Our summer equinox arrives and it seems that the sun delivers a magical light for such long periods at the beginning and end of each day. I'm mesmerized by it and want to sit for long periods and admire the shadows as they are cast.

One of the most handsome plants as it captures the light, are the plumes of field grasses. Hints of pink and purple move with every light breeze. Flowering with the field grasses are several flowering plants. They lift their heads, seeking pollination. Interspersed, possibly supported by the grasses thin blades, there is a three dimensional quality that many of us attempt to duplicate in our flower gardens.

One such perennial has begun to flower and can be seen in fields and along roadsides. Shasta daisies or leucanthemums, they blend with red clover, verbascum and fleabane to create colorful sweeps. The shasta daisy is a composite, once grouped with chrysanthemums, the famous chrysanthemum breakup placed them under a rather wordy genus and one that took some getting used to - leucantheumum.

As with all composites or daisies, the flowers contain rays or petals that surround a yellow center which holds hundreds of male and female disk flowers. The process of producing ripe pollen, which ensures pollination, is rather entailed, might I simply say that the process is designed so that each flower is not self pollinated, but receptive to pollen from other shasta flowers.

Typical of all composites, the hundreds of central disk flowers do their job very well and copious amounts of seed are produced.

Even though we see many leucanthemums (ox-eye daisy) in our fields, they are not natives. Before the colonists came over, there were no oxeye or shasta daisies. Originally from Asia, their spread can be tracked across Asia to Europe, then to England and finally here. More than likely the seed was mixed with straw or grain. In addition, livestock find the plant unpalatable and leave it alone, another reason it stands out in grazed pastures.

The most famous hybrids, even the name shasta daisy, came from Luther Burbank's work in his experimental garden in Sebastopol, California. A powerful hybridizer, he is responsible for hundreds of types of flowers and food crops. In the late 1800's he crossed Leucanthemum maximum, from the Spanish Pyrenees with L. lacustre from Portugal and developed our vigorous garden perennial. He named them shasta daisies after Mt. Shasta, a landmark he enjoyed seeing every day.

Much hybridization has occurred since then and many garden varieties are available today. As garden perennials they spread via underground rhizomes. Clumps are very thick as the rhizomes remain tight, radiating out from a central core. The flowers are white, variable in size and height, depending on variety. All make excellent cut flowers.

The biggest pest problem comes from thrips, a tiny insect that mars the petals by leaving fine brown streaks wherever they feed. This is all the more obvious on pure white petals. Otherwise they are remarkable perennials with a very strong stamina.

A flower that might portend some ones love for you? If Luther Burbank only knew.