Vibrant gazanias very easy care

Looking for some easy-care, bright and beautiful flowers to lift your garden spirits? How about growing gazanias to bring some fiery orange blooms to your garden?

With names like kiss orange flame, sunshine and kiss rose, these guys are bold, bright and best of all blooming easy to grow.

Sometimes called the African daisy, gazanias have the same shape as the English (common) daisy. But their flowers are much larger (up to 10cm across) and come in vibrant colours like orange, red and pink.

They can grow to 30cm high and are best used for mass planting in garden beds, as ornamental ground cover and to edge lawns. They also look great in pots, tubs and window boxes.

The best thing about gazanias is they survive with almost no care. They’re very tolerant of poor, dry and sandy soil, making them ideal for a house at the beach or areas that you don’t get around to watering much.

You can get your gazania seedlings from your local Bunnings, Mitre 10 or shop online at Awapuni Nurseries and have them delivered direct to your door. We guarantee you’ll be satisfied with the quality of your plants. If you’re not completely happy we will replace them for you.

Gazania are super easy to plant. Simply dig a small hole and space each seedling 20cm apart. If you’re thinking of mass planting gazania (20-30 seedlings in an area), why not grab one of our bulk seedling bundles that come with 25 seedlings in them?

Although they are drought resistant, you will get bigger and more flowers if you do water them. I always try to pinch off fading flowers with my fingers to encourage more to bloom.

In late winter or early spring, give your gazania plants a prune by cutting the foliage back to 5 to 10cm above the ground. You can do this with pruning shears (another reason why they are super easy to look after) and it will revive the plant and bring on new growth.

And now for a fun flower fact. Gazania flowers close up at night. Why? To reduce their risk of freezing.

And if it’s cloudy the next day they won’t open fully.

■ www.awapuni.co.nz, Awapuni Nurseries