I've only grown 'Becky' and I love them. This is their 4th year in my garden, and while they haven't bloomed yet this year, their foliage was up and running in the spring with no problems. Love them...did I say that already?

They sure are cheerful, aren't they!?

I can't grow a good clump of them to save my life at this house, and any fool can grow a shasta - go figure, they just will not "take" over here. At my other house, I had "Aglaya" and just loved it, and I also had "Snow Lady", which is an oustanding dwarf. "Snowcap" is another good dwarf, but I found that "Snow Lady" bloomed on and off after the heavy flush. My neighbor had a very old established clump of some sort of shasta along the property fence, and it was lovely when it bloomed, and she never did a darn thing to it.

I'm sure there are different kinds of shastas, but I dug out all my plain old ones and got three Becky plants. We'll see how that works. One is huge already, and one came up this spring not so vigorous. Their foliage is sure different, almost waxy appearing. I got to see a bloom after I set them out late last summer, very nice and clean, plus they're supposed to bloom a little longer, probably will deadhead.

The others got too thick, bloomed and were done in a short while and ratty looking, blooms not fit for cut flowers.

I see there is a yellow one now which looked pretty in the photo, probably ones I never heard of.

We have those ox eye daisies growing all over town, even in cracks in sidewalks and alleys, but I'm hesitant to introduce them in my yard because they can get invasive, but they are lovely and bloom in early spring, very pretty with iris.

I love shastas! I agree, we can certainly use the tried-and-true in our gardens.

For some added variety, I am trying leucanthemum 'Broadway Lights' (planted last year) and leucanthemum 'Ice Star' (planted a few weeks ago).

Right now, Broadway Lights is healthy, large and budding up with lots of blooms. It looks like it's going to be the expected pale yellow.

The Ice Star is new, so the plants are still small. However, it's blooming. I have it planted with daylily 'Happy Returns' for a pale yellow and white combo.

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Here is a link that might be useful: my gardening blog

I have a few Shastas, Ester Reid and Cobham Gold, these are shorter, also have Marconi, Highland White Dream and Aglaia. I have a few more but their names escape me at the moment. I use these for punches of white in amongst other perennials. I lost Whirral Supreme some time ago, do you think I can find it anywhere so I can replace it, no :o(.
A......

I have shastas, too. Have the ordinary ones, a shaggy white one (lost tag) in the rock garden and some of the wild ones in the orchard. And, Aliska - today I bought some yellow ones at a greenhouse, Leucanthemum x super: "Sonnenschein" with bloom described as a pale lemon color. My plant only has alot of buds preparing to open, but the ones that were blooming were beautiful. A soft shade of yellow - not bright yellow. Usually buy in threes or at least twos, but didn't have enough space for them. Hope this solitary one does well.

That's exciting to hear you got a yellow one. I'm going to ease up and reassess after this season what will fill in where. If they do well, you can probably divide them in time. But I love yellow and kind of go overboard on it, do love whites to balance out whatever other colors there are. I'm going to need some more blues and purples that will do well in part shade. I'm not keen on asters, but a lady at my rose club won a mention (not much competition) on this gorgeous deep purple one that looked like a splayed paint brush, no center showing that is typical of asters, normally I'm not big on asters but I'm having to look at other things to offset the monotony of so much of the same thing. I'm trying to find out what that is and where she got it, wish I'd examined it more closely. I did ask her, but haven't heard back for some time. Can live withot it and it probably requires full sun.

I think most shastas require almost full sun. That is the problem I'm fighting. Those spots fill up faster.

The shaggy white shasta's blooming time seems short. Love them in the beginning, but after a week the blossom will dry into an ugly brownish color. So far, it hasn't spread much after three years, but then it's rubbing shoulders with tall phlox. You're right about the need for white at summer's peak.

I have Alaska which grows too tall for me and then flops, Snow lady which is in its second season and so far so good - short, compact and flowers stay pretty a long time, Crazy daisy which has behaved for me - about 20" and keeps a nice compact plant - all started from seed. I bought Broadway Lights the new yellow one - need to give it till next year in order to evaluate it - it was beautiful when I bought it - I hope it developes another flush of blooms this season - it is suppose to. I have the oxeye daisies pop up now and then but not invasive - they are happy surprises......

Lynne

After a little more reading and seeing your descriptions, I think the ones I'm referring to are oxeye daisies. They are blooming here and zone 5. My Beckys will be at least three weeks. I really am praising the simple oxeye: sun to not so light shade, poor soil, good soil (too good and it flops) and it really is the first white of early summer, besides Husker's Red, which is an entirely different effect. As I remember, Husker's has a pale pink 'after image'

Now does anyone else have a place in their heart and garden for the commonplace oxeye?

I have grown Becky, Snowcap, Aglaia, and Summer Snowball.

Becky has performed the best. It's tough and a prolific bloomer, and the stems are nice and strong. I've had it for about five years. I've had Snowcap for a couple of years. The ones in full sun have done very well, although they don't bloom as long as Becky does. The ones in part shade haven't come back as well.

I grew Summer Snowball one year and yanked it. The flowers were nice, but the stems were terrible--really weak. I staked them using a peony ring, but the heads were so heavy for the stems that the stems folded and hung over the ring.

I love the Agalaia flower, but I've given up on the plant. I've tried growing it about three times and had it come back after the winter either weakly or not at all.

lmcd: I found a photo of the Summer Snowball - it's very nice!
A great white for the summer garden,but you say the stems are weak? Hmmmm, I can get quite a bit of wind some days. I tried to find my shaggy shasta and found one called Superbum. Not sure if that's the one I'm growing or not, mine seems a bit more shaggy.

I had Alaska for a few years and loved them. I planted them from a 10¢ packet of seeds, and what a show they made! Now I have Becky, planted last year from Wayside and looking good, and I am about to plant Highland White Dream, which I got at Bluestone's half-price sale.

Idabean- My Oxeye daisy are beautiful right now, and yes I love them despite their lowly origins. I like that they reseed so easily, and when they are done I can just yank them out and put something else in their place. I have Shasta's too, but am always disappointed that they all seem to bloom at once and then they are done. Dead-heading doesn't convince them to bloom again.

Schoolhouse, yes, the stems were really weak. Maybe there was a problem with my soil? I'd be interested in hearing whether anyone else has had good luck with these plants. The flower itself is really nice.

Becky has nice strong stems.

You can tell by my name I like kids in my garden. I want to have something blooming from April to November that I can say to kids "pick all you want". Daffodils, Ox-eyes,
cluster bellflower, black-eyed susan, New Eng. aster and some others do it for me. I remember braiding Ox-eyes from
my mother's garden to make flower wreaths for our hair.

Chris

I can highly recommend Silver Princess. It stays compact and will rebloom if deadheaded. It makes a great "front of the border" plant in a mixed bed. I grew it from seed, and it was very easy to do.

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Linda

Ooooh, Linda! Very Pretty! When does "Silver Princess" bloom for you?

I have the "Crazy Daisy" (superbum??)... Anyway, this is one of my best performers. I bought one plant last year and it has quadrupled in size. Very clean and compact foliage but about 2-3 ft. tall and blooms all summer. Seems to be very pest resistant as well. I highly recommend this one.

tasymo, the picture I posted is from today - I just ran out and took it right before posting it. I saw this thread about Shasta's and saw that I could add something!

I bought some Crazy Daisy this year. I had a piece that a friend gave me last summer, but it never seemed to settle in right. I only had couple of blooms. When I looked for it to come back this spring, I found the space where it had been, and when digging there, I found that the plant had rotted away. We have lots of clay in our soil, but I had dug it a nice hole and replaced the soil with amended soil. I planted the new plant at the other side of the house, where it will get full sun all day long. The other plant had afternoon sun. I hope I can keep this CD going.

Linda

All the named daisies you mention are certainly pretty. But may I point out that the mongrel (as opposed to pedigreed) ox eye daisy started blooming two weeks ago and is still going strong. I'm just pointing the merits of what many people think of as lowly weed. Thanks for introducing to a bunch of new cultivars.

Hi everyone!. May I jump in? I finally got an Alaska Shasta to grow from seed. It's still in a pot and is 7" tall, a little leggy , I think. Could you give advice as to when to plant in the garden? (Clay soil) Thanks for any advice. :)

I agree with linlily....I've grown "Silver Princess" for several years and it's never failed to be absolutely lovely for weeks on end.

Update on the Leucanthemum x super: "Sonnenschein": the plant is only a foot tall and I have had to use a support. Very wimpy despite its thick stems, blooms droop. I'm thinking I should have removed them or at least most of them to let the plant get a foot hold. I'll be anxious to see if it comes back stronger next year (if it survives at all). I really like the shade of yellow among the other flowers.

The clump of shaggy shastas close by have been attacked by that green,black striped bug. Brown chew marks all over the leaves, not holes exactly, but ugly.

I have Alaska and Becky. Neither are ever a disappointment. I finally have a Crazy Daisy blooming after trying for years and years at my old house. One year I had huge buds and spent most afternoons gazing at them and waiting... then my neighbor ran them over with his bigwheel. He was cute, I forgave him.

I do have Ox Eye daisies... but they're at my campground. They're in a garden with ditch lilies and black eyed susans. It looks great, but is a bit wild and out of control for my tastes at home...