Gazania (or gazania-flower) is a representative of the Compositae (aster) family. In total there are more than 50 different types. Variety mixes are very beautiful: Easy Grow, Auslise, Daybreak, Zonenshine, Sunshine Mix, Mini Star, Carnival, Monarch Mix, Chansonette, Talent. These flowers are becoming more and more popular every year due to their unpretentiousness and beauty. The birthplace of gazania is Africa. There, gazania grows in arid places where humidity is high only at night. The second name of this unusual flower is African chamomile.
African Chamomile
In our latitudes, African chamomile is an annual, as it cannot survive the harsh winter. And in their homeland, gazania is a perennial flower.
It is a herbaceous undersized plant that has a shortened stem or its complete absence. Depending on the species, the gazania flower can range in color from silver to dark green. On the wrong side, the leaves have pubescence, due to which the amount of evaporation on a hot day is reduced. Their shape in gazani is extremely diverse: finger-dissected, oblong-lanceolate, pinnate or linear. Collected leaves in a socket. African chamomile has a tap root system that allows the plant to extract water from great depths.
Gazania flowers
Gazania flowers are quite large: they grow up to 10 cm in diameter - and are represented by a wide variety of colors. Regardless of the species, each inflorescence has a dark spot at the base, which gives the plant a special appeal.
Gazania itself is represented by a basket with tubular flowers in the center. It is they who exude aroma during flowering, and false-lingual ones are located along the edge (they are sterile). Gazania flowers are beautiful - a photo in which you can see their true size displays their beauty. The plant has many small seeds (up to 250 pieces per 1 g) with a "parachute". Seeds remain viable for 2 years. With the onset of night or in cloudy weather, the gazania flower closes. In a rainy summer, enjoying its fragrance is quite problematic, but do not despair, as the plant blooms from the beginning of summer until the snow.
Growing
In cultivation, these flowers are very unpretentious and look great in a flower bed, in balcony boxes or flowerpots. For their planting, it is better to choose a sunny place without stagnant water. You need to feed these flowers 1-2 times a month, using universal fertilizers. It is better to grow gazania through seedlings. To do this, seeds are sown in March to a depth of 5 mm, the first shoots will appear on the 5-7th day. Seedlings for a permanent placetransplanted at the end of May, always with a small clod of earth.
Reproduction
Gazania is propagated by cuttings. To do this, they are cut in the summer from lateral shoots and, having been treated with a growth stimulator, they are planted in the ground, at first shading and watering as needed. With stagnant water, these flowers suffer from gray rot. In this case, it is necessary to ensure the flow of water and treat the flower with a fungicide. They are almost never affected by pests.
