PROCTOR'S TIPS: Denver daisies dazzle for DNC

KUSA - They're everywhere. From Denver parks to the Civic Center, and from Downtown to front yards, the Denver daisies are in full bloom. The city-wide planting of this unique flower was initiated by Mayor John Hickenlooper to help beautify the city for the Democratic National Convention.

The Denver Daisy is a cultivated variety of our native Rudbeckia hirta. Often called black-eyed Susan, this annual plant grows wild throughout the Great Plains. Insect and disease resistant, the plant is very adaptable and many cultivars have been selected over the years. The Denver Daisy is more compact than the original and has larger flowers with a reddish-brown center ring on its golden petals. It's a fine representative for the city, regardless of your political affiliations.

Seeds of the Denver Daisy were also distributed throughout the city this spring in hopes that many gardeners would grow it at home. The city has received some complaints that the seeds failed to grow. Given the hot, dry and windy season, this is understandable. It takes practice to grow plants from seed. A hot afternoon wind can easily dry out germinating seeds and kill them. I suspect that this was the reason some seeds didn't grow. (The parks were planted with seedlings that were germinated in greenhouses.)

Nevertheless, the seedlings planted in public areas have thrived despite one of the most unfavorable growing seasons in recent memory. They were given supplemental irrigation to make up for the long period of record-breaking heat without rainfall. They're a beautiful sight.

Despite this, a minor controversy has sprung up about the Denver Daisy. Reports about germination failures circulated. At a city meeting in mid-July, Councilman Charlie Brown complained, "It's like having a cake, and you can't light the candles." He announced, "I've been a gardener for 40 years, and all I've got is a bare spot."

Compounding the problem, the New York Times picked up the story and ran the headline "Plans for Denver's Daisies Drown in Disappointment." The writer, Dan Frosh, asserted that, "The Denver daisy apparently does not much like the city for which it is named."

Here's my take on this tempest in a teapot. First off, Councilman Brown should have know--since he's been gardening for 40 years--that the seeds of all plants must be kept moist consistently to sprout. The safest and most effective way to germinate seeds is on the windowsill. The seeds should be planted in fresh potting soil, watered lightly and covered with clear plastic until they emerge. Then they can be transplanted outside.

New York Times reporter Frosh either didn't know or didn't choose to report that Rudbeckia hirta is native to our region. Nor did he take our record-breaking heat and drought into account as a possible reason why some seeds didn't germinate. And in his attempt to embarrass Denver, he also neglected to check out the status of the many thousands of daisies growing all over the city. Had he done this, he would have found that there's no disappointment here, only dazzling displays of Denver daisies. That should have been his alliterative headline.