A Detailed Guide to Growing Gazania: Even Beginners Can Grow It Easily
Gazania, also known as treasure flower, is a plant of the genus Gazania in the Asteraceae family. The gazania flower has a peculiar shape and colorful blooms, with a dark eye spot at the center resembling a medal, full of a strong wild charm. It is one of the common potted flowers and flowerbed plants in gardens. Gazania, also known as gazania, is a plant of the genus Gazania in the Asteraceae family. The gazania flower has a peculiar shape and colorful blooms, with a dark eye spot at the center resembling a medal, full of a strong wild charm. It is one of the common potted flowers and flowerbed plants in gardens.
Morphological Characteristics
Gazania is a perennial herbaceous plant with rhizomes. The leaves grow in a rosette, lanceolate or obovate-lanceolate, with entire or slightly pinnatifid margins, and the undersides densely covered with white woolly hairs. The ligulate flowers are white, yellow, or orange-red with a glossy sheen.
Growth Habits
1. Light: Gazania loves sunlight and prefers growing in cooler places. It is drought-tolerant and tolerant of poor soil; it is semi-hardy, so it can overwinter successfully in regions with milder winters. It needs ample sunlight during the growth and flowering periods. If the cultivation site has insufficient light, the leaves become soft, flower buds decrease, flowers become smaller, and flower colors fade. Conversely, with sufficient sunlight, the flower colors are vivid and blooming is continuous.
2. Temperature: The optimal growth temperature for gazania is 15-20°C, from March to September it is 13-24°C, and from September to the following March it is 7-13°C. However, gazania has strong adaptability to high temperatures above 30°C, though leaf growth slows and flowering decreases. In winter, the temperature should not be lower than 5°C, but it can withstand short periods of 0°C low temperatures; if prolonged, frost damage is likely to occur.
3. Water: Gazania is relatively sensitive to water. Although the soil needs to be moist during the stem and leaf growth period, excessive soil moisture during the plum rain season can easily cause the plant to become waterlogged and die entirely. At the same time, during high summer temperatures, air humidity should not be too high, and the potting soil should not accumulate water, otherwise both are unfavorable to the growth and flowering of gazania.
4. Soil: Choose fertile, loose, and well-drained sandy loam soil. For potting soil, a mix of equal parts cultivation soil, leaf mold, and coarse sand can be used.
Nationwide, native to South Africa, northern warm temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest region (major cities: Shenyang, Huludao, Dalian, Dandong, Anshan, Liaoyang, Jinzhou, Yingkou, Panjin, Beijing, Tianjin, Taiyuan, Linfen, Changzhi, Shijiazhuang, Qinhuangdao, Baoding, Tangshan, Handan, Xingtai, Chengde, Jinan, Dezhou, Yan'an, Baoji, Tianshui).
Propagation Methods
Commonly propagated by sowing, division, cuttings, and tissue culture.
1. Seed propagation: Sow in spring in April or in autumn in September. Each gram contains 560-580 seeds. The optimal germination temperature is 16-18°C, and germination occurs 14-30 days after sowing. When the seedlings have one pair of true leaves, transplant them into 4 cm seedling trays. In some regions, the seeds have the ability to self-sow and reproduce.
2. Division propagation: Before stem and leaf growth in March to April, dig up the overwintered mother plant and cut it longitudinally from the root crown of the clump with a knife, but each division must have a bud head and root system, and can be directly potted.
3. Cutting propagation: Usually carried out in spring and autumn, and can be done year-round indoors. Cut shoots with stem nodes, keep the top 2 leaves; if the leaves are too large, half can be cut off to reduce water evaporation from the leaf surface. Insert into a sand bed, keep room temperature at 20-24°C and maintain high air humidity; roots form 20-25 days after insertion. If treated with 0.1% indolebutyric acid for 1-2 seconds, rooting is faster.
4. Tissue culture propagation: Explants commonly use stem tips and flower buds. After sterilization, stem tips are inoculated on MS medium supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine 1-3 mg/L and naphthaleneacetic acid 0.2 mg/L to induce callus and differentiate shoots. Then transfer to MS medium supplemented with naphthaleneacetic acid 1 mg/L and culture for 30-40 days, and the seedlings root to form complete small plantlets.