Other Names:  Yellow Buttons, Everlasting Daisy

Description:

A compact, mound forming evergreen perennial featuring small, silvery gray-green leaves; clusters of golden-yellow button flowers appear all year; excellent for mass plantings, rockeries, or containers

Ornamental Features

Desert Flame Strawflower has masses of beautiful corymbs of yellow button flowers with gold overtones at the ends of the stems from early winter to late fall, which are most effective when planted in groupings. Its tomentose narrow leaves remain grayish green in color with curious silver undersides throughout the year.

Landscape Attributes

Desert Flame Strawflower is a dense 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 is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Desert Flame Strawflower is recommended for the following landscape applications;

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

Planting & Growing

Desert Flame Strawflower will grow to be about 12 inches tall at maturity extending to 16 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 18 inches. 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 is very adaptable to both dry and moist locations, and should do just fine under typical garden conditions. This plant should not require much in the way of fertilizing once established, although it may appreciate a shot of general-purpose fertilizer from time to time early in the growing season. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in poor soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid. It can be propagated by division; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.

Desert Flame Strawflower is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. 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.