Evil Daisies

I spent a week in Ouray Colorado and learned that a neighbouring village has outlawed field or ox-eye daisies. The village officials consider daisies to be weed in that mountainous area and residents are required to remove any they find on their property. However, my hosts at Main Street Bed and Breakfast in Ouray boasted a daisy garden that took up the entire small front yard. The daisies are interspersed with clumps of perennial poppies. It is hard to imagine demonizing daisies, but then we do the same to dandelions.

Daisies are invasive, I was told. However, many common garden plants spread widely given the right climate and enviroment. On the coast of California, I was shown great patches of alyssum which had spread into the wild. Here, gout weed is probably the nastiest invader but both lily of the valley and forget-me-nots can get out of hand. I have seen articles warning people against all sorts of plants: sunflowers, bachelor buttons, lupins (lupins!) and violas.

Many of the garden flowers in Colorado, Nebraska, North and South Dakota are identical to the ones growing here. Lovely bridal wreath spirea, rugosa roses, dark blue bearded iris and of course, daisies. People use a lot of bark chips around shrubs and planting. The midwest it is the land of the cedar chip.