Pruning Montauk Daisies
Montouk daisies are beautiful, charming plants that remain healthy throughout their blooming season with the proper pruning techniques. The Montauk daisy, also known by its botanical name of Nipponanthemum nipponicum, is a large, round, vibrant daisy varietal descended from the chrysanthemum family that made its way stateside from Japan. As a natural butterfly magnet and deer repellant, rural or country gardens are especially likely to feature the Montauk daisies, but these hardy, easy-to-grow, easy-to-care-for perennials can make themselves at home just about anywhere. Learn how to care for and prune your Montauk daisy garden for best results.
How to Care for Montauk Daisies
Montauk daisies are considered even by beginning gardeners to be low-maintenance in nearly every way, except perhaps when it comes to the regular pruning. Otherwise, Montauk daisies practically grow themselves once the young plants have become established, needing little beyond sunlight, water, adequate soil drainage, and spring deadheading to flourish.
How to Prune Montauk Daisies
As fall bloomers, Montauk daisies are a great staged planting alongside spring- and summer-blooming daisies. This also means, however, that Montauk daisies will take advantage of the spring and summer growing season to shoot up and out, often presenting a leggy, splayed and unattractive appearance by the time fall blossoms appear. The way to prevent this is to do shear back the plant by one-third in the early spring season. This will encourage a bushier, fuller growth and prevent leggy, leafless stems from appearing. Overall, Montauk daisies are very pruning-tolerant. The next time a full pruning should be done is in late fall just before the coldest temperatures of the year arrive. It is in those frigid temperatures that Montauk daisies show their one weakness: surviving the cold. To help them survive, shear them back to an inch above the ground and layer on the soil and mulch.
