Mt. Hood Double Shasta Daisy // Outstanding Perennial With A GREAT Story & Superb Performance 😉👏👍 💚🌼

Well good morning and welcome to Overdie Vest Nurseries. We're here in the marshalling yard, this is where we're getting ready to send our plants out to our network of partnering garden centers that are located right throughout our region, that's the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states of the US. Lots and lots of very pretty perennials and shrubs and climbers, evergreens of course, lots of good garden plants that are proven performers for this region. And if you'd like to find out more about them I'd invite you to scroll through our channel here and you'll be able to find out all about these fantastic plants ones that you'll be able to grow and enjoy in your gardens. And if you're a returning subscriber, welcome back but if you haven't yet subscribed to our channel, I'd like to suggest that you think about doing so because then each time we publish new videos, which we're doing all the time you'll find they'll turn up automatically in your feed and if you happen to like what we're showing you and telling you it would be really great if you could strike the like button too because then that helps to make that information available for other people as well. And you know sometimes when I'm out walking around the garden centers or gardens for that matter and I'm admiring the pretty flowers the attractive foliage, the shapely habit or perhaps the fragrance, whatever the features are about the various plants, I'm enjoying all of that, knowing of course that it takes the artistry of the gardener, the creator of the garden design to take all of those features and blend them together to take an OK garden and turn it into a very special one Now if you've been watching any of the other videos here on this channel you'll have probably heard me talk a little bit about the background stories behind the development of the plants. I think that sometimes that adds a great deal more to the appreciation of the plants and certainly gives us an idea of the work and dedication that went into the development of that plant often things that are not that apparent when you're standing there looking at it and making your decision in the garden center whether you're going to buy it or not and then go to the effort of bringing it home and growing it and of course then enjoying it with you and your family and for me that background story is absolutely fascinating. Many of the plants that we have in our gardens today occurred quite by chance. Often it was the fact that there was a knowledgeable expert who happened to be in a certain place at a certain time and then just happened to notice something different something special about a plant that then he or she was able to take and put into a breeding program that brings us that extra dimension, that extra quality to the plants and if that person had not been there at that point it probably would have been lost and then we wouldn't be able to enjoy them in our gardens. Often it takes too the long, patient dedication of a plant breeder sometimes that will take many years, perhaps even a lifetime of working, crossing, deciding, hybridizing, taking various aspects and combining it all together until finally we have a product that is going to be that much more superior than something that we already have in our gardens. That aspect of plants I think is something that is very important and something that I certainly find fascinating and I hope that as you listen to me tell the stories behind the plants that you find it interesting too. For instance, if you take a look at these beautiful plants here which are Shasta Daisies, known botanically as Leucanthemum, there's a lot of interesting stuff about their development and if you take a moment or two and scroll through the videos here on this channel and look up individual varieties, you'll be able to get that background story and be able to understand, I hope, a lot more about those plants and hopefully also add to the enjoyment of growing them in your garden. Take for instance these two varieties right here, this one and the taller growing one at the back. This is Leucanthemum Snowcap a wonderful variety, along with Becky, the one over there are now probably the two most popular varieties that are in gardens throughout our whole region and for that matter I suppose probably throughout the whole country. This is one that was raised by Alan Bloom during the 1980's it's a superb little plant for growing alongside the fronts of beds and borders, a great edger, and as I say if you go and look through this channel you'll be able to get lots of information on it. Becky on the other hand it's what's known as a pass-along or hand-me-down plant went through various hands until eventually it was recognized by a landscape designer called Becky Stewart in Atlanta, Georgia and that's how we got to know about it and be able to enjoy it in our garden. Both of these are absolutely brilliant plants and very valuable in our gardens, with as you see these bright single flowers. These plants are only just beginning to flower now they're perfect for going out to the garden centers and then eventually going into our gardens because as you see there's lots and lots of buds and so these will give a terrific display. But as nice and as good as these are, for me the special ones are the double-flowered ones. Bigger flowers, more petals, more impact and really interesting background story as well. And here in another part of the nursery where we've got our Truman machines going and watering pumps going so there's lots of activity going on in the background, here's what I mean when I'm talking about a double-flowered Shasta Daisy. Just look at this four inches wide, packed with lots of these pristine white, gleaming glistening white flowers that kind of shimmer in the sunlight and gentle breeze and also as you see carried on short stocky stems above dark green glossy foliage. This is what I really love about a good double-flowered Shasta Daisy. And this variety is one called Mount Hood that's been developed by a brilliant plant breeder, Harini Colopera at Terra Nova Nurseries in Oregon. This is a plant that only gets, when it's flowering, about 20 inches high and spreads out to make a clump of about 15 or 16 inches wide and is really beautiful. A nice, strong, vigorous grower that also re-blooms well and as you see here puts on plenty of new buds that are coming up through the canopy to keep the color going on through the summer months. A really excellent selection. Now, as you may or may not know the development of Shasta Daisies goes back to the early 1900's. Luther Burbank a native from Massachusetts, moved to California for health reasons but when he was in Massachusetts he liked the little Oxide Daisy that grows on the side of the road still today and he thought this could be improved. So he crossed and developed a Shasta Daisy after 17 years of mixing the genetic material with a Field Daisy from England, a Portuguese one and one from Japan too, until he finally was happy with the variety that he had developed, the hybrid that he developed which was introduced in 1901 and it was called a Shasta Daisy after Mount Shasta in California. Then of course the plants made it all the way across the Atlantic to England and there an English nurseryman called Horace Reed happened one day to be on a locomotive, a steam train going up to Great Yarmouth. He sat in the compartment and when the train stopped to take on supplies and he looked right through the window he seen a little semi-double form of the Oxide Daisy. He thought about it all day and on the way back, because it was a return journey when he got near the spot where he'd seen the plant he pulled the emergency brake, brought the train to a halt and in the confusion jumped out, dug up the plant and took it back to his nursery and then used it in a breeding program to develop the first Shasta Daisy that had double flowers that he named after his daughter Esther Reed. And it's from that genetic material, the first unlocking of that double gene, that now today we're able to have all of these double flowered Shasta Daisies. So as you see, if Mr. Reed hadn't been on that train that morning if it hadn't stopped at the position that it did to take on supplies, if the little plant wasn't flowering and also if he didn't have the courage and audacity to pull the emergency brake we may not have beautiful double flowered Shasta Daisies to have in our gardens today. Now the nice thing about Shasta Daisies is that they're really very easy to grow all they want is an average garden soil as long as it's free draining, they don't like to be in wet, soggy conditions, but on the other hand they do need a fair amount of moisture at a time when they're growing at their strongest and that of course is during the summertime. So it's important when you plant them to dig a good generous sized hole and also amend the soil with plenty of organic matter, because it's that organic matter that has the moisture retentive properties that will be able to encourage a good strong root system into the ground. When you plant them of course water them well and then keep that water going until they get well established and if we get any prolonged dry periods, give them an extra shot of water or so and if it's free draining soil of course that is going to drain away and not cause any problems. I'd also suggest that you put down a couple of inches of mulch because that'll help to retain moisture too. Now you'll find that the flowers last a good long time, but one of the keys is to go through what we call and deadhead them. That means that when the flowers begin to go over you snip off the old flower heads to make way for the new buds that are going to be springing up from inside the canopy. And if they ever get to a stage where they're starting to get a little tall and floppy, particularly with some of the taller varieties, don't be afraid to go in like we do here in the nursery and cut back the whole top of the plant because then they'll replenish from the base, produce fresh foliage and then come with a new round of flowers often too. So it's important just I think to keep them growing nice and strong and vigorously, don't worry about fertilizer because in our plants we use a special formulation of fertilizer that keeps on feeding them after they've been planted in your garden. You can always give them a shot next spring if you want and that will perk them up and keep them going. I'm very fond of this variety because it's short and stocky and stands up well to weather conditions. The important thing about them too is to give it a fair amount of light. They'll grow well in a sunny location and in a partly shaded site too, but try if you can to get them into a space where they're going to get about six hours or so sunlight. If they're in shadier conditions than that, they're going to get drawn up a little bit and they won't flower quite as well. The neat thing about them too is that if you smell the foliage it's aromatic and that means that usually deer leave them alone, and because this is a member of the Chrysanthemum family it makes a very nice cut flower too, and of course if you've only got a patio or a deck or a balcony this would make a lovely plant to grow in a container during the summer months too. Lots of really good reasons why you should think about growing some Shasta Daisies as you see they're really beautiful, they're easy to grow very rewarding plants, especially if you know a little bit about the background and the work and recognition and expertise that went into the development of varieties like this, that I think adds so much more to our gardening enjoyment. This is David Wilson, enjoy your gardening it's good for us and it's very good for our environment too.