How to Plant Osteospermum

Osteospermum is a botanical group with 70 species of annual and perennial African daisies, including Cape daisy, South African daisy and sunscape daisy. The different species of flowers vary from each other in size — from 6 inches to 2 1/2 feet — and in color — yellow, peach, purple and pink as well as others. Nurseries propagate osteospermum from root cuttings, which they then sell to you for transplanting to pots.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

• Soilless potting mix
• Planters, various sizes
• Shears

1. Purchase nursery transplants and a soilless potting mix at the garden shop. Read the description of each plant variety to choose one that meets your preferences. Soilless mixes that contain any combination of peat, perlite, sand, vermiculite and bark are good options.

2. Add potting mix to your containers, leaving enough space to plant your seedlings at the same depth as they grew in the nursery flats. Choose a pot size according to how many seedlings you plan to put in it. Only one transplant should go in 4-inch containers. Six-inch pots are large enough for two plants. Increase the size of the planter as you increase the number of daisies per pot.

3. Transplant the flowers, spacing them 1 to 3 inches apart. Finish filling the planters with potting mix. Pat the soil around the plants with your hands to remove air pockets.

4. Irrigate your new transplants until the soil surface is evenly moist and water runs out of the pot’s drainage holes. Water osteospermum again as soon as the soil surface becomes dry. Continue to follow this irrigation schedule to prevent either a soggy or a completely dry environment.

5. Move your seedlings to a temperature-controlled environment and maintain it at 70 degrees Fahrenheit at night for four weeks. During the day, the plants require intense light.

6. Cut the plants back to a height of 1 1/2 inches two weeks after transplanting them.

7. Lower the night temperature to 45 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit one month after transplanting. Cool temperatures encourage osteospermum plants to bloom.

Tips & Warnings

• Dip cuttings in rooting hormone and plant them in soilless potting mix to propagate osteospermum at home.