Gazanias

Gazania ‘Daybreak’ is a bright and breezy tender perennial for full sun.

It’s hard to find a brighter, more cheerful flower than the Gazania. If you met it at a party, it would be striding through the crowds of people, cracking loud jokes here, slapping people on the back there, and generally making everyone aware that it’s there. It does the same in the garden and therefore needs to be used carefully. I’ve planted my tray of Gazania ‘Daybreak’ from Plant Me Now in my two vegetable beds, and in a planter at the front of my house where they can cheer me up every morning and every time I come home.

They do have a lovely range of bright colours in their petals, as this magenta-and-lemon-striped flower shows. They are tender perennials, so many gardeners treat them as annuals, and are happy in poor, well-drained soils (which makes them perfect for my miserable chalk). But you must, must, must, plant them in the full fun, otherwise their flowers will not open.