{"id":175,"date":"2009-10-26T03:52:37","date_gmt":"2009-10-26T11:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=175"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:32:59","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:32:59","slug":"montauk-daisies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/montauk-daisies\/","title":{"rendered":"Montauk Daisies"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTAUK DAISIES
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I feel sorry for the <\/strong>Montauk daisy.\u00a0 It has a difficult Latin name, Nipponanthemum nipponicum, which means, literally, “the Japanese flower from Japan.”\u009d\u00a0 Before acquiring that mouthful of a name, it wore the slightly simpler Latin moniker, Chrysanthemum nipponicum, which means “the golden flower from Japan.”\u009d\u00a0 Obviously taxonomists felt that since only the center of the Montauk daisy is golden, it was better to err on the side of descriptive redundancy.\u00a0 Given those lengthy collections of Greek-derived Latin syllables, it isn’t surprising that people prefer the simple name “Montauk daisy.”\u009d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Latin names aside, the Montauk daisy seems to rate very little attention from breeders or ink from garden writers.\u00a0 American, German and Asian breeders have done amazing things with the Shasta daisy, improving on Luther Burbank’s original by doubling or tripling its petals and making it shorter, taller, or more floriferous.\u00a0 By contrast, the Montauk resides in lonely splendor in the marketplace, notwithstanding its garden role as one of the stars of autumn.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think the Montauk daisy suffers from the same malady as Leopold Mozart, a talented man who is only known to history as the father of the extraordinary Wolfgang.\u00a0 The Montauk is most often mentioned as one of several parents of the Shasta daisy.\u00a0 Apparently Burbank used Montauk pollen to restore the bright white petal color that had been muted as the result of earlier daisy crosses.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The lack of notoriety is a pity for several reasons.\u00a0 While both the Shasta and the Montauk daisy sport the characteristic big, white, golden-centered flowers, the Montauk has much better looking leaves.\u00a0 They are dark green, glossy and fleshy–almost resembling those of its fall blooming garden companion, ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum. \u00a0In mild climates the leaves are often evergreen, something you certainly can’t say about a Shasta.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Montauk daisies also bloom in mid to late fall, when other flowering plants–even most of the stalwart asters–are folding up their tents for the season.\u00a0 The cascades of large white flowers are great companions to the late-flowering garden mums and the tall sedums.\u00a0 Montauks bring some life to landscapes that are rapidly becoming studies in shades of green and death.\u00a0 At about two feet-tall, they sit nicely in small, medium or large gardens.\u00a0 If you have clay soil, they are happy; if you have sandy soil, they are content.\u00a0 People who live near the shore can attest to the fact that the Montauks don’t mind a little wind and salt spray.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The species gets its common name from an area far out on the east end of New York’s Long Island–past even the easternmost Hampton. \u00a0How did this Japanese beauty get tagged with a Native American-derived place name?\u00a0 Most likely seeds or plants were brought back to Europe or North America by plant hunters after Japan opened to the west in the 1850’s. \u00a0The pleasing ex-pat made the leap to American gardens, flourishing especially well on Long Island.\u00a0 Like many plants that find a congenial adopted home, the Montauk probably escaped from gardens and began showing up in untenanted places near Montauk.\u00a0 Somewhere along the line, the name stuck.\u00a0 A few sources suggest that it sounded better than an earlier common name, “Nippon daisy”\u009d.\u00a0 Certainly during World War II, the patriotic Long Island descriptor was probably more appealing than one associated with the wartime enemy.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Once you plant a young Montauk daisy, very little care is involved.\u00a0 They don’t mind drought once they are established.\u00a0 The plants tend to get leggy, much like their chrysanthemum relatives, so pruning them back by one third or so in May–or at least pinching back the stalks–will result in bushier plants and more flowers come October.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How do you get your hands on the little-publicized, extremely useful Montauk daisy?\u00a0 People who have them already are generally glad to part with unwanted offspring, so it never hurts to ask fellow gardeners.\u00a0 If nobody you know has one, try the single United States mail order source I was able to find: Earthly Pursuits, Inc., 2901 Kuntz Road, Windsor Mill, MD 21244; (410) 496-2523; www.earthlypursuits.net<\/font><\/a>.\u00a0 The company continues shipping until November 15.
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTAUK DAISIES \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I feel sorry for the Montauk daisy.\u00a0 It has a difficult Latin name, Nipponanthemum nipponicum, which means, literally, “the Japanese flower from Japan.”\u009d\u00a0 Before acquiring that mouthful of a name, it wore the slightly simpler Latin moniker, Chrysanthemum nipponicum, which means “the golden flower from Japan.”\u009d\u00a0 Obviously taxonomists felt that since only … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1612,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/1612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}