How to Grow Everlasting Daisies in Australia

Everlasting daisy (Xerochrysum bracteatum, formerly Helichrysum bracteatum) is an Australian native of the daisy family, Asteraceae, grown for papery flowers that keep their colour. The colour is carried by stiff bracts (modified leaves that look like petals) in gold, lemon, white, pink, scarlet, copper and purple-red. It thrives on sun and lean, free-draining soil, and the usual mistake is giving it the rich, wet bed a hungry annual would want.

Three mistakes that matter

1. Burying the seed. The seed is tiny and light helps it germinate, so seed sown deep or raked well in often never appears. Press it onto the surface and barely cover it, as set out in Sowing Seeds.
2. Rich, wet soil. In heavy, poorly drained soil or part shade, plants stretch, flower poorly and often die young. Choose full sun and a sandy, free-draining bed, and leave out the manure (see Site, soil and setup).
3. Cutting for drying too late. The flowers keep opening after they are cut, so a flower picked fully open dries flat with its centre showing. Cut at the stage described in Harvesting and Drying Blooms.

When to plant

Where winters are mild or dry, sow in autumn as the soil cools, so plants root through winter and flower from spring. Around Anzac Day suits many southern gardens. Where winters are frosty, sow in spring once the frosts ease. Seed comes up in soil from about 10 to 25°C, so cooling autumn soil suits it; under cover, aim for 18 to 25°C. One sowing per window is usually enough, because deadheaded plants flower for months.

At the cold edge of a window, raise seedlings in trays under cover and plant them out after the last frost.

Site, soil and setup

Choose full sun, at least six hours a day, because plants in part shade flower less and grow leggy. Everlasting daisies do best in light, sandy, free-draining soil and tolerate a wide pH range, from acid to alkaline.

They need no place in a vegie rotation. Give them a permanent sunny patch that is not dug often, where plants can self-sow.

Container growing

Tom Thumb Mixed is the selection for pots and window boxes; the tall colours need the largest tubs. Give each plant a pot of at least 20 L, about 35 cm or more across, filled with fresh, free-draining potting mix.

• Watering: water pots when the mix is dry a finger's depth down, which can be daily in summer heat.
• Feeding: pots run through nutrients faster than beds. From 10 to 15 cm tall, water in fish and seaweed blend at 25 mL per 9 L every three weeks.
• Position: the sunniest spot you have, in a pot with drainage holes that never stands in a saucer of water.

Sowing Seeds

Sow straight into the bed where plants are to flower, or raise seedlings in trays and transplant them.

Sowing direct

• Sow on a still day, because the seed is light enough to blow away.
• Mix the seed with half a bucket of dry sand or seed raising mix for each square metre, and scatter it thinly and evenly.
• Press the seed in or rake very lightly, so it sits no deeper than about 1 mm.
• Keep the surface moist until seedlings appear, usually in 1 to 3 weeks.
• Thin seedlings to 25 cm apart for Tom Thumb Mixed and 40 cm for the tall colours.

Starting under cover

• Fill a tray with seed raising mix, water it, then press the seed onto the surface.
• Leave it uncovered or give it the lightest dusting of mix, then cover the tray with cling wrap pierced with a few holes.
• Keep the tray in bright, indirect light at the temperature given in When to plant, and mist it to keep the surface damp.
• Sow thinly and remove the wrap once seedlings show: crowded seedlings on a wet surface can rot at soil level (damping off).
• Then move the tray gradually into sun, or seedlings turn leggy.

Transplanting

Move seedlings to the garden once they have their first true leaves and stand 5 to 10 cm tall.

• Harden off for about a week first (moving them outdoors for longer each day so they adjust to sun and wind).
• Plant at the spacing given under Sowing direct, at the depth they grew in the tray.
• Water in with seaweed solution at half strength (15 mL per 9 L).

The colours grow alike; height is what changes spacing, pot size and stem length.

Care by growth stage

Sun, sharp drainage and a light hand with water and feed decide how well everlasting daisies flower. Weeks count from a spring sowing; autumn sowings flower in spring.

If growth stalls in very poor sand, scratch in a light dose of all-purpose controlled release granular (NPK around 14-5-10) at the label rate.

Deadheading

Removing faded flowers stops seed forming and pushes out side shoots, so plants keep flowering longer.

• Deadhead often: cut each spent flower just above a set of leaves.
• Picking counts: every stem cut for the vase or for drying does the same job.
• Leggy plants: trim them back lightly, since hard pruning of a stretched plant often fails.
• After flowering: cut stems back to a set of low leaves to tidy plants and encourage new growth.
• Plants that live on: in mild gardens some plants behave as short-lived perennials, and a light prune each year keeps them branching.

Companion planting

Good partners share full sun and lean, free-draining soil, or gain from the insects the flowers draw in.

Grows well with

• Other paper daisies and Swan River daisy (Brachyscome iberidifolia): they want the same sandy bed, autumn sowing and dry conditions.
• Sunflowers and zinnias: fellow sun lovers for a summer cutting bed.
• The vegie patch: the flowers feed adult hoverflies and native bees, and hoverfly larvae eat aphids.

Keep apart

• Tall plants on the north side: they shade the bed (see Site, soil and setup).
• Thick mulch and dense groundcovers: fine seedlings struggle to come up through them.

Harvesting and Drying Blooms

Cut flowers for drying when the outer ring of bracts has opened but the centre is still tight, since they open further as they dry.

• Pick in the morning once the dew has dried, so the bracts are dry.
• For the vase, cut the longest stems, strip the lower leaves and stand them in a clean bucket of water straight away.
• For drying, strip the leaves and tie the stems in small bunches.
• Hang the bunches upside down in a warm, dark, dry and airy place for 2 to 3 weeks.
• Dried stems turn brittle, so push florist's wire into fresh heads before drying, or dry the heads alone on a screen.

Keep dried flowers out of direct sun, which fades the colour, and away from damp. Use them in wreaths and dried arrangements, or fresh as long-lasting cut flowers.

Common problems

Tall, floppy plants with few flowers. Plants stretch in shade or rich, wet soil (see Three mistakes that matter); trim them as set out in Deadheading.

Plants yellow and collapse. Roots sitting in heavy, waterlogged soil fail, most often after a long wet spell. Read more

Self-sown seedlings in unexpected colours. Many selections do not come true from seed, so self-sown seedlings can differ in colour and form from their parents.

Pests and diseases

Everlasting daisies have few serious pests; most damage comes from sap suckers on soft growth and snails on seedlings.

Aphids (family Aphididae). Small green, black or brown insects cluster on new shoots and leave sticky honeydew. Hose them off, or spray insecticidal soap at the label rate on cool days. Read more

Thrips (order Thysanoptera). These tiny insects, 1 to 2 mm long, leave silvery-brown speckling and streaks on leaves. Rinse leaves, undersides too, and spray insecticidal soap at the label rate weekly for four to six weeks. Read more

Australian painted lady (Vanessa kershawi). Grey, brown or green spiny caterpillars of this native butterfly eat the soft green parts. The spines are harmless to people; tolerate them on established plants and lift them off seedlings by hand.

Garden snail (Cornu aspersum) and slugs. They graze young seedlings at night and leave slime trails. Collect them by torchlight and clear away their daytime hiding places. Read more

Prevention first

• Grow in full sun and lean soil, since aphids favour soft, sappy growth.
• Check shoot tips and leaf undersides each week for aphids and thrips.
• Leave ladybeetles, lacewings and hoverflies to eat aphids before reaching for a spray.
• Protect new sowings with snail bait or a similar control until seedlings are established.

Tips

1. Rhodanthe, Schoenia and Ammobium are also called paper or everlasting daisies, but they belong to other genera; most are grown the same way.
2. Named perennial forms such as 'Dargan Hill Monarch' are raised from cuttings, not seed; the seed packets hold annual colour strains.
3. The seed needs no treatment before sowing and the flowers feel like paper, which makes them a good first crop for children.
4. The Australian Botanic Garden at Mount Annan in western Sydney sometimes puts on spring displays of massed paper daisies.