Everlasting daisies in the home garden
Commonly known as the paper daisy or strawflower, the everlasting daisy (Xerochrysum bracteatum) is a drought tolerant Australian native for a sunny garden. It is a short lived perennial usually grown as an annual. It copes with poor soil, feeds native bees and hoverflies, and the papery flowers hold their shape long after cutting.
Colours and forms
The colour range runs well past the pink and white most people picture. Our seed comes as Mixed, Bright Rose, Pink, Scarlet, Copper Red, Purple Red, Lemon Yellow, Golden Yellow, White and Tom Thumb Mixed. Tom Thumb Mixed is the compact one, good in pots and along path edges.
Taller forms give longer stems for cutting, and a single colour such as White reads more calmly in a bed than a mix.
Growing everlasting daisies from seed
Give them full sun and free draining soil, and rake the bed clear of weeds before you sow.
The seed is fine and germinates best with light, so press it onto the surface and barely cover it, no more than 1 to 2mm. To broadcast it across a bed, mix it with dry sand so you can see where it lands. Do not mix seed with fertiliser of any kind, because the salts can burn germinating seed. Feed only once the seedlings are growing, and keep it light.
Germination usually takes 7 to 14 days in warm soil. Thin or space plants 20 to 30cm apart, so air moves through the clumps.
When to sow, zone by zone
- Temperate (coastal New South Wales, most of Victoria, settled South Australia): April, or August as the soil warms.
- Mediterranean (Perth, the south west of Western Australia, Adelaide, the South Australian gulf country): the same months, with April to May after the autumn break usually better, ahead of the dry summer.
- Cool and alpine (Tasmania, Canberra, the Victorian and New South Wales high country, the New England tablelands): May in milder pockets, or September once the hardest frosts have passed.
- Subtropical (south east Queensland, the northern rivers of New South Wales): April.
- Tropical (the Top End, far north Queensland, the Kimberley): the dry season, roughly April to June, rather than the wet.
- Arid and semi arid (inland New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, the Mallee, the Alice Springs country): April to May, after the autumn break.
These are broad groupings rather than hard borders, so if you garden between two of them, lean on your own local frost dates.
Soil, mulch and water
Sandy, free draining soil suits them best, so on heavy clay dig in plenty of compost or grow them in a raised bed. Keep the surface just moist until the seedlings are established, then water only in a prolonged dry spell, since they cope with dry far better than with wet feet. A light summer mulch helps, kept clear of the stems.
Flowering, and why the flowers close
The first flowers usually open in early to mid summer, earlier from an autumn sowing. What looks like a ring of petals is a collar of dry, papery bracts, and the true flowers are the tiny florets in the centre. Those bracts fold in overnight and on damp days, then open again as the air warms and dries. It is a moisture driven movement in the bract tissue, not a sign of damage.
Deadheading keeps new buds coming, though a few heads left late in the season will self sow.
Cutting and drying the flowers
For the vase, cut as the outer bracts lift but the centre is still tight, strip the lower leaves and stand the stems in clean water.
For dried flowers, do not use water at all. Cut at the same stage, strip the leaves, tie the stems in loose bundles and hang them upside down in a dark, dry, airy place for two to three weeks. Kept out of direct light they hold their colour for months, for wreaths, arrangements and craft work.
Related growing guides
- Everlasting Daisies: The Toughest, Most Rewarding Australian Native Flower You Can Grow from Seed
- Eight Easy Cut Flowers to Grow From Seed in Australia, For Armfuls on a Budget
- A Beginner's Guide to Growing Annual Flowers from Seed
Ready to plant? Browse our Everlasting Daisy seeds.