To feel so disheartened

[buttery81]

I have a lovely new garden that was until recently was somewhat overrun with weeds. I recently cleared these and have planted some lovely big white daisies to fill the gaps between other established plants and flowers. I bought the daisies about four weeks ago from a local garden centre - at this point they were fully in bloom with lots of flowers and looking very healthy.

I planted them in my flowerbed and they were fine for a while, but the flowers are now dying back in quite big numbers. Have I killed them already and is there anything I can do to save them?

I’m a total gardening newbie as you can probably tell.

Just to add - they’re in a spot that gets about three to four hours of sunlight a day. My garden is south facing but there isn’t anywhere that gets more sun than that really (other than the central lawn) due to the positioning of various trees and fences.

Dead head them (take off the spent flowers) that can help prolong the life but plants have a season so incorporate a plant or two for each season 😁

Thanks Funky! There are a lot of dead heads at this point so will get rid of those. Are daisies coming out of flowering season now then?

When you cut any dead flowers off, the plant won’t put energy into making seeds.

How do you mean @cakeandchampagne - is it better to leave the dead flowers on the plant then?

No, take the deadheads off. Otherwise the plant will use energy turning those into seeds and won't flower again.

If it doesn't look as if anything much is about to bloom, I'd pop down to the garden centre and get a few things that will be coming into flower soonish - Alchemilla mollis, some fuchsias (if you find hardy ones they should grow to shrub sizes and give you flowers year after year), hollyhocks etc.

Also wait and see what the established plants throw up. You basically want a structure of shrubs (woody, last for years) and hardy perennials (die back in winter, pop up again in spring, variable lifespans) and then you can put annuals and biennials in the gaps.

If it can make more flowers (my daisies bloomed all summer), cutting dead blossoms (whose job is now to make seeds) will encourage the plant to produce more flowers.

Thanks everyone. I will dead head! Should I be watering the daisies regularly as well?

Much excellent advice above. Also, if you're particularly fond of daisy- type flowers there are lots to choose from with different flowering times. For spring, look out for bellis or double daisies - cultivated varieties of wild 'daisy-chain' daisies. For autumn, the classic daisy flowers are asters or michaelmas daisies.

Calendula, rudbeckia, cosmos, osteospermum and echinacea are also daisy like and good for bees.

Scabious and erysimum Bowles Mauve (purple wallflower) have started appearing in the chains like Morrisons, Aldi, Wilko, Asda B&Q, Homebase etc and give excellent shows (also great for bees). Both of these have long flowering seasons. I really love bargain plants
Morrisons is my go-to at the moment if you have one nearby.

Perennial geraniums (different from bedding geraniums which are actually pelargoniums!) like Johnsons Blue have long flowering periods. You can chop them right back after flowering and they bounce back with another flush of flowers. They are also easy to divide for an endless supply of new plants!

And yes hardy fuchsias are good value. Morrisons sells them for a £1 (9cm pots in plastic sleeve). You have to filter through the different varieties on the shelf as they mix them all up but some should say hardy on the front (they did last year).

The trouble with garden centres is they sell many lovely things that are at their peak, and will shortly be finished flowering. The labels (if they are on the plant) will usually tell you the flowering months, but they are not always present. For example, I saw some beautiful rhododendrons looking glorious in full flower for sale in pots. They will finish flowering in a week or so and will just be a green bush until next may. The answer is to do your research before you buy, then you can plant things that flower sequentially so you always have some colour.

Daisies are a PITA. I find they look lovely in the shop but spend most of the time looking a bit crap!

Mini marguerites are good. The white ones look like daisies, but blooms are longer lasting, foliage is prettier and much less maintenance needed to keep them beautiful.

Erigeron karvinskianus is also a good daisy substitute if you want an absolutely no maintenance plant that will look better every year, seed everywhere and take over your life 😍🌼

I was watching Chelsea and one garden had Euphorbia, Erigeron and the latest addition to my Aquilegia collection, Louisiana.
All my favourites in one place!

I agree with pp, Erigeron is lovely.
It grows profusely on a local wall. Try transporting it to our village and it has died before you walk home!
A friend bought me a plant and it is thriving in a little crack on the edge of the patio.

OP, can I recommend Aquilegia? They are delightful, come in loads of shades and shapes, often self seed so you get lots of free plants.
Here are some of mine.

My Aquilegia ,given by a friend ,took a 2 or 3 years to establish .I had one or two during that time and i was a bit dissapointed .But this year they're flourishing .

A plant will need regular watering until its roots get into the soil. When it's in full flower, even more so. Plants tend to do better if you can see a few flower buds, but they mostly haven't opened yet, so that's the best way to buy them.