Cheerful, cheeky and cherubic, and prolific too - no wonder this easy to grow little shrub makes you smile. The sweet pink daisy flowers, a perfect combination with the little dark green leaves, keep on coming, in flush after flush, from very early spring through into summer and again in autumn. Once it’s established, this thoroughly pleasing daisy bush is one of the easiest of plants to grow, able to tolerate quite dry conditions and a fair degree of coastal storms, yet happy inland too providing frosts aren’t excessive. It does need sun for the majority of the day if it is to be at its colourful best.

What should you plant with ‘Sugar Cheer’ to further increase the pleasure? Well, you can plant a mixture of other modern, Federation series marguerite daisies to create a carefree tapestry of colour. This looks great on a bank or beside a path. Other plants to grow with ‘Sugar Cheer’ include such free flowering perennials as the dwarf Salvia ‘Marcos’ which is smothered in purple-blue flowers for months on end, similarly free flowering penstemons, pink and grape coloured mini daylilies Also good are new Campanulas such as ‘Resholdt’s Variety’ and ‘Kent Belle’ which go on flowering all summer, and ground covering, electric blue Lithospermum (Lithodora) ‘Grace Ward’.

Other possibilities could be to include steely blue honeywort, delphiniums and the similar but simpler larkspurs, pink or cream dwarf alstroemerias and, if there is a background wall, tree or bamboo tripods to provide support, large flowered Clematis varieties of which there are many in beautiful shades of pink, white and blue.

Then there are the pictures of romance which can be created with ‘Sugar Cheer’ and pink roses, which can range from low growing patio varieties through to climbers. Add Heliotrope ‘Baby Marine’ for contrasting dark purple flowers and sweet perfume. In beach gardens, have fun with ‘Sugar Cheer’ daisies and blue lavenders and rosemary, purple blue hebes such as ‘Ohau’ and colourful shrubs such as Polygala ‘Dazzler’ and Polygala ‘Liddle Charmer’.