Other Names:  Paper Daisy, Desert Baileya

Description:

A showy biennial or short lived perennial, featuring multitudes of bright yellow, daisy like flowers on leafless stems, above mounds of woolly gray foliage; flowers are sporadic over a long bloom period; great for dry beds and rock gardens

Ornamental Features

Desert Marigold features showy spikes of yellow daisy flowers with gold eyes rising above the foliage from early spring to late fall. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its attractive small tomentose ferny leaves remain grayish green in color with hints of silver throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Desert Marigold is an herbaceous biennial with tall flower stalks held atop a low mound of foliage. Its relatively fine texture sets it apart from other garden plants with less refined foliage.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and may require the occasional pruning to look its best. It is a good choice for attracting bees and butterflies to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Desert Marigold is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Rock/Alpine Gardens
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Desert Marigold will grow to be about 12 inches tall at maturity extending to 18 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 24 inches. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. It grows at a fast rate, and tends to be biennial, meaning that it puts on vegetative growth the first year, flowers the second, and then dies.

This plant should only be grown in full sunlight. It prefers dry to average moisture levels with very well-drained soil, and will often die in standing water. It is considered to be drought-tolerant, and thus makes an ideal choice for a low-water garden or xeriscape application. This plant does not require much in the way of fertilizing once established. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in poor soils. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This species is native to parts of North America..

Desert Marigold is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. It is often used as a 'filler' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, providing a mass of flowers and foliage against which the larger thriller plants stand out. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.