Burbank’s Work With The Shasta Daisy 
Mr. Luther Burbank took what the farmers of New England had always 
considered a troublesome weed—the Daisy—and transformed it into a flower of 
wondrous beauty. He started with the common roadside weed familiar to 
everyone in the East as Ox-eye Daisy, and known to botanists as Chrysanthe- 
mum Leucanthemum. 
This. plant which grows in such profusion throughout the East and con- 
sidered a pest by the farmer, was not found in California until his experiments 
were begun, and which he brought from his Massachusetts home when he came 
to California in 1875. This transplanted flower or weed formed the basis of 
the series of experiments which led to the production of the Shasta Daisy. 
His first crosses were with a much larger and more robust species of Ox-eye 
Daisy he imported from Europe, and which the botanists called Chrysanthe- 
mum Maximum. 
After selecting the best of these crosses he again crossed them with a species 
named Chrysanthemum Lacustre which he obtained from a German firm, and 
which was similar to the British species. After crossing these American and 
European Dasies, he selected the best of his hybrids and crossed these again with 
Daisy - Chrysanthemum Nipponicum which he obtained from Japan. So the 
Shasta Daisy represents the heritage of four ancestral strains from three con- 
tinents. 
Thousands of seedlings were raised each year for the next 5 or 6 ensuing 
seasons. ‘The best individuals were selected and others destroyed until was 
produced the wonderful flower that has since become known to all the world 
as the Shasta Daisy. 
Mr. Burbank said, “No plant precisely like the Shasta Daisy has existed 
until developed here in my gardens at Santa Rosa.’ 
Mr. Burbank was the pioneer in the Shasta Daisy work. But since that time 
a number of Plant Breeders and Horticulturists have been very successful in 
further work in improving and perfecting this most beautiful flower. Among 
those who have had great success in this work would mention Mr. William 
Henderson and the late Richard Diener, both of California. 
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