Gatsania perennial

How many truly beautiful flowers today – indeed, there are plenty to choose from. One of the little-known, but truly beautiful, plants is African chamomile or, as it is more commonly called, gazania. An exotic chamomile comes from Africa, but despite this, it feels great in the flowerbeds of European countries.

In a hot climate, gazania is grown as a perennial, but it cannot withstand the harsh winter, so here the flower exists as an annual plant.

 Gatzania has a lot of advantages, the most important of which are bright appearance and extreme resistance to external factors. This is quite enough to get interested in an African flower and try to grow it in your own garden.

You can learn about perennial gazania, how to plant it and the necessary care, with photos and descriptions from this article. Here it will be told how an exotic flower attracted domestic flower growers, and what you need to pay attention to when growing gazania in open ground.

Characteristic view

Perennial gazania (or, as it is called in other sources, gazania) appeared in Europe relatively recently.

Due to its African origin, the flower loves sunny areas and tolerates short periods of drought well.

Sudden cold snaps, low night temperatures and even slight frosts are not terrible for gazania. All this allows you to freely grow African chamomile in flower beds next to local flowers and plants.

The description of the gazania flower is as follows:

• small bushes, the height of which rarely reaches 30 cm;
• the almost complete absence of a stem – the leaves of gazania come out simply from the rhizome (there are some varieties of chamomile that have a stem up to 9 cm long);
• leaf plates of flowers can have different shapes, but they are always collected in neat rosettes;
• the leaves are painted dark green, rather dense, have a slight grayish tint;
• the bases of the leaves are pubescent, this allows the gazania to retain moisture at the roots, and in frost the same villi save the root system of the flower from hypothermia;
• African chamomile inflorescences are solitary, large – about 7-9 cm in diameter;
• flower petals pointed, dense;
• the colors of gazania are very colorful and elegant, the flower can be painted in absolutely any shade: pink, sand, bronze, red or orange;
• a characteristic feature of gazania flowers is dark spots at the base of the petals, creating a contrasting pattern;
• the fruit of gazania is a fleecy seed box with a small tuft;
• flowering of gazania lasts almost the entire warm season – from the beginning of July until the first frost;
• the flower is very unpretentious, gazania can be safely called the plant that can exist without human intervention.

The African chamomile has one amazing ability: the flower petals open only in warm weather and in direct sunlight. If it is cloudy or cool outside, the gazania will turn its inflorescences into dense buds. The same thing happens every night.

That is why  a flower should be planted only in a constantly lit place, otherwise the gazania will not bloom.

African chamomile planting

Gatsania perennial, as already mentioned, propagated by seeds. The seeds of this flower can be bought or collected independently – their germination is excellent. It is necessary to sow gazania 1,5-2 months before the proposed transplant into the ground.

Early varieties of flowers are sown for seedlings in late February or early March. Gatsania with late flowering (blooms at the end of summer) is sown only at the end of March or at the beginning of April.

To get strong seedlings of gazania, you need to follow the instructions:

1. First you need to prepare the planting substrate. The best soil for African gazania is considered to be a mixture of soddy soil, humus, peat and sand, which are taken in equal parts. The acidity of the soil mixture should be neutral.
2. Before sowing gazania seeds, the soil should be disinfected. Any method is suitable: freezing, heating in the oven or watering with a solution of potassium permanganate. The main thing is that the soil for flowers is clean and does not contain pathogenic bacteria.
3. Boxes and containers are selected for gazania seedlings, they are filled with a substrate by about 70% of the volume.
4. Now you need to pour the soil with warm water and spread the seeds of gazania, observing a checkerboard pattern. Between adjacent seeds in a row should be about two centimeters of interval.
5. Each grain of a flower is lightly pressed against the soil and the plantings are sprinkled with a thin layer of dry peat (about 5 mm).
6. Now the top layer is slightly moistened with a spray bottle and the boxes are covered with foil.
7. Gazania seeds should be in a warm place with a temperature above 20 degrees until shoots begin to appear. Until then, it is necessary to periodically moisten the soil using a spray bottle.
8. When the seeds germinate en masse, the film is removed and the boxes with glazing are placed in a lighter and cooler place.

Be sure to dive seedlings of gazania when the plants have three true leaves. It must be remembered that the root system of a rod-type flower – seedlings should be transferred very carefully, trying not to damage the central root.

Immediately before planting in the ground, seedlings of flowers are hardened, gradually lowering the temperature in the room (opening a window or balcony).

Transferring seedlings to the ground

It is necessary to plant gazania in a flower bed when a stable warm temperature and good weather are established. Usually, this happens in mid-May (early varieties of flowers in the southern regions are planted already in early May). At a later time, seedlings can “burn out” under the hot rays of the spring sun.

The soil for the African flower should be fertile and light. If the soil in the flower bed is depleted, it is fertilized with humus, ash or mineral complexes before planting.

Gazania is planted according to the scheme 20×20 or 25×25 cm. Tall varieties should be planted at a large interval. After planting, the flower bed is watered with warm water and covered with agrofibre to protect the gazania from the cold and sun. After a few days, the shelter from the flowers must be removed.

How to care for exotic flowers

Caring for gazania is very simple: it is enough to periodically water the flowers and loosen the soil between the rows. Step-by-step flower care should be as follows:

1. Gazania watering is needed rare, but plentiful. It’s okay if the flower turns out to be overdried, excess moisture is much more dangerous for African culture. Therefore, watering a flower bed is recommended only during periods of prolonged drought.
2. You need to fertilize the flower bed no more than once a month. For these purposes, it is most convenient to use complex mineral fertilizers, which are pre-diluted with water for irrigation. Suitable, for example, nitroammophoska, 25 grams of which should be dissolved in a bucket of water. Usually, pre-feeding is enough for flowers, which was carried out before planting seedlings.
3. It is recommended to periodically loosen the soil between the flower bushes and remove weeds in the flower bed. To avoid constant weeding, you can use mulch: it will save the gazania from grass, from drying out, and from pests. Sawdust is suitable as mulch, on alpine hills it is allowed to use stones, pebbles, crushed stone.
4. In order for new buds to constantly form on the bushes, wilted flowers must be regularly removed. Drooping inflorescences are simply cut off by hands and taken away from the flower bed.
5. Diseases practically do not affect gazania, but this flower is often threatened by gray rot. Rot appears due to improper care or an incorrectly selected landing site. Affected gazania bushes should be pulled out and burned, and the rest of the flowers should be treated with phytosporin or another antifungal agent.
6. Of the pests, gazania may be of interest to aphids, spider mites and snails. The first two insects need to be dealt with with special chemicals (Ditox, Akarin, for example), but snails will have to be collected manually.

Far from all regions of Our Country, gazania has time to go through its entire life cycle, so the seeds on the bushes may not ripen. But, if the summer turned out to be hot and dry, it is quite possible to wait for the “harvest” of African chamomile seeds.

Gazania seeds look just like dandelion fluffs, so they scatter easily. To collect the seeds, the flower bud is wrapped in several layers of gauze, after which it is plucked and dried.

Conclusion

Perennial gazania flowers are perfect for the climate, because they are able to withstand not only heat and drought, but also slight frosts. In pots and flowerpots, gazania can even bloom almost all year round, if the plant is provided with suitable conditions (heat, light, watering).

The African motley flower will be a great addition to any flower bed, will help decorate borders and borders, is often used to decorate alpine slides and other landscape objects. Gatsania harmonizes well with other low-growing flowers and plants, so creating a bright composition with her participation will not be difficult at all.