Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Daisies - Osteospermum and Gerbera

It’s funny how I can sometimes be blind even when things are right in front of me. I discovered bright-colored daisies when I moved to Bradford in 2006 and I’ve bought some each spring since. I believed these annuals, even though some had larger flowers, were all gerbera daisies, that some were just a smaller version. However, I was recently told when making purchases for this year’s flower boxes that the small-flowered ones I chose were not gerbera. 

If you look closely at the tips of the petals, Gerbera daisies
have "two lips."
Gerbera have much bigger blossoms. The little tags on the pots of the smaller flowers said osteospermum. Duh, how could I have not realized they were not the same with the two types of plants right in front of me! I guess in this case, a rose isn’t a rose – or colored daisies aren’t all gerbera. (Am I showing my ignorance of the plant kingdom?) 

I got the plants home and began research. I compared the Wikipedia websites (among others) for both varieties. Osteospermum and gerbera are both known as African daisies. Osteospermum also goes by cape daisy, blue-eyed daisy or daisybush, and gerbera, Transvaal daisy or Barberton daisy. Both are of the plantae kingdom, both in the order of asterales and family of Asteraceae. However, the subfamilies, tribe and genus are different. 

Osteospermum are in the subfamily of Asteroideae, one of the smaller tribes of calenduleae and genus of osterpermum (perennials) and dimorphotheca (annuals). They are annuals in this area (zone 3).  Gerbera, also annuals around here, are in the subfamily of mutisioideae, the tribe of mutisieae, and the genus of gerbera. This is all Greek to me, oops, I mean, Latin. And this isn’t even getting into cultivars.

But enough of the technical jargon. Let me talk about the physical aspects of these plants. 

Osterspermum 4D Violet Ice
Osteospermum (cultivars around here) grow 15 to 24 inches tall and can reach 1-2 feet in width. Osteospermum prefer cool weather and will bloom often until the summer gets hot. (In 2016, I had them in containers and when they started to wilt and not bloom as much, I moved the containers to a less sunny spot and they did much better.) Cultivars flower well when watered and fertilized consistently. They don’t need deadheading because they don’t set seed easily. However, the plants look nicer when the spent flowers are removed.  

A Gerbera daisy plant prefers sun and can grow 18 inches tall and 18 inches wide. A single flower grows on top of one stem rising up from a mound of slightly fuzzy leaves. Multiple rows of two-lipped petals tightly surround the head. The blossoms can be 2 to 5 inches in diameter. Wikipedia said it’s the fifth-most cut flower in the world after rose, carnation, chrysanthemum and tulip. 

What’s interesting is that both plants’ centers or capitulum are composed of hundreds of individual flowers. They both attract butterflies and are deer and rabbit resistant. These are some of my favorite flowers and I’m happy to now have better understanding of the differences.