Hi Chrisie, Ive been growing Cowpen Daisies for a few years. I have never had many vollunteers. They make a lot of flowers, but very few seedlings show up. The large Verbesina species like Wingstem and Frostweed have an enormous number of self sowed seedlings. I now always deadhead them, because all the vollunteers are a real pain to deal with. The 1st year that I grew Cowpen Daisy, it was a mass planting. Since then Ive come to prefer them better, when they are mixed with compatable natives..

Thank you Jay. I've collected some seeds just in case. I've had plants before that volunteered generously and then all of a sudden didn't at all. I've learned my lesson not to take them for granted.

This year, I kept about a dozen volunteers but moved them. They haven't flowered as heavily as last year. So maybe they didn't like being moved but I've also noticed quite a few blister beetles on them that are eating the leaves and the last few weeks have been very hot and dry. I do want to try again next year but will do winter sowing so they'll get a little earlier start.

Bonus - I found several caterpillars on them that might be Silvery Checkerspot butterflies.

Just reporting that fall migrating monarchs have been visiting my yard daily and cowpen daisy seems to be their favorite plant to nectar for the last week or so. I've also seen a few nectaring on tithonia, tropical milkweed, and verbena bonariensis. They're ignoring my little butterfly bush, lantana and mistflower. (I only have one each of those) My echinacea has mostly quit blooming so only spotted one on that. I didn't plant any zinnias this year because they were diseased last year so badly that they barely even bloomed. The plants that are flowering the most right now in my yard are cowpen daisies and verbena bonariensis. I have a dozen or so cowpen daisies planted a couple feet apart and the butterflies like that big mass of yellow.

Last year, when I only had one cowpen daisy plant, I didn't see much butterfly activity even though it had dozens of flowers at a time on it. It always seems to attract butterflies better if I have a grouping of several like plants together. I've noticed that in the past with zinnias too.

The 1st year I grew Cowpen Daisies, I grew them in a grouping with Zinnia, some Australian everlasting, and a Geum triflorum plant. The Geum got fatally thugged out by the Zinnia and the everlasting was a big dissapointment, because of too much shade from the Zinnia. The Cowpen Daisies did well, but looked kind of rough. They would have looked better if it had had shorter plants softening it's rough looking legs. I have a tiny gardening area, and I'm an obsessive collector, so I shy away from mass planting in waves, but I prefer to use CD sparingly, mixed with other compatable species.