How to Grow Livingstone Daisies in Australia

Livingstone daisy (Dorotheanthus bellidiformis, listed by Australian herbaria as Cleretum bellidiforme) is a low succulent annual in the fig-marigold family, Aizoaceae. Grown for carpets of shimmering daisies, it flowers in hot, dry, sandy spots where little else will, and its leaves glisten with water-storing cells. The usual mistake is sowing it in spring, when in most of Australia it is a cool-season annual sown in autumn.

Three mistakes that matter

1. Sowing into spring warmth. This is a winter-growing annual from South Africa, so spring-sown plants in warm zones meet heat and humidity before they flower well. Sow as autumn cools, in your zone's window under When to plant.
2. Rich, wet soil and heavy watering. Roots rot in soil that stays wet, and overwatered older plants collapse. Choose sandy, free-draining ground, skip the manure, and water only once the soil is dry well below the surface.
3. Planting in shade. The flowers open fully only on warm, sunny days and stay shut in shade and on cloudy days. Give plants at least six hours of direct sun, with nothing tall on their northern side.

When to plant

Falling temperatures set the date. Seed germinates in soil of about 10 to 25°C, so sow once the summer heat breaks and keep sowing until the soil turns cold. Plants grow through winter, flower from late winter into spring, and die off as summer heat returns.

In cool gardens, aim to have seed in by about Anzac Day so seedlings establish before the cold. In temperate and Mediterranean gardens, sowings from April on do better raised in trays and planted out. Where frosts are hard, sow under cover in spring and plant out after the last frost for a summer display.

Site, soil and setup

Rockeries, gravel gardens, sunny banks, gaps between pavers, dry-stone walls and seaside gardens all suit it. It grows in acid, neutral or alkaline soil, so pH seldom needs correcting; drainage matters far more.

Leave out manure and other rich fertilisers, which this plant does not need. Where grey mould has struck, grow somewhere else the next year, because the fungus survives on old plant debris.

Container growing

In the humid tropics and subtropics a pot is the safer choice, because fast-draining mix lowers the risk of rot. Troughs, window boxes and hanging baskets suit it too. Use a container of at least 10 L, about 30 cm across, with drainage holes and quality potting mix. The Livingstone Daisy Mix stays about 10 cm tall, so every plant in the packet suits a pot.

• Watering: let the top few centimetres of mix dry out, then soak the pot. Never leave it standing in a full saucer.
• Feeding: from four weeks after planting until the first flowers, water in worm casting liquid diluted to the colour of weak tea, fortnightly.
• Position: the sunniest spot you have, and under the eaves during long spells of rain.

Sowing Seeds

Sow straight into the bed where the plants are to flower, or raise seedlings in trays to plant out.

Sowing direct

• The seed is dust fine, so mix it with dry sand and scatter it thinly over raked, damp soil, as in sowing tiny seeds.
• Press it in and cover it lightly with fine mix, no more than 3 mm deep.
• Keep the surface damp but never soggy with a fine spray; seedlings usually appear in 7 to 21 days.
• Thin seedlings to 15 to 20 cm apart once they are big enough to handle.

Raising seedlings in trays

• Scatter seed thinly over a clean, deep tray of fresh seed raising mix, press it in and cover it with a light dusting of mix.
• Keep the tray bright and sheltered, and water it from below so the fine seed is not washed around. Never let the mix stay wet, which invites damping off.
• After four to six weeks, harden off the seedlings (moving them outdoors for longer each day over about a week).
• Plant out 15 to 20 cm apart at the depth they grew, and water in with seaweed solution at 30 mL per 9 L.

The Livingstone Daisy Mix is a colour blend, so one sowing gives many shades side by side.

Care by growth stage

Water decides how this crop goes: steady moisture for seedlings, then very little once plants spread. Weeks count from sowing.

If plants in very poor sand stall, a light scatter of controlled release all-purpose granular (NPK around 14-5-10) scratched into the soil can help.

Deadheading

Removing spent flowers keeps new buds coming and keeps grey mould off the mat.

• Weekly: pinch or snip faded flowers back to just above a set of leaves.
• After damp weather: clear fallen petals out of the mat, where grey mould takes hold.
• Straying stems: cut back any that spill over paths or onto neighbouring plants.
• Late in the season: stop deadheading a few plants if you want seed (see Harvesting Blooms).
• End of season: pull plants once they yellow in the heat; bin any with grey mould rather than composting them.

Companion planting

The best partners want the same sun, lean soil and dry summer rest, and the open flowers feed honey bees in return.

Grows well with

• Low spring-flowering bulbs: they bloom alongside and share the dry summer rest.
• Alyssum: a low edging whose flowers feed hoverflies, and hoverfly larvae eat aphids.
• Californian poppies: thrive in the same harsh, dry, poor ground.

Keep apart

• Tall plants on the northern side: their shade keeps the flowers shut.
• Thirsty vegetables and lawn under sprinklers: the extra water rots the roots.
• Dense, damp groundcovers: they hide the snails and slugs that graze seedlings.

Harvesting Blooms

Enjoy the flowers in the garden rather than the vase, as they open only in bright sun and close at night. The harvest worth planning is seed.

• Mark healthy plants of favourite colours while they are still in flower.
• Watch for hard, dry, five-sided capsules as plants brown in early summer.
• Cut the capsules on a dry day, before rain splashes the seed out of them.
• Crush them over a sheet of paper to free the tiny, light brown seed.
• Tip out the chaff and let the seed dry on the paper for a week.

Store the seed in a labelled paper envelope in a cool, dry, dark place, and sow it the next autumn. Seed saved from a colour blend usually gives a mix of colours again.

Common problems

Flowers stay closed. Shade, cloud, rain and cold keep the flowers shut, so check the site first (see Three mistakes).

Plants turn soft and collapse. Roots rot when soil stays wet, from heavy clay and long rainy spells as well as overwatering (see Three mistakes). Read more

Seedlings fall over at soil level. Damping off (Pythium species and Rhizoctonia solani) rots young stems, most often in wet seed raising mix or soil. Read more

Few seedlings come up. Dust-fine seed fails when it is buried too deep, washed away by a hard spray, or left to dry out on the surface.

The show ends in late spring. Rising heat, humidity and summer rain end a winter annual's life, so this is the natural finish rather than a fault.

Pests and diseases

Snails do most of the damage, especially to seedlings after autumn rain.

Common garden snail (Cornu aspersum). Snails, and slugs such as the grey field slug (Deroceras reticulatum), graze seedlings and fleshy leaves overnight and leave silvery slime trails. Read more

Aphids (family Aphididae). These small sap-suckers cluster on shoot tips and under leaves, which can wilt or discolour and turn sticky with honeydew. Read more

Grey mould (Botrytis cinerea). Ageing petals, then stems, turn soft and furred with grey mould, mostly in cool weather with heavy dew or fog.

Prevention first

• Hunt snails by torchlight after rain, and use only an iron-based bait, which is far safer around pets and wildlife.
• Water in the morning and at the soil, so leaves and flowers are dry by night.
• Keep plants at their full spacing so air moves through the mat.
• Hose aphids off shoot tips with a firm jet before colonies build.

Tips

1. When the display finishes, sow portulaca into the same sunny spot: it wants warm soil and flowers through the summer.
2. Scatter seed into paving cracks, dry-stone walls and rock pockets, where drainage is sharp and plants often come back from their own seed.
3. Copy a favourite colour with stem cuttings from a vigorous plant, which root quickly in a gritty mix.
4. Pigface (Carpobrotus species, most of them native) and the native Disphyma and Sarcozona are different plants. They are perennial or short-lived perennial succulents, mostly trailing, where Livingstone daisy lives for one season.
5. Livingstone daisy has naturalised in parts of South Australia and Western Australia, so deadhead plants near bushland and coastal scrub before seed ripens.