How to Grow English Daisy From Seed

English daisy is a cool-season flower that usually blooms the spring after you sow it. For the strongest spring show, sow in mid to late summer, either indoors 8 to 10 weeks before setting out or direct in the garden, so plants establish before winter and flower early the next year. In mild-winter areas you can also sow in early spring. In the cool summers of the Pacific Northwest and the upper Midwest it often behaves as a true perennial; in the hot South it is best treated as a biennial or cool-season annual.

Here is the key detail: English daisy seed needs light to germinate, so do the opposite of pansies and do not bury it. Press the seed firmly onto the surface of moist, fine seed-starting mix for good contact, but leave it uncovered. Keep it at around 65 to 70F and consistently moist, and seedlings appear in about 10 to 25 days. Grow them in bright light, then plant out 6 to 8 inches apart in fertile, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade.

English daisies like it cool and evenly moist. Water regularly, especially while they are blooming, and never let them dry out completely or bake in hot sun. Feed lightly in early spring as growth resumes. Deadhead the spent button flowers to keep new buds coming and to slow self-seeding, and shear the plants back after the main flush to tidy them and coax a second round of bloom. A cool mulch helps them push through warm spells.

English daisies suit other cool-season, moisture-loving cottage flowers. These heirloom, non-GMO companions pair well with them:

English daisies are grown for their neat button blooms, which make charming cut flowers. Snip stems in the cool of the morning when the flowers are freshly open for the longest vase life, and they are just the right size for a miniature posy in a small jar. Cutting and deadheading both encourage the plant to keep producing more flowers through its cool-season bloom.

English daisy is a classic edging and container plant, its tidy rosettes and double button flowers in white, pink, and rose bringing early-spring color to paths, borders, and cottage beds. It naturalizes sweetly in cool-climate lawns for a meadow look. The open flowers feed early bees and butterflies when little else is in bloom, and the small blooms make delightful miniature bouquets for a windowsill.

• Seeds won't sprout: the usual cause is covering them. English daisy needs light, so surface-sow and just press the seed in.
• Declines in summer: it hates heat. Give afternoon shade and steady water, or grow it as a cool-season biennial in warm climates.
• No flowers the first year: that is normal for biennial-behaving plants; established plants bloom in spring the following year.
• Crown rot in wet soil: keep it moist but well-drained, and avoid waterlogged spots.
• Aphids: rinse them off with water and encourage beneficial insects with nearby flowers.