Last year, I needed to divide a huge Montauk daisy (Nipponanthemum nipponicum) that was crowding out the asparagus and adjacent strawberry patches. There were tons of baby plants that I harvested and placed along the fence that protects my yard from the deer. My efforts were rewarded this year with a line of flowers untouched by hungry ungulates.
Montauk daisies are one of my favorite autumn flowers for two reasons. The first is they remind me of the east end of Long Island, where I learned to love the beaches and the ocean. The second is that its flower brings back bittersweet memories of summers past when daisies were in bloom over nearby lawns and fields and I was much younger.
