Chrysanthemum Painted Daisies

Big daisies with sharply defined concentric rings of scarlet, mahogany, gold, white and purple radiating out from a dark eye, like a bullseye or a stopped kaleidoscope. Every flower is patterned slightly differently and one plant will produce hundreds across a season.

Worth clearing up the name. These are true hardy annuals, botanically Ismelia carinata and still often sold as Chrysanthemum carinatum, and they have nothing to do with the perennial autumn chrysanthemums people buy in pots. They go from seed to flower to finished in a single season, sown in spring and gone by the first hard frost.

Bushy mounds at 40 to 50cm with succulent ferny leaves, and unusually good weather resistance for something this showy. The habit does get sprawling by late summer, particularly on rich ground, so they suit an informal meadow-style planting better than a tidy border edge. Bees work them hard on a sunny day, the petals are edible, and they cut well for a casual arrangement. The retro bullseye look either delights people or does not; there is not much middle ground.