Osteospermum - This is a gentle, beautiful flower that is widely used in Europe to decorate gardens, flower beds and balconies.
The plant is originally from Africa - the Cape Province of South Africa.
The flower is very similar to a daisy or a daisy, for which it is called an African daisy, an African daisy, a blue-eyed daisy or a Cape daisy.
Osteospermum, long appreciated by European flower growers, is just beginning to gain popularity among our gardeners. However, if you set out to decorate your balcony or flower bed to the envy of passers-by, pay attention to the amazing Cape chamomile. Moreover, being distinguished by high decorative qualities and long flowering, the plant is completely unpretentious in its care.
Did you know? In nature, this shrub grows from 15 cm to 1 m. For indoor floriculture, compact hybrids with simple and double flowers are bred.
Growing osteosperm seedlings
Growing osteospermum is possible in two ways: seed and grafting. But there are varieties that can only be propagated with the help of seeds. The landing of osteosperm is possible immediately in open ground to a permanent place. But in this case, the bloom will come quite late. In order to observe the earlier flowering of osteospermum, it is better to grow it on seedlings. 
Time for sowing seeds for seedlings
In order for the plant to bloom in June, it is desirable to sow the seeds for seedlings from late March to early April. The flower can be grown as an annual and as a perennial plant, depending on the climatic zone and natural conditions. Osterosperum requires warm weather for germination, about +18 ° C will be the optimum temperature when it can be planted on seedlings. Under these conditions, the first shoots will appear within 10 days.
Substrate for growing seedlings
The soil for the landing of osteospermum should be loose. As a substrate, you need to take a mixture of turf and leaf land, humus and sand in equal parts. You can also use sterilized loose peat-sand mixture in equal proportions.
Sowing seeds for seedlings
The seeds of the plants are quite large and are characterized by good germination, so they can be planted immediately in pots. This will avoid the stage of picking, which may damage the root system. There is also no need to plant several seeds in one pot, one in each is enough.
Planted seeds, deepening them in the ground at 0.5 cm, then covered with earth.
Important! The main secret of good germination is planting dry seeds. No need to soak them, it is better to wrap briefly in a damp cloth. If the seeds are too wet, the sprouts will eventually rot.
Conditions for seed germination
Containers with seedlings must be covered with a film or glass, placed in a bright place and the air temperature should be about +20 ° C. Rapid cultivation of seedlings of osteospermum from seeds is possible in bright light and moderate temperature. In the heat, it grows worse, so it is best to place the seedlings on a cool, glazed balcony.
Did you know? Seeds will grow faster and better if, before planting, to destroy their hard shell: slightly split or bite, like a sunflower seed.
Seedling care
Seedlings require regular moderate watering without waterlogging.
It is necessary to feed shoots once, approximately at the end of April, two weeks before transplanting into open ground.
For spraying suitable weak solution of organic and mineral fertilizers. Novice growers argue about whether to pinch osteospermum and what varieties need it.
Among professionals, it is considered that tall plant varieties require mandatory pinching of the tops of the shoots at the seedling stage, which is carried out twice. This will allow a little to slow down the stretching of the shoots, to form a beautiful bush and provide abundant color.
Hardening seedlings
Osteospermum is rather cold-resistant, but despite this, it is desirable to conduct hardening of young plants. As soon as the first true leaflets appear on the seedlings, it is necessary to lower the temperature for a short period, opening a window or a balcony door. You need to start from 10-15 minutes, gradually prolonging the procedure and lowering the temperature to +12 ° C.
Planting osteosperm seedlings in open ground
When the threat of sudden changes in temperature and spring frosts disappears, the time for planting in open ground comes for osteosperm saplings.
Time for planting seedlings
The grown and grown seedlings are planted in a permanent place in late May or early June, depending on the natural and climatic conditions. 
Choosing a place
For planting seedlings choose a sunny, well-warmed place, closed from the cold gusts of wind. Solar illumination is important for the beauty of flowering, which will be very scarce in the shade. Osteospermum should be planted in light, loose, fertile, well-drained soil. Fertilizer is better to make in the autumn, because the plant does not like an oversupply of organic fertilizing.
Planting seedlings and distance between plants
For planting seedlings in the open ground choose a warm, sunny day. Saplings are handled with earthen clod in previously prepared pits, then they well knead the soil around them and pour it with warm water. Osteosperm is planted, providing seedlings with ample space, at a distance of 30 to 130 cm, depending on the variety.
The combination of osteospermum with other plants
Osteospermum occupies an important place in landscape design and summer balcony compositions of amateur flower growers. In plantings, it goes well with sun-loving, erect annuals or herbs, such as gatsaniya, lobariya, bell, doroteanthus or felicia tender. 
Osteospermum also looks great with geraniums, geyhera, Verbena variety Embress red, rudbeckies, cosmeria and caliberraa. All of these ornamental plants have similar requirements for growing conditions.
Care and cultivation of osteospermum
Osteospermum is a colorful and unpretentious flower, the description of agrotechnical measures for its cultivation and care consists of several main points.
Watering mode
The osteospermum flower needs moderate, regular watering, especially in dry, hot weather. In winter, the plant needs less water, it needs to be watered in such a way as to prevent the soil from drying out. At the same time, the flower does not tolerate too moist soil. It is necessary to periodically loosen the soil with weeding.
Plant nutrition
African daisy needs to be fed three times per season, it will prolong the flowering period and make it more colorful and more abundant. The first dressing is made 15-20 days after disembarkation, then another one during the period of bud formation, before flowering. The last feeding is made at the end of the summer. Superphosphate and potassium nitrate are used as fertilizers according to the instructions. Also suitable complex fertilizers for flower crops. 
Pruning inflorescences
In order to prolong the flowering of the crop and ensure the plant to develop unhindered, it is necessary to constantly remove the flowering inflorescences. They interfere with the healthy growth of osteospermum, clogging it up.
How to save osteospermum in winter
In order to cultivate osteospermum as a perennial plant, in winter it must be transferred to a bright, cool room. In winter, watering should be reduced to a minimum, otherwise the flower will die if the humidity is excessive. In the open ground, the plant can winter only in the southern climate, where the temperature does not fall below 10 degrees Celsius. In this case, it is simply sheltered for the winter.
Important! Osteospermum is more drought-resistant than moisture-loving. In the case of drying of the soil, the plant will drop the leaves, will wither, but as soon as the soil gets moisture, it revives and recovers. Stagnant water is much more dangerous - you can lose a flower forever.
Osteospermum grafting
The second method of reproduction of osteospermum is grafting, which allows you to reproduce all the signs of the variety you like. Cuttings are usually harvested in January-February, although it is possible to cut them at the end of summer - at the beginning of autumn. 
Cuttings cut at an angle from the top of the plant. Lower leaflets are removed, leaving some upper ones. For rooting, you need to hold the cuttings in the water for about a month, then carefully plant them in prepared pots with a nutrient mixture of humus, earth, and sand.
After that, the cuttings are sprayed, covered with a film and provide for rooting air temperature not lower than +20 ° C. Rooted osteosperm before cuttings are kept in cool conditions until spring. After the termination of frosts cuttings are planted in a permanent place.
Types and varieties of osteospermum
Osteospermum belongs to the Astrovye family and has a large number of species and varieties - annual and perennial. The most common type is Ekton osteosperm. It is a well-branched perennial shrub with a massive stem that is cultivated in temperate climates. 
Breeders have taken this species as a basis to bring new hybrid varieties, the most popular of them:
- Buttermilk - pale yellow flowers and bright green leaves;
- Silver Sparkler - white inflorescences, leaves green with white splashes;
- Congo - one of the most beautiful types of osteospermum, which has bright pink-purple flowers;
- Zulu - flowers of a light yellow shade;
- Sky and ice - charming variety with unusual white flowers with a blue rim;
- Volta - a variety of chameleon flowers that change their color from lilac-pink to white;
- Bamba - also a chameleon variety, the flowers of which, on the contrary, change from white to purple;
- Pemba - a unique flower, the petals of which are twisted up to half;
- Sandy pink - plants, pink petals, tongues which are like a spoon;
- Starry ice - a little more than half a meter high, these flowers have unusual petals, reed halos which are white on top and below are gray-blue, with each tongue folded along in half.
Landscape designers and amateur flower growers often grow low-growing varieties of osteospermum in a flower bed. The most demanded of them is the Eklon osteosperm cultivar with low-growing bushes. This includes the popular Peshn series, which is characterized by abundant color and low bushes (up to 30 cm). These flowers are very compact, which gives vent to imagination in the combination of planting and grow well in containers. Particularly attractive varieties with spoon-like petals: Gnome Salmon and Pink Lace. 
Another common type of this plant is osteosperm. Pleasant. This, too, like Eclona, is a base species that laid the foundation for new hybrid varieties. The inflorescences of this species are chameleons, they can acquire various colors and shades: white, pink, purple, violet, blue. Famous varieties of this species - Lady Leytrim - white flowers; Buttermilk - pale yellow, lightening to the base; and the Bengal fire - unusual flowers, with petals on the front side white, and with the reverse - blue.
