Re: whirlygig gaillardias

SAdamsGARD wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 3/10/98 7:53:07 AM Central Standard Time, diana@olympus.net
> writes:
> 
> << I be willing to bet a doughnut that this plant is Osteospermum
>  'Whirligig'.  Looks very similar to the gaillardia, but it isn't one.
>  It's white with a pink or blue tint, the center-eye of the flower is
>  blue and the petals are spoon shaped, flaring open at the ends.  The
>  flowers close at night.
>  We have them.  I also found a pink variety that we've just potted up
>  last week. >>
> 
> 
> I have had this plant two years in a row, has to be grown as an annual here.
> The first year it was blooming beautifully when I bought it, lots of growth
> over the heat of the summer and bloomed its little head off from September til
> freeze.  Last year I got some, found one with gorgeous  purple spoon type
> petals.  After the initial bloom, I got alot of foliage growth, but not one
> more bloom.
> 
> Any ideas?  Also, if I break down and get one again this year, and surely I
> will when I see it in bloom, if I take cuttings can I overwinter them in the
> house?  Have two large windows with southern exposure?
> 
> Thanks much, glad this came up?
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
There are several osteospermums that bloom at funny times.  I bought one
last year that was very attractive in early spring, and it promptly quit
blooming and never bloomed again all season.  I kept one, which is
blooming right now, and which I am sure will once again cease.  I don't
know of a specific purple flowered one, but there are a great number of
them, both hybrids and species.
Take your cuttings in late summer and they will happily exist on a
bright windowsill with little or no water until spring.  Osteos can take
cold, but they can't take wet and cold together.  I kept one this winter
on the deck under the eaves.  Nary a drop of water was put in the pot,
and it looks wilted.  But there is plenty of green color to the leaves,
and I know that once I begin to water it, it will take right off again.
Osteospermum eklonis is the hardiest of all of them.  One of my
employees has several she got at the GH, and she is at 3,000 feet in
elevation.  She's offered cuttings back to me.
Good luck at it.
-- 
The Greenhouse Nursery
81 S. Bagley Creek Road & Hwy 101
Port Angeles, WA  98362
(360) 417-2664
Zone 8
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