Hi pippi21 - It's been my experience with all the Shasta daisies I've grown from seed via winter sowing (WS to the uninitiated) that they grow at least 3 ft. tall. Like you, I'd like some shorter types but apparently it's not in the cards.

I've noticed that my WS Siberian iris also grow nearly 8 inches taller than those grown in commercial nurseries. I think my WS penstemons actually grow significantly taller than usual as well.

I made the mistake of planting an entire WS container of Shasta daisy seedlings beside my brick walkway and they've grown--enthusiastically, from what I've observed--to the size of a medium shrub. They desperately need dividing but after 3 years of growing perennials from seed via the WS method, I've nowhere to stuff the divisions.

L. 'Banana Cream' might be the yellow you're referring to but altho' I bought it from a nursery in a gallon pot, it wasn't especially robust and didn't come back the following year. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed with its performance in much the same way all those exciting "new" Echinacea varieties left me content to just enjoy the reliable species along with the E. 'White Swan' I've had for nearly 6 years.

As regards your question, altho' I'm not speaking from experience, I think most perennials will branch and send out new growth as long as they're in growth mode & conditions are right but they may or may not re-bloom. I checked one of my perennial books but there was no mention of re-bloom or regrowth.

IMHO "Banana Cream" is very much over rated perennial. I had 4 of these plants and each one performed quite poorly.

rouge21 - Have to agree with your comment re: L. 'Banana Cream.'

I'm glad I've learned (the difficult, sadly,costly way) that nurseries de$perately want serious as well as amateur gardeners to foam at the mouth & shell out their $$ in order to purchase whatever they're pushing each year in terms of New or Improved perennials. I've only been perennial gardening in any serious way for less than the last 10 years but I've quickly discovered that the new introductions so very often disappoint.

I'm guessing for serious gardeners, the 'twice bitten, once shy' may become our mantra but I do pity the newbies who will continue to be unknowingly sucked in to the marketing maelstrom.

My best advice to any newbies is this: ask first, spend after. There's plenty of good advice on this forum that might save you $$ in the short term and enhance your gardening experience/flowerbeds in the end. Each of us who are more experienced has a vision of what our beds should look like once we've accomplished our goals. It's not a short road to achieve what you envision the way your garden will ultimately present itself.

Picture it in your head, the look you'd like to drive

I would recommend Shasta 'Snowcap' About eighteen inches high. There are three plants in the picture.

boday - your 'Snowcap' Shasta daisies are certainly lovely--thanks for sharing that stunning photo. A question, however--were they nursery-grown/purchased plants or grown from seed via the winter sowing method?

boday, for how long does your "Snowcap" bloom? Does dead heading encourage further blooms?

I normally purchase two one gallon plants and divide one. This gives me a total of three and some quick gratification. The plants in the picture were three years old. As to bloom time, it varied from year to year. There would be the heavy flush and then more sporadic blooms with deadheading. That particular year there was that great bloom and then very little after.

I am now trying, post bloom, to fertilize with 20.20.20 and see if I'll get better results. Also, I'm now dumping in a few handfuls of coarse sand in the bottom of the dug hole to improve drainage in the root area.

Finally the recommended method is dividing the plants in the spring every two to three years.

Type in 'leucanthemum' in the link

Here is a link that might be useful: Perennials

My dwarf shasta daisies (I think they are the snowcaps) are not blooming, I deadheaded, now nothing....very disappointing and not that attractive all over the front of my house, any thoughts? feed them?

PAgardenlady - sorry if I'm raining on your parade but based on my Shasta daisy experience, I'm guessing you won't see significant rebloom on your plants this year. Feeding them is likely no answer or remedy since they're pretty tough plants that don't seem to need either organic or chemical help to thrive. Guess what I'm saying is that as far as I've observed, they are what they are for as long as they bloom and then they're done. I enjoy them while they last but, like others, don't rely on them to fulfill my garden goals once they've finished blooming.

We're in the same zone but I don't know what your soil is like. I'm growing in sandy loam but you may be gardening in quite a different type of soil.

According to my 'Perennials for Every Purpose' guide, the length of bloom period for Leucanthemum x superbum/Shasta daisy (which includes Snowcap) is '4 weeks or more.'

Sorry to hijack this post, but it seems most of you posting on this thread know a thing or two about shasta daisies. At work we were given about 5 shasta daisy plants, and I planted them in full sun last year. 2 of the 5 are 3 feet high and are doing wonderfully, however the other 3 are over 5 feet tall (taller than me) and are just flopping over from the height. I was assuming that they were all the same type of plant, since according to the person who grew them from seed, they were from the same seed packet...but why are the shastas so tall? Up until they bloomed it was quite a sight, but as soon as they started blooming they were a mess. I work in a psychiatric hospital so I can't stake the plants either (although I don't think staking them would even help or look good)...

I only fertilized them when I planted them and I treated all the plants the same...so is there a way to stunt their growth? Should I move them to a shadier location? Or do I have to deal with floppy overgrown daisies.

fivefootmenace - Leucanthemum superbum/Shasta daisy is generally a hardy perennial that consistently blooms in July and the species doesn't grow more than 3 ft. tall. Like most perennials, they rarely need fertilizer, either organic or chemical, so it's possible you over-fertilizing them may have contributed to their excessive height, altho' I've never seen or heard any references to it from other gardeners. In general, a perennial garden shouldn't need extra help to flourish. In healthy, organic soil, it should maintain itself without the help of fertilizer.

Shasta daisies flourish in full sun so in my opinion moving them to a more shady location isn't the answer to your specific question. Planting them in full sun & organically-balanced sandy loam should be all they require to thrive & perform since, in my experience, those are the conditions in which they thrive & perform as expected.

I'm sorry you've had a negative experience with them but wish you the best of luck resolving it. My best guess would be a soil issue rather than a plant issue. Feel free to ask additional questions.

fivefoot, you can try cutting back the plant by half in early June next year. That should help with the height.

I've never tried doing that with Shastas, but it works for many different species.