I have googled pictures of 'painted daisies' and multitude of different species has been found, including Gailardias, Senecio cineraria and 'lawn daisies'. Can you specify the plants by the species name?

With the painted daisies, it's quite obvious that the clump was a cluster of seedlings, each its own color. The strongest took over and crowded out the rest, either killing them outright or making them so small and weak down in there they couldn't bloom. You should probably start some new ones for her from seed, but separate them when small and plant each one individually spaced far enough apart so this doesn't happen again.

When roses "change color" like that, its generally because you have two different plants growing from the same rose bush -- the plant from the scion above the graft union is what you intended to plant, but frequently something grows from the rootstock below the graft union, either as a watersprout off the trunk or as a sucker off the roots. This is generally different in form and shape. One of the most common rootstocks for roses is a form of semi-climbing rose with deep red, double flowers. I have a couple blooming right now from hybrid teas that died above the graft union. My best guess for your rose scenario was that last year, the rootstock had taken over, much as your white painted daisy took over the other colors, and at some point they did some pruning that removed that and allowed the scion wood to take over. It's possible it is also the reverse, that the red was the scion and the now white/pink was the stock and they somehow trimmed the scion wood off by over-pruning. But generally the rootstock tends to be red, either 'Dr. Huey' or 'Ragged Robin', the two most widely used red rootstocks.

Seed-grown plants that are loved by pollinators can "change colors" because the bees and butterflies cross-pollinate and literally breed new strains.

Also, hybrids that self-sow can revert to a parent. I have orange echinacea 'Sundown' and the original plants are always true to the orange, but all of the seedlings are the standard native color of deep pink blooms with orange cones. I keep them anyway.

On my Knock-Out Roses 'Radrazz', blooms on the new growth in spring are always darker red-pink than the reblooms on the current year's growth. If I cut back the stems during the season, then that new growth produces the darker color, too.

My best guess (I'm not a rosarian) for the white edges appearing on the roses is to try pruning a few stems, keep the roses watered well and see if the new blooms are okay. Could they have experienced a weather stress?

Cameron

So the Latin name is: Tanacetum coccineum, but they have also been known as Chrysanthemum coccineum, Pyrethrum coccineum and Pyrethrum roseum. They have been named a few times. I'll let my mum know about the dieback/self sowing/cross pollination options. I guess we'll have to see what happens. I know some of mine didn't come back, but the colours are all off the same plant (or look like it anyways).

As for the roses, that does make sense. The weather was VERY strange for the March-May timeframe. Hot then cold, then hot, then normal, then cold and right now we're having August weather. It was also the driest spring on record for us - we got less than 30% the average between February to end of May.