Why would anyone want to grow annual gazania when perennial gazania that is popularly grown as ground cover lasts for several years? Well, as long as the weather stays warm, annual gazania blooms with an impressive abundance of bigger and more brightly colored flowers. Perennial gazania blooms less profusely and only in midsummer, with simpler and somewhat smaller flowers.
Flowers are warm shades of orange, red, yellow, pink, beige and white, typically with intricate patterns of stripes and spots of other colors of the same range, as well as chocolatey brown. Each upward facing daisy flower is as wide as three inches or maybe four. They close up at night and during cloudy weather, and stay closed briefly in the morning until they warm up a bit in the sunlight.
Mature plants typically do not get much more than six inched deep, but can get twice as deep if crowded. They have no problem getting nearly a foot wide though. Foliage is only slightly bronzed; not quite bronze, but not rich green either. The pretty gray undersides of the leaves are obscured from view by the density of the foliage. Gazania needs full exposure, and is quite tolerant of heat.
Tony Tomeo 
Gazania grows extremely well here all year round, but can over populate! I have the stripy one in my garden.
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Do the annual or perennials or both proliferate? I like the perennial types as groundcover, but they eventually get bald spots that must be plugged. Because gardeners do not bother to do that, they just replace the entire area.
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They both do. I had a perennial one in my garden, but I removed it as it became a thug.
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Just saying thanks for the education that you have provided .
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You are welcome. It is very brief because it is an excerpt from my weekly gardening column, which has minimal space.
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Lovely blooms. I like the change from (sometimes) ubiquitous pinks, reds, purples.
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The perennial ground cover types are too common in some places, but these more colorful annuals could be more common. I think that they are more resilient than the more popular summer annuals, but are less popular because most of us think of them as common groundcover.
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I love seed big their bright little faces around in the bedding displays here in the uk, indeed will be adding one or two to my pots soon
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I just got to put in four half wine barrels of them in at work!
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I grow Gazanias. While they are beautiful during the winter and spring they resemble ugly birds’ nests in summer. Is it because it is too hot for them…and yest I water them 🙂
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Too hot!? Gads! I know that they do that in the Mojave Desert, but it gets VERY hot and arid there. I think that they tolerate the heat better in conjunction with humidity. Ours are looking tired right now, but I think that is just because of the change in weather. It does not get very hot here.
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