Perennial Daisies That Do Good Border Duty

Useful inch-wide daisies for fall planting in the flower border are the Santa Barbara daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus), actually from Mexico, and the Swan River daisy (Brachycome) from Australia.

One usually has white flowers with a touch of rose and the other blue, but now there’s a new Swan River daisy that’s yellow and a Santa Barbara daisy that’s blue. Confused? Look for a brachycome named ‘Billabong Sunburst’ and a Santa Barbara daisy simply labeled as “blue.” I found both at the Outdoor Room in Pacific Palisades, but they should also be at other select nurseries.

Both stay around a foot tall and gracefully spread a couple of feet wide, filling in between other plants. For instance, they look great spilling out of stiff bearded iris clumps and add color when the iris are not in bloom.

They’re perennials, so you can plant them now, and they’ll bloom in winter, spring and maybe even into summer and fall. Neither needs a lot of water.