Ox-Eye Daisy

Also known as Marguerite, Moon Daisy, or in Scotland, the Dog Daisy or Horse Gowan, the ox-eye daisy arrived in North America when French and English colonists brought it with them to remember their gardens left behind. It quickly naturalized and has become the traditional symbol of carefree summer, nodding in the breeze in sunlit fields or garden beds from Newfoundland to Florida. It loves hayfields and pastures, to the dismay of farmers, for cattle do not like the tough wiry stems when it is caught up in their feed, but young people use it to count off petal by petal, he loves me, he loves me not. The ox-eye daisy is perfectly suited to meadow gardening, requiring very little care and thriving in poor soil. It can be sown directly in an area that will receive full sun, to bloom from June to August. Tea made from the plants has been used in the past to relieve chronic cough, asthma and nervousness. Love it or not, the gold and white presence of the ox-eye daisy brings its careless beauty to many abandoned and out of the way places.