Gazania rigens
Treasure flower
Common names: Gazania, Clumping gazania, Coastal gazania
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Pot size
- from 3 l
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Flowering
- Jun–Oct
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below 0 °C
- Water need
- Low
Photo: Alvesgaspar · CC BY 2.5 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
Gazania rigens, known in German as Mittagsgold, comes from southern Africa and is aptly named: its flowers open only in sunshine and close in the evening and on overcast days. The flower heads measure 5 to 8 cm and glow in yellow, orange, red, pink, or bronze, often with a dark ring around the center. The plant stays low, reaching 15 to 25 cm, and forms rosettes of narrow leaves that are dark green on top and silvery-hairy underneath. It blooms from June to October, as long as the sun shines. In the garden it can be grown in pots, boxes, rock gardens, and along sunny, dry bed edges. It is not frost-hardy and is usually grown as an annual, but it can be overwintered in a bright place.
Care instructions
Place the treasure flower in the sunniest, warmest spot available, since the flowers open only in sunshine. Plant it after the Eisheiligen in mid-May, from calendar week 20, about 20 cm apart in sandy, well-drained soil. Water moderately: it tolerates drought well but not waterlogging. Fertilize sparingly, and not at all when planted in beds. Cut off spent flowers together with their stalks, which encourages new buds. Remove wilted or rotting leaves at the rosette so that air can reach the center. It does not like prolonged rain, so a spot under an overhang keeps the plants dry and the flowers open longer. If it barely flowers, it is most likely standing in too much shade.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingFeb–Apr
FloweringJun–Oct
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 15 °C, ideally 20 °C
- Days to sprout
- 7 to 14 days
- Light
- Needs darkness to sprout
- Sowing depth
- 0.5 cm
- How to start
- Start indoors, then plant out
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
well-drained, sandy, lean
Treasure flower comes from sunny, barren sites and grows best in sandy, lean, very well-drained soil. In a window box, mix balcony compost with plenty of sand or fine grit; in a bed, loosen heavy soils thoroughly with sand. The pH may be slightly acidic to slightly alkaline. What matters is that no water stands: wet feet make the rosettes rot.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Jun–Aug
Treasure flower manages with little food. At planting, a little mature compost is enough to get it started. In a pot, give it a sparing dose of liquid feed for flowering plants about once a month from June to August; in a bed, do not feed at all. Too much feed brings lots of foliage and few flowers.
Overwintering
Botanically, treasure flower is a perennial, but in Central Europe it tolerates only very light frosts. To overwinter it, bring the plants in before the first frost and keep them bright at 5 to 10 °C, for example at a window in an unheated stairwell. Water only enough that the root ball does not dry out, and do not feed. Remove wilted leaves, otherwise they rot. After the Ice Saints in mid-May the plants go back outside, ideally getting used to the sun gradually. Alternatively, raise new plants from seed or cuttings every year.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
- Cuttings
You propagate treasure flower by seed or cuttings. From the end of February to the beginning of April, sow in trays with seed compost. Just press the seeds down and cover them with no more than a wafer-thin layer. At 18 to 20 °C and in a bright spot, the first seedlings appear after 10 to 20 days. Prick them out into individual pots, harden them off slowly outdoors from May and plant them out after the Ice Saints. If there is a variety you particularly like, propagate it in August or September from young side shoots, which you insert as cuttings in sandy soil. Bright and warm, but only moderately moist, they root in a few 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 Treasure flower yourself
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