For summer blooms, few plants are as diverse, yet instantly recognizable as members of the sunflower or daisy family, Asteraceae. With some 300 different types in the Botanical Garden, the family represents the greatest diversity of any group in our collections. There are annuals, perennials, biennials, shrubs and subshrubs, and they hail from every region of the world. This monthly dispatch could become the longest on record if I were to mention even a fraction of those that flower in the summer, so I’ll try to contain myself.
