Golden Acre Home & Garden Centre's Plant Library

Group/Class:  Margarita Series

Brand:  Dummen Orange

Description:

Beautiful lilac colored flowers appear all season on compact plants with a nice branching habit and outstanding flower shape; heat tolerant and low maintenance; a great addition to the garden or containers

Ornamental Features

Margarita Lilac African Daisy is bathed in stunning lilac purple daisy flowers with steel blue eyes at the ends of the stems from late spring to mid fall. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its spiny narrow leaves remain green in colour throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Margarita Lilac African Daisy is an herbaceous annual with a mounded form. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This plant will require occasional maintenance and upkeep. Trim off the flower heads after they fade and die to encourage more blooms late into the season. Deer don't particularly care for this plant and will usually leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Margarita Lilac African Daisy is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Rock/Alpine Gardens
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting
• Hanging Baskets

Planting & Growing

Margarita Lilac African Daisy will grow to be about 12 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 10 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 8 inches apart. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. Although it's not a true annual, this fast-growing plant can be expected to behave as an annual in our climate if left outdoors over the winter, usually needing replacement the following year. As such, gardeners should take into consideration that it will perform differently than it would in its native habitat.

This plant should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid.

Margarita Lilac African Daisy is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor containers and hanging baskets. It is often used as a 'filler' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, providing a mass of flowers against which the thriller plants stand out. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.