What Colors Do Daisies Come In? 12 Varieties From Sunset Orange to Deep Purple

Luther Burbank spent 17 years and grew more than half a million flowers chasing one specific goal: a daisy that was reliably, purely white. He got it in 1901, and it’s the reason most people picture a daisy as a white flower with a yellow center[1]. But “daisy” isn’t one flower — it’s a common name applied across dozens of genera in the aster family (Asteraceae), and most of them were never bred toward white. Once you look past the Shasta daisy, the color range runs from butter yellow through salmon, sunset orange, scarlet, deep purple, and — in exactly one widely grown genus — genuine blue.

Here are 12 daisy relatives across that full range, plus the pigment chemistry that explains why some stayed white while others didn’t.

Why Do Daisies Come in Different Colors?

Every ray floret (the petal-like structures ringing a daisy’s center) gets its color from one of two sources: anthocyanin pigments or the absence of them. Research on chrysanthemum, one of the best-studied daisy relatives, traced the mechanism directly: cyanidin-based anthocyanins produce pink, red, and purple-red tones, while delphinidin-based anthocyanins produce blue and purple — a pigment class most daisy relatives never evolved the machinery to make. White petals aren’t a separate pigment at all; they’re what’s left when the anthocyanin pathway is switched off by mutations in the biosynthesis genes, and the enzymes downstream (DFR and 3GT, if you want the specific gene names) simply stop running[2]. A trio of regulatory genes acts like a dimmer switch on the whole system, turning pigment production up or down[2]. That single mechanism — which pigment, how much, or none at all — explains most of the color variation across the 12 varieties below.

1. Shasta Daisy — The Engineered White Baseline

Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum × superbum) is a quadruple hybrid: Burbank crossed the European oxeye daisy with the larger-flowered English field daisy, then the Portuguese field daisy, then finally the Japanese field daisy (Nipponanthemum nipponicum), which he chose specifically because of its small, pure white flowers[1]. That last cross is why the classic garden Shasta is white with a yellow disc — it’s the one daisy on this list where white was the entire point of the breeding program, not an accident of genetics.

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2. English Daisy — White, Pink, and Red in Miniature

Bellis perennis keeps the yellow center but varies its rays naturally between white, pink, and red, on flowers up to 2 inches across and plants that stay a low 3 to 6 inches tall[3]. Unlike the Shasta, nobody had to engineer this variation — it shows up in an unselected population, which is part of why English daisy naturalizes so readily in lawns and can turn weedy if left unchecked.

3. Gerbera Daisy — The Full Warm Spectrum

The wild Gerbera jamesonii, discovered near Barberton, South Africa, blooms mostly in red, with yellow, orange, white, and pink showing up less often in nature[4]. Decades of breeding expanded that into the full range sold today — yellow, white, pink, red, orange, lavender, and salmon, plus bicolor varieties, with centers running from yellowish to bronze to nearly black[5]. That’s a genuinely different situation from the Shasta: instead of breeding a species away from its natural range toward one target color, growers took a naturally red-dominant species and pushed it in every direction at once. If you’re choosing a gerbera for what it symbolizes rather than just its color, our Gerbera Daisy Meaning guide covers what each shade traditionally represents.

4. Painted Daisy — Red and Pink, With a Caution

Tanacetum coccineum flowers in white, cream, pink, red, and purple around a yellow center, with cultivars ranging from magenta pink to scarlet red[6]. It’s also the one variety here worth handling with gloves: the plant produces pyrethrins, a natural insecticide, and contact with the sap or leaves can trigger dermatitis in sensitive skin[6]. Worth knowing before you deadhead a bed of them bare-handed.

5. Marguerite (Paris) Daisy — White Species, Colored Cultivars

Argyranthemum frutescens follows the same wild-versus-cultivar pattern as gerbera: the species itself is white with a yellow disc, but pink and yellow cultivars are widely available[7]. It’s rated H2 by the RHS, meaning it tolerates cool temperatures but not a hard freeze, so most gardeners outside mild coastal climates grow it as an annual or take cuttings before frost[7].

6. Osteospermum (African Daisy) — Purple-Backed Petals and a Naming Mix-Up

Osteospermum ecklonis does something none of the other varieties here do: its ray florets are white on the face and deep indigo on the reverse, wrapped around a dark blue disc[8]. Across the wider genus, cultivars extend into purple, pink, yellow, and white, generally with a dark contrasting center. One genuine source of confusion: African daisy is also the common name for Dimorphotheca, a related but distinct genus. As a general guideline, Dimorphotheca (Cape marigold) tends to be grown as an annual while Osteospermum is typically a perennial, and the two genera were combined under one name for years before being split — which is why nursery tags and even some reference sites still mix them up [9].

7. Michaelmas Daisy (Aster) — Purple Into Autumn

Symphyotrichum novi-belgii carries the purple end of the spectrum into fall, with numerous purple-to-pink rays around a yellow-orange disc, and cultivars stretching from violet (‘Coombe Violet’) to mulberry-red (‘Royal Ruby’)[10]. It’s also the latest bloomer on this list, flowering from late summer into fall when most other daisy relatives have finished. Our New England Aster growing guide covers a close purple-flowered relative in more depth if you want fall color specifically.

8. Swan River Daisy — Violet and Blue-Purple

Brachyscome iberidifolia ranges from pale purple-pink through pale blue-purple to deeper violet, with yellow-green centers that age to bronze[11]. This is about as close to blue as most “blue daisies” actually get — which makes the next variety the genuine exception worth knowing about.

9. Blue Daisy (Felicia) — The Genuine Exception

Felicia amelloides is marketed as a true blue daisy, and unlike most flowers sold that way, the pigment chemistry backs it up. A 1998 study published in the journal Phytochemistry found its blue color comes from a delphinidin-based anthocyanin working together with a distinct flavone co-pigment — recombining the two compounds in a lab at pH 6 recreated the same blue [12]. That matters because of the mechanism covered earlier: chrysanthemum, one of the best-studied daisy relatives, doesn’t have the genetic machinery to make delphinidin at all[2]. Felicia does, and that’s a reasonable explanation for why sky-blue rays around a bright yellow center are the exception in this family rather than the rule[13]. For more on how rare true blue is across flowers generally — and which other genera actually achieve it — see our Blue Flowers guide.

10. “Livingstone Daisy” — Not Actually a Daisy

Livingstone daisy shows up on nearly every “types of daisies” list, in pink, purple, cream, orange, and yellow. It doesn’t belong on any of them: Dorotheanthus bellidiformis is a member of Aizoaceae, the ice plant family — a completely different lineage from the Asteraceae family every other flower on this list belongs to[14]. It’s a low, succulent, drought-tolerant annual with grey-green, pimply leaves, closer botanically to a living-stone succulent than to a Shasta daisy. Worth knowing if you’re shopping for true daisy-family plants specifically rather than just daisy-shaped flowers.

11. Florist’s Chrysanthemum (“Mum”) — The Widest Range of All

Garden mums (Chrysanthemum × morifolium) close out this list by spanning nearly the entire range covered above in one species: brown and copper, gold and yellow, orange, purple and lavender, and white, in solid, bicolor, and edged patterns across hundreds of cultivars[15]. If you want one plant that gives you most of this article’s color range without shopping across 11 different genera, this is it. For a closer look at how many named types exist, our chrysanthemum types guide breaks down the major cultivar groups.

Daisy Varieties by Color: Quick Comparison

*Not a true member of the daisy (Asteraceae) family — included because of its common name and daisy-like appearance.

Choosing by Color

If you’re shopping by color rather than by variety name: purple runs strongest through Osteospermum and Michaelmas daisy, orange and salmon through Gerbera, and true blue exists in exactly one genus on this list — Felicia. If you want maximum color choice from a single plant, garden mums cover more ground than any other variety here. And if a “daisy” you’re looking at is a low succulent rather than an upright bloom, check the botanical name before you buy — it may be a Livingstone daisy wearing the family name without belonging to it.

The common thread across all 12: color here isn’t random. It’s pigment chemistry — which anthocyanin a plant can make, and how much of it — layered on top of, in a few cases, more than a century of deliberate breeding toward one end of that chemistry or the other.

Sources

1. Luther Burbank Home & Gardens — Shasta Daisy breeding history
2. PMC — Anthocyanins in Floral Colors: Biosynthesis and Regulation in Chrysanthemum Flowers
3. NC State Extension — Bellis perennis (English Daisy)
4. NC State Extension — Gerbera jamesonii
5. Clemson Cooperative Extension HGIC — Gerbera Daisy Care
6. NC State Extension — Tanacetum coccineum (Painted Daisy)
7. Royal Horticultural Society — Argyranthemum frutescens
8. Royal Horticultural Society — Osteospermum ecklonis
9. Gardening Know How — Cape Marigold (Dimorphotheca) Varieties
10. NC State Extension — Symphyotrichum novi-belgii (Michaelmas Daisy)
11. Royal Horticultural Society — Brachyscome iberidifolia
12. Phytochemistry (1998) — Novel pigments and copigmentation in the blue marguerite daisy
13. NC State Extension — Felicia amelloides (Blue Daisy)
14. Royal Horticultural Society — Dorotheanthus bellidiformis
15. NC State Extension — Chrysanthemum x morifolium