5 FAMILIAR DAISIES AND HOW TO CARE FOR THEM

For me a daisy is a small flower with white petals and a yellow center which often grows in lawns. These cute little flowers are the ones children use to make daisy chains. But it seems that this is just one member of the daisy family which apparently exceeds 20,000 species. Of these Cam Anju has picked five to feature in her article which I found on the Dengarden website.

There are many different types of daisies, in fact there are more than 20,000 species of plants that fall into the daisy family. Though it’s not clear whether the daisy family or the orchid family have more species, both have plenty.
As there are so many types of daisy flowers, I could not possibly talk about all of them, but I am going to cover some of the most popular daisy types, with pictures.
Purple Coneflower?Cuyahoga jco (Flickr.com) | Source

Purple Coneflower – Duncan (Flickr.com) | Source

Purple Coneflower

The purple coneflower is a type of daisy that can grow nearly four feet tall. The name is given to Echinacea purpurea and other Echinacea species. Echinaceas, including the purple coneflower, are used in cold remedies to stimulate the immune system.
purple-coneflower1

Purple Coneflower?Cuyahoga jco (Flickr.com) | Source

It is a beautiful flower that features vibrant purple petals, a yellowish-brown cone-shaped center, and a stem that has white hairs along it and can have streaks of purple running through it. The leaves are deep green and generally have three to five visible veins running through them.
An interesting fact about purple coneflowers is that the central disc in the middle of the flower is actually made up of tiny little flowers, as is the case with many daisy plants. So after the purple flower petals fall off, you still have a flower, or actually, a central cone with many little flowers.
purple-coneflower2

Purple Coneflower – Duncan (Flickr.com) | Source

The petals or rays of the coneflower range from pink to purple in color, and droop downwards from the central cone. There may be as many as 20 petals around the cone; this number varies from flower to flower. The entire flower is three to four inches across.
The coneflower likes to be in partial sun. When the weather is dry it will need to have extra water, or the flower will wilt and possibly die. If the soil is moist and fertilized it will be ideal for this type of daisy flower.
You will often see the purple coneflower on roadsides, in dry clearings, or in prairie areas.
The flower is commonly found in the eastern part of North America including much of new England. It extends as far southwest as Texas, but is also found in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Kentucky.

Go to the next page to see more of these common members of the daisy family.
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