Blackfoot Daisy

Blackfoot Daisy

Melampodium leucanthum

Description

This low-growing plant with aromatic, daisy-like flowers has a mounded appearance with narrow grayish-green foliage. It grows to about one foot tall and eighteen inches wide. Small, abundant, white, daisy-like flowers with a yellow center appear on terminal stalks. The color of this plant can be seen from a distance because of the density of the blooms. Its flowers have a light honey fragrance and attract butterflies and birds. The plant is also resistant to deer. The perennial produces the most color during the spring and fall seasons.  Use it in perennial and wildflower gardens, in masses, or in rock gardens. This plant looks great in the springtime planted next to penstemon and verbena. The blackfoot daisy is a short-lived specimen groundcover but is worth planting for its color and interesting qualities. It is native to gravelly, dry, desert slopes, rocky soils, pastures, plains, and meadows, and on prairies in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas.

Maintenance

Plant it in full sun and reflected heat. It also likes well-draining soil and some moisture, but be careful not to over-water it. This groundcover is very hardy and will take temperatures well below freezing. Prune it back heavily in late summer or fall as needed to keep the plant compact. It reseeds naturally throughout the landscape and does not require any fertilizer.

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