“That’s a crazy daisy!” a friend said recently when we were strolling round the churchyard at St James in Didsbury.

She’d spotted the twisted white petals of Leucanthemun ‘Old Court’ – a daisy having a bad hair day. We call it crazy daisy in our family because it marks the burial place of my son’s beloved pet guinea pig, who was called Daisy and was indeed crazy.

Leucanthemums are the lovely, tall white daisies with the classic yellow disc that shout out high summer in the garden. Also known as Shasta daisies, they usually have the flattened white petals you’d expect in a daisy, but in ‘Old Court’ they are narrow, twisted and spidery. Leucanthemums are hardy perennials which are old cottage garden favourites. Some are tall and need staking but many shorter varieties have been bred in recent years. There are now varieties with cream or pale yellow petals as well as the traditional white.

‘Old Court’ grows to about a metre tall and has masses of wonderful flowers measuring about ten centimetres across. It seems to grow happily in any reasonable soil, in sun or part shade, and does not need extra support. Easy and rewarding.

‘Old Court’ daisies outside St James church, Didsbury, Manchester.