Gazania Sunshine mix is the ultimate, very striking and abundently flowering annual that flowers approx. 12 weeks after sowing. It originates from South Africa and has a very exotical appereance. It's also known as treasure flower. This mixture contains flowers in very outspoken, warm and sometimes bright colours of yellow, white, orange, red and pink. It's very well suited for every flowerbed, border, flower pots, containers and in rock gardens on very sunny and dry spots. It can witstand drought and doesn't need so much water like other flower varieties. This lasting flowers give You a dizzying effect with it's very large daisy-like flowers in different very bright and warm colours. This very easy to grow and maintain plant is usually grown as an annual, but can be treated like a biennial on very sheltered and very sunny spots. Very well loved by bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects. Semi hardy annual. Height: 20 - 30 cm.
Indoor sowing: beginning of february - end of april
Germination: 5 - 12 days
Germination temp.: 20 - 21 °C
Sowing depth: ½ cm
Plant distance: 15 - 30 cm
Plant position: very sunny and sheltered
Flowering period: june - october
Sow indoors from the beginning of february till the end of april for flowering in the year of sowing. Sow in trays filled with moist potting soil. Sow thinly and cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil. Press the seeds in gently and keep moist. Cover the trays with glass, clingfilm or a lid. Keep the temperatuur as constant as possible on 21°C. Also during the night. After approx. 5 - 12 days the seedlings appear. Remove the lid when the seedlings emerge. Put the seedlings, when they're large enough to handle, in seperate pots of approx. 5 - 7 cm across. Harden the seedlings of by putting them outside during the day for approx. 10 - 14 days from the beginning of may.
Plant the hardened seedlings outdoors from the middel of may, when there's no longer any risk of nightfrosts. Keep them 15 - 30 cm apart. Put the plants on a very sunny plot with shelter against the wind and very free draining soil. Keep moist and weedfree. Deadhead the flowers for a prolonged flowering period. Use this drought loving plant on the really warm and drought spots in the garden. To make sure that Your seedlings thrive, You have to put them in soil that is already heated up by the sun.
You can overwinter Your Gazanias by putting them indoors when the have ceased flowering. Remove all dried up leaves and all dead flowers and put the plants indoors in pots in a dry, light and frost free room. These plants can be put outdoors in the following year from the middle of may, when there's no longer any risk of night frosts.
