<em>Gazania</em>: sowing, planting and care
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Gazania, in a nutshell
- Gazanias are low-growing plants with a long summer flowering period
- Perennials but frost-tender, they are most often grown as annuals.
- They form a rosette of silvery-green leaves topped by flowers like large suns in warm, contrasting hues.
- Very easy to establish from sowing or as bedding plants, gazanias thrive in poor, dry soils with good light but do not tolerate waterlogged conditions.
A word from our expert
Gazanias or Gazanies are sun-loving plants with vivid colours, most often grown as an annual in our climate. Tireless. This small South African herbaceous plant is very easy to grow in dry, poor soil. It flowers from spring until first frosts without interruption. New flowers open every day as soon as the sun’s rays are at their zenith and close in the evening. Cultivars offered are usually hybrids such as the Daybreak series, which manage to flower under moderate light unlike typical species.
Gazanias are perennial in warm, relatively dry-winter climates such as the Mediterranean or the South-West, tolerant down to -10°C . They self-seed very easily often offering a shimmering mix of colours: orange, carmine red, brown, yellow to cream, bicolours with sometimes a dark maculate spot at the base of the “petals” (ligules). They can also be kept under cover as cuttings taken in May or October, especially if certain colours are to be favoured.
Sow seeds under glass from February to April. For further information, also consult our guide Sowing annual seeds: how to do it successfully in open ground or in trays
Their compact tufts in a rosette of narrow leaves, simple or lobed, grey-green, provide a setting for these large flowers that brighten borders or energise summer beds, surrounded by light-habit plants such as Gauras, Buenos-Aires verbenas, baby’s-breath or Agapanthus, another South African plant whose sky-blue or white tones soothe the vigour of Gazanias’ warm colours.
Description and botany
Botanical data
- Latin name Gazania
- Family Asteraceae
- Common name Gazania, Gazanie
- Flowering from May to October
- Height between 0.10 and 0.30 m
- Exposure sun
- Soil type any poor, dry and well-drained soil, even calcareous
- Hardiness Fairly low (-10 °C)
Gazania are a southern and tropical genus comprising 18 species. Most cultivated forms used for bedding originate from a South African and Mozambican species, Gazania rigens (syn. Gazania splendens). These cultivated forms have larger flowers and require less heat than the wild forms typical of the Cape’s coastal dunes. Gazania belong to family Asteraceae, like daisy and Coreopsis.
Type species Gazania rigens, about 30 cm across, bears inflorescences in heads of bright yellow or orange around an orange centre speckled with black and brown. It is a herbaceous perennial and evergreen plant, generally grown as an annual in cool, wet climates. In southern France it can remain perennial thanks to mild winters but above all because of summer dryness.
Plant develops within a few weeks into a dense cluster of small rosettes of leaves not exceeding 20 to 30 cm across. Basal leaves, sessile and about ten centimetres long, are narrowly obovate, up to 3 cm wide, sometimes deeply lobed (pinnatifid). The lamina, a rather dark green, has a thick glossy waxy cuticle that protects it from dehydration and a white felt covering the lower surface. Form Gazania rigens var. leucolaena, with sun-yellow heads, has both surfaces of the lamina white and woolly; leucolaena means ‘white cloak’.
Inflorescences are borne on stems little or not ramified, very leafy, up to 40 cm long, from which white latex oozes when wounded. But in cultivated forms the heads are more generally solitary, as in wild variety Gazania regens var. uniflora. Each “sun” is borne on a robust, short peduncle 10 to 15 cm tall arising from the rosette of leaves and facing the sky. Sterile ligulate flowers, arranged alternately on two concentric circles, form the ray florets of the head, displaying very colourful tones sometimes bicoloured or marked with a dark brown spot at the base. The velvety centre of the head is made up of dark tubular flowers that bear the sexual organs, pistils and stamens. Head diameter often exceeds 7 cm and even reaches 12 cm in diameter in hybrids such as New Day Tiger Stripe Mix. The heads of Gazania, like those of sunflowers, attract a myriad of pollinating insects, beneficial to the vegetable garden.
Fruits are achenes that detach from the receptacle throughout the season. It is best to remove faded flowers every 2–3 days to stimulate formation of new buds.
Several colours of Gazania
Main varieties of Gazania
Gazania Big Kiss White Flame F1 Seeds - Treasure flower
- Flowering time June to November
- Height at maturity 30 cm
Gazania rigens Kiss Gold F1 - Treasure flower
- Flowering time June to November
- Height at maturity 20 cm
Gazania New Day Mix F1 Seeds - Treasure flower
- Flowering time June to November
- Height at maturity 30 cm
Gazania Tiger Stripes Mixed Seeds - Treasure Flower
- Flowering time June to November
- Height at maturity 30 cm
Gazania rigens Big Kiss White Flame
- Flowering time June to November
- Height at maturity 30 cm
Discover other Gazania seeds
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Sow Gazania
Sowing Gazania is easy. Sow from February to April in warmth, indoors or under heated cover.
Voici comment procéder :
- Soak the seeds for a few hours in a glass of water.
- Sow the seeds in sowing substrate moistened the day before, covering them with 3 mm of fine substrate.
- Firm down with a small board then water gently.
- Place the sowing in warmth between 18 and 25 °C in a mini-greenhouse or a heated greenhouse, keeping the substrate slightly moist.
- Seedlings appear after 2 to 4 weeks.
- Prick out the seedlings into buckets when they can be handled.
- Wait until after the last frosts, in April-May, before planting out in open ground.
Planting
Where to plant Gazania?
Gazanias provide continuous flowering from May–June through October. They grow perfectly on coastal, sandy, light, poor soils exposed to drought, full sun, wind and sea spray. They also adapt very well to sheltered conditions in an urban garden, in a border, rockery, terrace or balcony so long as soil is well drained, not too rich and aspect relatively sunny. Cultivars are indeed less demanding of sun and do not close at the slightest cloud. Gazanias prefer soils neutral to calcareous but tolerate acidic soils.
When to plant?
Plant young plants in buckets in April–May when frosts are no longer a risk or carry out sowing under cover from February.
How to plant?
- To create a continuous tapetum, space Gazania young plants 20–30 cm apart.
- Immerse rootballs in a bucket of water to thoroughly moisten them.
- Work soil, remove weeds, add gravel or sand if soil tends to be compact.
- Dig holes in a staggered pattern corresponding to width of rootballs.
- Fill holes, firm with hand then water bed copiously.
In pot or planter, use well-draining horticultural compost and add one third river sand.
Care
- Gazanias tolerate drought well, although moderate but regular watering improves clump growth and floribundity.
- Each day, remove, if possible, faded brown flowers whose corolla has closed in the evening, as it lasts only one day. Do not confuse with buds, which are round and green.
- In cool climates, plants can be grown in pots and overwintered to keep them for several years.
- Below -10°C, plants die, but it is not impossible that you observe natural sowings in spring.
Multiplication
Simplest way to multiply gazanias is to propagate by cuttings in May or October or sow seeds between February and April (See above: sowing gazanias).
Propagation by cuttings
- Prepare a pot by filling it with 50% potting compost mixed with 50% sand.
- Take 10 cm-long tips from herbaceous shoots.
- Remove leaves near base of cutting.
- Insert them to two-thirds of their length after dipping base of stem in plant hormone powder.
- Firm soil gently all round to remove air pockets and ensure good contact between potting compost and cutting.
- Place them in a closed, shaded environment, for example by placing a cut transparent plastic bottle over them.
- In autumn, separate rooted cuttings and pot them into buckets which you keep in a bright frost-free room until spring.
- Plant your Gazanias in spring in open ground.
Uses and associations
Busy gardeners appreciate gazanias both for their simplicity and the brilliance of their large heads like the Gaillardia, long favoured in our grandmothers’ gardens. Their bright colours mean they should be used sparingly, but they can be used to add a cheerful touch to the base of a lavender border or brighten a pot planted with a small conifer for the summer.
An idea for a container combination: Gazania ‘Kiss Bronze’, Thunbergia alata and Nemesia ‘Sunsatia Plus Little Vanilla’ that will cascade gracefully
You can also create a scene with gazanias planted on the edge of a border, paired with Verbenas. In a contemporary or natural garden, gazania can in small doses blend with taller, monochrome plants with a light habit such as Gauras, Buenos Aires verbenas, Mexican feather grass or yarrow, all equally drought‑tolerant.
Their mat‑forming habit makes them ideal for low‑maintenance rockeries and heat‑baked slopes. Gazanias also perform very well in planters on a balcony or in large pots that adorn a patio or conservatory.
Further reading
Discover our range of Gazania.
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