SILVER DAISY

Erigeron argentatus

Sunflower Family (Compositae)

This well-behaved little plant is at the opposite end of the spectrum from its mountain relative showy daisy. Rarely more than a foot tall, it is very sparsely leafy, with most of the narrow silver leaves at the base of the plant. This shows the lavender and yellow daisies off to good advantage, however, and they are just as showy as showy daisies. Silver daisy is a plant of the dry, rocky foothills of the Great Basin. It likes well-drained soils with low fertility and a minimum of extra water. It looks especially beautiful interplanted with sundancer daisy and purple crazypea. It tends to be relatively short-lived, especially in ordinary garden soil, but has some tendency to self-sow, so that there are usually a few new plants to replace those that may succumb during an overly wet winter.