Marguerites – the archetypes of summer flowers, a marguerite comes out when a small child draws a flower, maybe it only has colorful leaves. Adult gardeners like the daisies precisely because of their bright white flowers. Leucanthemum on the terrace, balcony or the front stairway exude a cheerful, summery flair, which is always associated with a touch of order and cleanliness. In the garden, on the other hand, they radiate the romance of the “flower itself”. That’s what the daisies are called: their botanical name Leucanthemum, borrowed from ancient Greek, means nothing other than “white flower”. These white flowers have different demands when it comes to overwintering. This guide will tell you exactly how to overwinter daisies correctly.
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Which marguerite should overwinter?
Before you think about hibernation, you should first think about what kind of daisies you actually want to hibernate. Or whether it is actually a marguerite. Namely, there are a lot of white flowers with a yellow dot in the middle. There are also dealers outside of the specialist trade who sell almost everything that looks something like this as a daisy.
True daisies have the botanical generic name Leucanthemum. It is a separate genus of plants from the daisy family, which includes around 40 different species. These species are all at home in Europe, even in the more inhospitable climate regions. A marguerite even thrives in Siberia. These varieties are offered for cultivation in the home garden.
Common marguerite/poor meadow marguerite
It is the eponymous species of the genus. A perennial herbaceous flower that grows 30 to 70 centimeters tall and displays its pretty white flowers from June to September. It is not without reason also called wildflower (Leucanthemum vulgare), because it self-seeds itself in its pleasant locations and is almost indestructible with its adaptability and robustness. So indestructible that it likes to oust all its competitors until the whole meadow is a field of white and yellow flower heads.
The rough meadow daisy is available as meadow or herb seeds. It is also commonly added under lawn seed mixes that help maintain biodiversity in native flora and beneficial insects. She will e.g. B. offered in a so-called regional mixture, which imitates the natural flora of the Thuringian limestone hill country. One of our many balanced plant and small animal communities worth preserving. If you are planning to create such a useful and romantic meadow on your doorstep, you could purchase the daisies in such a lawn-seed mixture with a high proportion of herbs.
But it is also offered for separate cultivation in the garden. This also in generatively propagated varieties such as the “Maikönigin”, which is said to flower extraordinarily richly.
Meadow or fat meadow daisy
This marguerite is also perennial, about 30 to 70 cm high and flowers from June to September. The Leucanthemum ircutianum is usually used in the garden as a meadow flower coveted by insects or to create attractive color accents at the edge of beds or paths.
Summer daisy/garden daisy
The summer daisy (Leucanthemum maximum) will delight you with slightly larger flowers than the classic meadow varieties. It grows in clumps with stiffly erect stems. It loves sunny locations with fresh, nutrient-rich and well-drained soil.
The perennial marguerite
It also pleases with rather large flowers, these are cultivated forms that can develop into magnificent bushes. Like the garden daisy, (Leucanthemum x superbum) is cultivated in many varieties, in which very often no real botanical difference to a Leucanthemum maximum can be identified.
However, you can only be truly sure that you really have one of these daisies to overwinter if you have purchased your daisies from a qualified retailer who knows the precise botanical names of the plants they sell. For the consequences of this fact for the hibernation of your marguerite, see below.
„Schein-Margeriten“
Quite often, e.g. B. in the spring offer of the next discounter, however, plants are sold as daisies that, strictly speaking, are not daisies at all:
1. A breed from a plant of origin with the botanical name Argyranthemum frutescens, the shrubby Canary Marguerite, is sold as a bush marguerite or bush marguerite . This bushy canary daisy is therefore a plant from the genus Argyranthemum, a sister genus of the daisy.
Which might not matter to you if their 22 or so species hadn’t originally evolved on Madeira and the Canary Islands. They are now growing in many other places around the world, but they need a spot in full sun for us. They are also not as frugal as real daisies, and are even among the heavy feeders. Shrub daisies must therefore be fertilized regularly during the flowering season. The shrub daisies have a fairly high water requirement. However, they do not like it at all if the foliage gets wet when watering with fertilizing solution, then they should rinse with water. If shrub daisies are kept in as dry a culture as they can get, the plants will remain more compact.
2. It could also be that your pretty yellow and white summer flowers are a plant of the chrysanthemum genus. Almost exactly like a marguerite z. B. the Chrysanthemum japonese. It also has white flowers with yellow interiors, only slightly darker leaves.
The genus Chrysanthemum is also a sister genus of daisies. However, the home of the Chrysanthemum japonese is in East Asia, in a climate that is on average friendlier than ours due to monsoon winds. Among these chrysanthemums, there are definitely hardy varieties, depending on the breed and origin, but by no means all chrysanthemums in Germany find it comfortable in winter.
Overwinter in the garden
If you have sown or planted one of the varieties of native meadow daisies , you don’t need to worry at all about wintering in the garden – the meadow daisies can easily withstand temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees. It almost never gets that cold, even in the typical “cold spots” of Germany.
It looks a little different with the summer daisy and the perennial daisy . The Pyrenean daisy, which is native to the mountain meadows of the mountain range of the same name between Spain and France, is actually named Leucanthemum maximum. Both the Leucanthemum maximum, which we often sell under the name “summer marguerite”, and its hybrids, which have been thought of with all kinds of names, and the marguerite, which is referred to as Leucanthemum x superbum, have usually been bred with the participation of the Pyrenean marguerite. It’s getting cold in the Pyrenees too, but not quite as cold as in many German regions. These daisies are not as cold-resistant here as the varieties just mentioned.
So if your daisy has the term maximum or superbum in its name, you should inquire about which hardiness zone these plants are intended for when you buy them. If you don’t yet know which hardiness zone your home is in, you should definitely explore it with these hybrids. At least if you live in one of the colder regions of Germany, you should help these daisies through the winter as a precaution with a little winter protection, e.g. B. with a loose mulch compost blanket applied in late fall.
If you can’t ask the dealer anymore, the following hint might help: The various hybrids that are offered by these garden daisies or perennial daisies, with their names like “Group Pride”, “Silver Princess”, “Alaska” and “Polaris” can definitely be a clue pay attention to the winter hardiness they are credited with.
Overwinter daisies in buckets
If you have purchased any variety of real daisies for keeping in tubs or have sown them yourself, moving to winter quarters is always recommended. Because even the meadow daisies only survive the worst frost because they can send their long taproots into the garden soil deep into areas that remain frost-free. They can’t do that in a bucket. The soil in the bucket also freezes through much faster because the cold also has access from the sides. This is all the more true for varieties that breed the cold-sensitive Pyrenean daisy.
You shouldn’t just “forget” the daisies in the tub on the balcony. You should be prepared to bring the daisies indoors as soon as the first night frost comes. Otherwise, if the winter quarters are not ready and the first night frost turns out to be a little heavy, this could be the end of your tub daisies.
The best winter quarters are conservatories or greenhouses, where the daisies get a lot of light and can be kept at temperatures between 5 and 7 degrees. If such a room is not available, you should put the tubs in the room that stays coolest in winter and lets in light.
Before moving into this cool room, it is usually recommended that the daisy be pruned back vigorously. You should cut away up to a third of the shoots. It would be ideal to cut at a time that gives the plant some time to close its cuts. You could e.g. B. use the flowering break in late summer for pruning. Then the daisies will form a few new shoots for the rest of the time outdoors. She then moves to the winter quarters without a trimming. This very early autumn cut should have the advantage that the daisies only need a small shape cut in spring and still look richly leafy again in a very short time.
However, there are also daisy keepers who do not cut back their daisies before moving, but wait until spring to cut them back. This could e.g. B. when overwintering at the lower temperature limit be an advantage, with the foliage, the marguerite carries a certain amount of winter protection. It’s also an alternative if you haven’t managed to prune the daisies before the first frost comes. Cuts inflicted too late tend to dry up very badly during the winter, which is not attractive and makes new growth more difficult.
Caring for the daisies during the winter
Care is not complicated, the plants need little attention in winter. The marguerite doesn’t get fertilizer now. Irrigation is severely reduced. The colder the location, the more sparingly you should water. A little water every week or two just keeps the root ball from drying out completely. A sign of overwatering is new sprouting in winter, if that happens you should keep the daisy drier. The marguerite is best given soft water, e.g. e.g. rainwater. If leaves turn yellow or brown on the daisy, they should be removed immediately.
In spring, the marguerite is then carefully accustomed to more warmth by placing it in a slightly warmer and brighter place from around March. During this transitional period, the flower gets a little more water and the first fertilizer. Only after the ice saints in May will it finally be put back in its summer location.
Conclusion
However, the effort of exploring is definitely worth it. You will then no longer uncritically follow an article that talks about outdoor overwintering of hardy and hardy shrub daisies. Because he probably speaks more of a perennial marguerite. Like the chrysanthemum with white-yellow flowers, the plant we offer as a shrub daisy has very special and different overwintering requirements.
