Question about osteospermums

Hi everyone,

New to the board. Nice to see everyone. Hope you're all having a good day and enjoying the weather and the World Cup

Just a quick question about osteospermums. I bought a couple of them from our local garden centre and they were perfectly healthy normal plants. However, after much rainfall in May they all stopped flowering. There are buds but none of them open and I noticed yellowing and wilting leaves at the bottom of one of them and also some mould. Clearly, watering hasn't been the issue. Perhaps too much rain caused them to start moulding. Is there anything I can do to save the plants or is the only way to get rid of them? Thanks.

 

Hi Technopuppy. Don't get rid of them. There is always hope. Osteos come from South Africa and like it hot and rather dry. With mine I have put them in a pot in a mixture of half multipurpose compost and half SHARP sand (thats its name). In fact I put every thing in this mixture. You can get bags of sharp sand from a builders merchant, garden centres tend to be more expensive. Do not confuse this with Builders sand, which is soft. Grit will do the same thing, but again its usually more expensive.

The reason for the sharp sand is to improve the drainage. Compost by itself gets really soggy when its wet, and they are not used to that in South Africa. If its not in a well drained mixture I would be inclined to do that now, removing any mouldy leaves.

 

Hi Technopuppy ... where in the UK are you?

I'm afraid because as PeterS said, osteos are from South Africa and like the sun this could be the problem. Here in Portugal they bloom all winter long. It's been a few years since I've been in the UK (in the South) so perhaps they are only starting to bloom there.

At the moment, here in Portugal, they are in not blooming at all ... having a rest!

 

My next door neighbour has them growing wild and they come through the winter very well (just nicked a few cuttings which are beginning to root).

Hers are a very hardy strain and growing over dry stone walling, so as Peter says, if conditions are right they should improve, but there do seem to be varieties that ate hardy and those that are not.

 

Thanks everyone for taking time to answer my question. I live in Milton Keynes, so we have plenty of sunny weather here except during May... My osteospermums are planted in the sunny corner of the garden. Ordinary compost. I guess I'll have to go and get some sharp sand, grit for them to improve drainage a bit because at the moment they are looking very sad and there are no flowers at all. My neighbour's osteospermums are doing really well on the other hand but they are established, so I guess would be a bit more resilient compared to new plants. I did mix fertiliser with the compost when I was planting them and everything seemed to be ok until they suddenly got mouldy and stopped flowering altogether. All I see now is just the foliage and a few dried up buds. Even the potted one seems to be the same :(

 

could be too much fertiliser - so they are making leaf not flower? just a thought.

If they have mould sounds like too much water - do take care, they may not be hardy ones.

 

Technopuppy. Don't worry about not flowering now, as long as there is healthy growth. I think when you buy them they have been raised in a greenhouse and are in flower. But when you put them out into the relative cold they stop and build up strenth.

I have two that I overwintered inside. They have no flowers or even buds yet, but are growing happily outside, and I have no doubt they will flower well. I also bought two small ones in flower earlier this year, they stopped flowering, but are now budding up again.

 

I agree with PeterS, they are sold resplendent and then just sit for a while. In my experience if they are used as bedding (ie as an annual) their flowering just slumps for a good couple of months, then picks up unaccountably as late summer moves towards autumn, when they start to look like the plant you hoped for when it was bought. As for the botrytis, possibly still air around the plant encourages that. They are very soft when sold. With a bit of luck it will pass. They seem to be on the border of hardiness in my gardens, but don't like wet feet in winter.

 

I just walked accross the road to take photo for you of osteospurnam, it must have been flowering for a good three weeks now and will flower to first frost - it has done so for years now, so shows they can perform if you get the right strain!

I have also taken two lots of cuttings from it - one I am rooting in water, the usual in compost, I have roots on water one already, difficulty is in finding non flowering stems.

Forgot to say - didn't get the photo as it has been raining and has gone to bed!

 

Waco, I put six in water some time ago. Only one produced roots. It works, but not 100%.