil and avoid overwatering late in the year.
Written by Garden Rescue from photo identifications, in US units. Local advice from your extension service or garden centre beats a general guide.