Blue Eyed Daisy

Blue-eyed daisy (Arctotis venusta) has been one of Mayo’s favorite annual plants in our summer container gardens. I’ve been looking at the growth habit of this plant and figuring out how to create a bit more dwarfing in it (a very early pruning) Next year, it’s going to take its place in the regular garden.

As an open-pollinated plant, we save our own seeds and maintain a stock of seed from year to year.

Easily started in the early spring, we sow them in mid-April indoors (plant and barely cover) and have flowers by the beginning of July. The mid-blue flower centers are quite lovely but the catalog illustrations certainly have been photoshopped to a more brilliant blue (damn, I wish they wouldn’t do that!) The color you’re seeing here is true as I haven’t adjusted the picture at all.

This is a full sun plant and doesn’t require a lot of feeding (excess feeding will give you a taller and lankier plant) Mature height 18-24 inches and space them approximately 8-12 inches apart.

Next year, they’ll find a home mixed into the sunny border as fillers – but I’ll be mass-planting them instead of one here or there. Otherwise, they’ll disappear.