Gazania Mania

I planted this whole bed last year with beautiful, bi-color gazanias. The mature gazanias are the only ones that survived the year. When I removed the fence, late last year, my 65-pound English Springer Spaniel, Magic, claimed the bed as his favorite place for grazing and rolling around (and around and around). Also, the large purple sage to the left of the gazania bed gets even larger over the summer. Last year, it spread nearly a third of the way into the gazania bed, depriving all the gazania babies of their light and space. The final insult was the weeds, centipede grass, that choked other plants. (The grass is what Magic was grazing for -- too bad he wasn't pulling it up by the roots.)

So, last week I did the best I could to dig up the weeds, although they'll come back, as they're embedded in the gazanias that survived the year. Then I went on an epic, 3-day, 90-mile Quest to find the exact same variety of gazanias. I covered just about every nursery and hardware store in the San Fernando Valley, then drove through Simi Valley, Somis, and Camarillo. They were nowhere to be found. I don't understand, because last year that variety was everywhere.

I had to admit defeat and go to Plan B: fill the empty spaces with compatible colors and patterns:

They all look fairly similar in this picture, but the original gazanias have a silver leaf, and more contrast between the two colors, red-orange and orange-yellow.

New Gazania

Original Gazania

(You might notice a few pink-ish flowers in there. They are from last year's planting. The flats were supposed to be one variety, the red and orange, but a few pink ones snuck in. Also, the ugly chicken wire is to keep the dogs out. Unfortunately, it seems I will have to keep the ugly chicken wire until the house is ready to be sold.)

The rest of the bed, and the extra strip in front, were not planted at all last year. Only one of the gazanias in those sections is blooming. It's a third variety; the flower is more yellow, with an orange stripe down the middle.












Apropos, that little plant you see in the left corner of the first picture (above), next to the sage, is yellow yarrow. That used to be a large plant that was on the other side of the sage. But over time, even it succumbed to the shadow of the Mighty Sage.

Last year, before I planted Gazania 1.0, I removed a small yarrow root that seemed to have some life in it, and I planted it in a pot. For a while last year, the pot also was covered by the sage -- Poor yarrow, struggling to live! -- but it still managed to grow into a small plant that looks rather healthy. If I'm lucky, and if I control the Monster Sage, I may have a nice yellow yarrow bush next year.

By the way, the grass is really thick and tall. It hasn't even been a week since it was last mowed, but we've had a lot of rain this year, and I added new seed and fertilizer last month, so the lawn has been growing several inches every week. I think it will settle down this summer, when it's hotter and dryer.