Osteospermum ecklonis
Cape daisy
Common names: Cape marguerite, African daisy
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Pot size
- from 5 l
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Flowering
- May–Oct
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below −2 °C
- Water need
- Medium
Photo: Joaquim Alves Gaspar · CC BY 2.5 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
Osteospermum ecklonis, the Cape daisy, comes from South Africa and belongs to the daisy family (Asteraceae). Its flower heads resemble large daisies, measuring 5 to 8 cm, and stand singly on upright stems above grey-green leaves. In the wild form, the ray florets are white on the upper side and blue-violet on the underside, with a dark blue centre. Cultivated varieties also bloom in pink, violet, yellow, and orange. Depending on the variety, the plant grows 20 to 50 cm tall, and some varieties have a loose, trailing habit. From May to October, new flowers continuously appear, often with a pause during very hot weeks. A notable feature is that the flowers open only in sunshine, staying closed on overcast days and in the evening. In the garden, the Cape daisy suits balcony boxes, pots, and sunny bed edges. It is not frost hardy in this region and is usually grown as an annual, but it can be overwintered in a bright, cool place.
Care instructions
Place the Cape daisy in a full sun, warm location, as the flowers open only in sunshine and close in the evening, and also in rain and on overcast days. This is normal, so there is no need to worry. Plant it after the Ice Saints in mid-May, from calendar week 20, in loose, permeable soil with drainage. Water moderately and let the topsoil dry out between waterings, as waterlogging does more harm than short periods of dryness. From June, fertilize about every two weeks. Remove faded flowers together with their stem, which encourages new buds to form. If flowering declines in midsummer, cut back the shoots by about one third. In late summer the plant usually blooms again. Too little light leads to long, soft shoots with few flowers.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingFeb–Apr
FloweringMay–Oct
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 15 °C, ideally 20 °C
- Days to sprout
- 10 to 21 days
- Light
- Sprouts in light or dark
- Sowing depth
- 0.5 cm
- How to start
- Start indoors, then plant out
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
well-drained, humus-rich, sandy
Cape daisies need loose, well-drained soil in which water runs off quickly. In a box or pot, good-quality balcony plant compost mixed with a little sand or expanded clay is suitable; in the bed, loosen heavy loam with sand. Slightly acidic to neutral soil suits best, and even some lime in the soil hardly matters. The biggest risk is wet around the roots, which makes the base of the shoots rot. So provide drainage holes and a drainage layer of expanded clay or broken pottery.
Feeding
Medium feeder
Months
Jun–Aug
When planting, work in some ripe compost, which feeds the plants for the first weeks. From June, in containers and boxes, add liquid fertiliser for flowering plants to the water about every two weeks; in the bed, a thin layer of compost in early summer is enough. If you fertilise too heavily, the plant produces plenty of foliage and few flowers. From the end of August, let the fertilising taper off, especially if you want to overwinter it, so that the shoots ripen before winter.
Overwintering
Botanically the Cape daisy is perennial, but it is not hardy here and survives only light frost down to about minus 2 degrees. If you want to keep it, bring it indoors before the first frost, cut the shoots back by about a third and put it somewhere bright at 8 to 10 °C. Water only sparingly, do not fertilise and check the plant for aphids; if affected, spray them off with water. From mid-May, after the Ice Saints, it may go back outdoors. A more space-saving option is to take cuttings in late summer.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
- Cuttings
You propagate Cape daisies from seed or cuttings. For sowing, fill trays with seed compost from February to April, only press the seeds in and cover them with at most a wafer-thin layer. At about 18 °C and in a bright spot, the seedlings appear after one to three weeks. Prick them out into individual pots and plant them out after the Ice Saints (mid-May). The colours turn out differently from seed. If you want to keep a variety exactly as it is, take cuttings: in August or September, cut shoot tips 5 to 8 cm long without flowers, remove the lower leaves and insert them into lean seed compost. In a bright spot at about 18 °C they form roots in around three weeks.
Companion planting
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow Cape daisy yourself
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