Guest Blogger: Dottie McDowell

In early May, an ordinary-looking patch of gravel on Ohio’s Beautiful Mile bursts into glorious bloom.

The bright Lakeside daisy (Hymenoxys herbacea) is one of Ohio’s most spectacular wildflowers. This long-lived perennial grows where few others can, on nearly barren limestone rock in full sunlight.

In early to mid-May, the bright yellow flowers of the Lakeside daisy adorn the otherwise bleak, sunbaked landscape of the Marblehead Quarry, the only natural population of Lakeside daisy in the U.S. It’s a federally threatened species and has been listed as endangered in Ohio since 1980.

Lakeside is fortunate to have its own patch of Lakeside daisies. In 2000, Sid Foster established a bed of Lakeside daisies on Lakeside’s waterfront near Perry Park.

The garden is in memory of his grandmother, Daisy Farley Foster, who was a Lakeside resident from 1913-1959. Dottie McDowell and other volunteers maintain the garden for all to enjoy.

If you’re fortunate enough to be in Lakeside in late April or May, be sure to visit the garden and enjoy the spectacular vision of these beautiful flowers which thrive where the only other plants are very hardy weeds.