Ghatsania (gazania) – a guest from hot Africa, and therefore extremely dry-resistant and photophilous. Growing gatsania flowers is especially attractive for those summer residents who cannot devote enough time to their site – this plant does not require frequent watering, on the contrary, excess moisture affects it in the most destructive way. If it is possible to provide a soil with sufficient sand content for the culture, this “sunny” flower, similar to a gerbera, will become a flower bed decoration.
What gatsania of different varieties look like
What does gatsaniya look like and how to grow it in the middle lane? For your attention – a photo and description of the best varieties of gatsaniya.
These are low plants with beautiful dark green leaves and large, gerbera-like, golden yellow flowers with dark rings on the petals, which only open in sunny weather.
Gatsania is hybrid. Plant height 20-40 cm. Leaves are collected in an elegant basal rosette. Leafless leaves emerge from the outlet, often curving 15-30 cm long. At their ends, inflorescences with a diameter of 5-7 cm bloom with orange, yellow and cream ligulate flowers with a brown and cream spot at the base and a yellow-orange or brown center.
Now the most popular are – gatsiya “Russian size” F1, mixture. The bright solar constellations of chamomile just got bigger! Neat bushes with strong peduncles and numerous flowers located on top of the foliage.
As you can see in the photo, this variety of gatsania is the largest of all grown from seeds:
Each flower of this new hybrid is 50% larger than traditional ones – it is more than 12 cm in diameter. Good in flower containers, flowerpots, flower beds and alpine slides.
Kiss Flame F1 – large and bright inflorescences of this variety cover the plants so abundantly that you cannot see the foliage behind them!
“Kiss Lemon Scheide” F1 – bright, but at the same time very delicate shades of the entire palette of lemon-yellow colors.
Growing gatsania from seeds: when to plant and how to care
In nature, it grows in the Cape Province of South Africa. Plants are quite cold-hardy, light-requiring and very drought-resistant. They prefer sandy loam and even stony soils containing humus and lime. Poorly tolerate excess moisture.
The flowering of hybrid flowers begins 80-100 days after sowing and lasts until autumn. The seeds are densely covered with whitish hairs. There are 1-200 of them in 250 g. Germination lasts 2 years. To get 100 plants, you need 1 g of seeds.
When to plant gatsania when grown from seed and how to care for the plant? It is grown in seedlings. At the end of March, the sown seeds are covered with a layer of sand 0,5 cm, seedlings appear in 7-14 days. Seedlings are kept in semi-dry conditions and in a sunny place. They are planted in the ground in May at a distance of 25 cm.
Before caring for gatsania, stock up on complex fertilizers. Top dressing should be done once every two weeks. Watering is rare and only in dry weather.
Gatsania is used for mixborders, rocky gardens, planted in wide street vases or containers in combination with blue ageratum or lobelia. Cut buds are good in small bouquets.
