Perennial · North Texas care guide
Melampodium leucanthum
Nursery Pro tip: Tiny native daisy that blooms most of the year in rock-hard dry spots.
A low native mound, under a foot tall, smothered in small white honey-scented daisies from spring to frost. It grows on limestone outcrops with no soil to speak of, which tells you everything about what it wants.
Full sun and the sharpest drainage you can give it. Rocky, gravelly, unimproved ground. Never in a rich, mulched, irrigated bed — that is how people kill it in the first season. Space 18 in apart.
Spring or fall. Plant high — ball two inches above grade — in native soil heavily cut with expanded shale or decomposed granite. Gravel mulch, no bark, nothing touching the crown. Root Stimulator at planting.
Weekly for the first month only, then leave it alone. A monthly soak in extreme drought is generous.
Never.
Shear by a third in midsummer if it opens up in the center. Cut back lightly in late winter. Short-lived — three to five years — but it reseeds where it's happy.
Overwatering and rich soil, the only two real threats. Crown rot from mulch piled against it.
The front edge of a xeriscape or rock garden with yucca, agave, Texas sage, Gulf muhly and autumn sage.
Written for Rockwall's black clay, heat and winters by the Landscape Source team. Every yard is different — bring a photo by, or ask LS-Ai, and we'll tailor it to your spot.