From Curtis's Botanical Magazine
published in 1794

Forget the vulgar plants sold in garden centres, and the gross monstrosities planted by Parks Departments because the old fashioned Double Daisy is as different as chalk from cheese!

The old fashioned double forms of Bellis perennis have been known in Britain since the earliest of times and it's common name 'Daisy' is derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'daeyeseage' for 'the eye of the day'.

Double Daisies were once popular garden plants and by the early Victorian years were grown in great numbers. They were widely used in parterres, but with the introduction of novelties from around the globe, like so many traditional old plants they lost favour. Today only four or five varieties of the old varieties are still grown, they are not easy to find, but they are still with us.

Bellis thrive in humus rich soil in partial shade and are best divided on a regular basis, keeping the young growth and discarding the old. Left to their own devices they have an annoying habit of dying out!

'PARKINSON'S WHITE'
This double flowered white differs from the other surviving plants in that it has larger flowers and broader petals, and could possibly be the double white which was described by John Parkinson in 1629. Syn 'Alba Plena'.

'DRESDEN CHINA'
Soft shell pink flowers. The flowers are small and consist of tightly packed quilled petals. Eighteenth Century.

'ROB ROY'
Scarlet flowers. Nineteenth Century.

'MISS MASON'
Nineteenth Century.

'THE PEARL'
White flowers are small, compact and fully double. Syn.'Robert'

'ALICE'
A delightful apricot pink flowe with quilled petals. Probably Victorian.

'HEN & CHICKEN DAISY'
Bellis prolifera, one of the oddities of Bellis perennis, has certainly been known since the sixteenth century. It has the colouring of the common lawn daisy, that it white with a pinkish flush. From under the main flower are short stalks with little flowers hanging from them … and it's clear where the name comes from!