Argyranthemum frutescens - Care Guide

Marguerite, Paris daisy

These are some of the most showy, floriferous and popular summer bedding or summer flowering plants in our gardens, patios and window boxes. They originate from the Azores and have been hybridised over many years to produce a huge range of colourful free flowering plants of which we offer only a few.

In reality these plants should be treated as half hardy annuals except in the mildest parts of the country. Even here they grow and over flower so much each season that they often become leggy and unsightly. They are probably best consigned to the compost heap in late autumn to start again next spring with new young plants. In mild winters, if you religiously deadhead your plants as well as giving them a good hard pruning in autumn, you may ensure the survival or a reasonable plant which will carry on into the second season although this is often perhaps hardly worth the effort.

A. frutescens have daisy like flowers which appear continuously and in profusion from early summer right through to the autumn. They excel in coastal locations and will tolerate coastal winds. If temperatures fall to say -5°C you may be able to save the plants with a dry winter mulch.

It is far easier however simply to take your own new growth cuttings at virtually any time in the summer. These will often root in a jar of water without the need for a mist bench and bottom heat. The rooted cuttings should be potted on in the autumn and overwintered in a frost free greenhouse.

We only supply these plants by mail order in March, April and May. Later in the summer they become rampant and leggy in pots and, if we have any leftover plants, they go to the compost heap as well after cuttings have been taken.