How to Grow Gazanias in Australia

What is a Gazania?

Gazania, also called the African Daisy, is a brightly flowering herbaceous border and bedding plant, ideal for Australian gardens. They are a member of the Asteraceae family, which includes everything from common daisies and Bidens to vegetables like artichokes and lettuce, and is the second largest plant family on the planet.  

The diversity of the wider family is well presented with Gazania, which come in both perennial and annual forms and thrive in high temperature, high moisture environments.

Their large flowers resemble daisies, with tight symmetrical petals surrounding a bright yellow pollen-rich centre. Their key difference from common daisies is their colourful petals.

Most natural forms are yellow, with splashes of orange leading to a rusty centre, often decorated with regular white or black flecks.

Gazania’s Natural Habitat

Gazanias are native to Southern Africa, thriving in dense exposed meadows where they grow best in free-draining poor soil, making them a cost-effective plant that’s well suited to most Australian gardens.

They like full sun, and many species trail to create thick groundcover, though most cultivars differ from the naturally occurring species through highly selective breeding.

Gazanias to Grow in Your Garden

Gazania are varied, but each of their key variations can be traced back to an origin species. There are just 18 species of Gazania in the wild, but hundreds of cultivars that have been bred by botanists and gardeners to select for beauty, hardiness, and in some cases, evergreen structure.

Below, we’ve compiled a list of the best Gazania species to grow at home, but first, let’s look at some of the basic species identifiers:

How to Grow Gazanias in Australia 

Gazania are really easy to grow, and can be picked up as young plants from garden centres fairly easily. Once they are in the ground they are basically maintenance-free provided you live in a warm and fairly dry part of the country.

For the rest of us, there are a few tricks to keep gazania looking their best.

Best Conditions for Planting Gazanias

Soil Preference

Gazania grows best in poor soil, with excellent drainage, and will grow in the wild with next to no nutrients, often rooting into dusty cracks between rocks, or loose sand.

However, to improve their flowering display, mixing grit, sand, and compost together into containers can help boost their appeal as a flowering border perennial.

Watering Gazania

Gazania will rot away completely if they are overwatered, so other than watering them for the first few weeks to establish good root contact, they should only ever be watered during periods of extreme and extended drought.

Sunlight Needs

Plant gazania somewhere with at least 8 hours of direct sunlight per day in summer. Gazania grows in open ground and doesn’t like to be shaded by trees or shrubs.

Find a North facing spot where they get direct sun for as much of the day as possible.

Temperature

In cooler parts of Australia, any gazania should either be protected or treated as an annual, with regular yearly sowings. However, no Gazania species and cultivars are truly annual plants.

Provided the temperature doesn’t drop below 7°C, gazania will re-flower year after year. If temperatures can be kept over 10°C most species will even hold their foliage right through winter, though this is also affected by wet weather, which can rot off the top growth in autumn and winter.

Exposure

Extreme wind, salty air, or prolonged drought are fine for gazanias, which are mostly bred with coastal species genes for garden cultivars. This makes them incredibly tough. The only shelter they need is from frost, hail, and torrential rain.

How to Propagate Gazanias

Propagating Gazanias from Seed

The best time to sow gazania is in spring when they benefit most from lengthening days and hotter weather but, in most of Australia, you can encourage an earlier flowering season by sowing them indoors in late winter, or even outdoors after any risk of frost has passed.

Tools:

• Sandy potting compost
• Seed tray
• 9cm pots

Indoor Method:

1. In early spring or late winter, fill a seed tray with a loose, free-draining potting mix
2. Thinly sow gazania seeds across the surface, but don’t cover
3. Water them well
4. Leave on a windowsill in full sun
5. Germination takes 1-2 weeks
6. Water seedlings when the soil begins to dry out, but do NOT soak them
7. Once seedlings are large enough to handle (3-4 weeks), prick them out into individual 9cm pots
8. Once roots have established in their individual pots, they are ready to plant in the garden
9. Space young gazania plants 15-30cm apart. They will compete, but eventually bind into a single clump

Direct sowing:

1. In mid-late spring, when all risk of frost has passed, prepare a bright bed, in full sun
2. Remove any weeds, unwanted roots, and weed seedlings
3. Ensure the soil is free draining but with some goodness (mix compost and horticultural sand in until its free draining, but hold some moisture)
4. Rake the surface level
5. Sow seeds 5-10cm apart, or loosely broadcast sow
6. Water the ground well to create proper contact with the soil
7. As seedlings germinate, thin them to 10cm apart
8. Water seedlings regularly for the first 3-4 weeks
9. Leave them to do their thing, and water once a week in dry conditions through summer

Gazania Propagation from Cuttings

Like any herbaceous perennial, gazania can be propagated from cuttings if you know how to treat it. Basal cuttings are the best way to take cuttings from gazania, choosing young growth in spring, and keeping a very small flick of root attached.

Learn more about basal and other ways to take plant cuttings here. 

Tools:

• Sharp cutting knife
• Rooting hormone - Get the best rooting hormones available online here.
• 9cm plastic pots
• Perlite
• Potting compost
• Polythene bag

Method:

1. In late spring, fill a 9cm pot with free-draining compost, with perlite mixed through as a 50:50 mix
2. Find a healthy plant with plenty of new growth that hasn’t started forming flowers or buds
3. Cut right down to the base of a healthy stem, keeping a small piece of root attached
4. Dip the base in rooting hormone
5. Gently insert four of these cuttings into the corners of the pot
6. Cover with a clear polythene bag, and keep them indoors, reasonably moist, until new growth appears in a few weeks’ time
7. When new growth starts, continue watering when the soil dries out and remove the polythene bag to reduce any fungal problems

How to Care for Gazanias

Gazania need very little ongoing care, but deadheading and feeding them can help to improve your annual display of brightly coloured blooms.

Avoid any temptation to mulch or water gazania through winter, even if their foliage dies back. The chances are that it will grow back next year, and is more likely to rot with overwatered or ground-cover mulches than without.

Best Fertiliser for Gazania

Any slow-release fertiliser is adequate for gazania. Remember that they don’t need nutrients in nature, and get everything from occasional rainfall, and minerals from sandy or rocky substrates.

To encourage more flowers you can add Osmocote for Potted Plants which will help rejuvenate missing minerals and nutrients in the soil.

Pruning and Repotting

Gazania doesn’t need pruning, but some trailing varieties will need to be separated and divided every 3-4 years to avoid becoming hollow in the centre. To divide clumps of gazania, simply dig out half a clump at a time, and replant it at the same level elsewhere in the garden. 

The remaining clump will flower better that year, and the moved clump will take a year to establish, but grow into a strong (and free) plant the following year.

As gazania flowers fade, remove them individually to extend the flowering season and encourage new flowers.

Common Gazania Pests and Diseases

Gazania really are one of the easiest flowering ground cover plants to grow in Australia. Not only are they drought tolerant, and capable of thriving on poor soil, but they are rarely troubled by pests, and the only diseases they suffer from are caused by caring too much, rather than too little.

Slugs & Snails

Slugs & Snails are pretty much the only pests that regularly attack gazania, but if you’ve got a full garden with other options, slugs and snails will go elsewhere for food.

Gazania might be good-looking, but they clearly don’t taste that great, so the only pests that affect them are those that are starved of options.

Diseases Due to Overwatering Gazanias

If you overwater gazania, or water directly over the foliage in warm weather, they will almost certainly develop mildew or crown rot.

Root rot occurs over winter with gazania, as a result of watering during dormancy, or leaving them in a damp corner of the garden to suffer from more regular downpours.

In all cases, reducing watering, and removing any rotten growth (above and below ground) will usually recover the plant. 

If you notice signs of crown or root rot on an established gazania clump, just dig up the bad bits, and replace the soil with a fresh mix to prevent re-infection. Dispose of dead or damaged materials.

Within a few months, your plant will have recovered and should fill out any empty patches quickly.

Gazania Frequently Asked Questions

Should you deadhead gazania?

Gazania benefit from regular deadheading, which prevents the plant from producing seed and lengthens its flowering period. Every time you remove a flower, cut back to just above a leaf. This encourages new growth, bushier foliage, and future flowers.

Do gazanias come back every year?

Gazanias come back every year but are only half-hardy perennials, so do need to be protected from frost and damp winters. If they can be stored above 7°C they will bounce back into action in early spring.

Do gazanias spread?

Every Gazania species spreads in different ways, with some forming tight clumps that spread from thick roots, and others trailing across the ground and rooting along the stem.

In all cases Gazania are manageable, slow-spreading groundcover plants, and perfect for low-maintenance gardens.

How do you divide gazanias?

Gazanias couldn’t be simpler to divide. When a clump has outgrown its space, just shove a space right through the middle or the clump and dig it out.

You can reduce the size of the clump dramatically, often making 5-10 new small clumps to dot around the garden.