If You Think You have a Black Thumb Start with Felicia amelloides

If happiness were made into a plant it would look like Felicia amelloides. It just looks like it is smiling all of the time, and not one of those little lip smiles either, but big fat irrepressible toothy grins all day long. "Felicia" means "happy" in Latin so they thought it was a happy plant too.

Felicia amelloides                                                                                                                                       S. Reeve

If you say you have a black thumb and kill every plant you own, try this one. It really is a "no-brainer." It has a wonderful growing habit. It is a neat and tidy little mound of foliage and flowers without pruning or training. The flowers are either blooming or unnoticeable when they are finished and fade away. This plant blooms all of the time! It is so funny sometimes, I go outside and nothing else is really blooming, but there is Felicia with her riot of cheerful flowers, blooming her head off! 

    Felicia amelloides                                                                                                                                       S. Reeve

My plant is 27 inches across and 16 inches high. The flowers are about 4-6 inches above the foliage which is about 10 inches tall. The plant is gradually increasing in diameter. This plant requires no staking. Flowers are held aloft on strong stems that stay upright. Flower petals or ray flowers are an intense shade of blue-lavender, a rare and welcome color in the garden. There is no gradation in the color of the petals, they are a solid matte blue color, and about the size of a 50 cent piece. Bees love blue flowers, and this is no exception. As a member of the Asteraceae, the compound flower head or capitulum provide an easy-landing platform of ray flowers with yellow disk flowers in the center. This plant is the "7-Eleven" of flowers with fast and easy access to nectar and pollen. Felicia, like many members of the Asteraceae are pollinated by bees also called melittophily. Individual flowers in the flower head are small and their nectar is easily obtained by short-tongued bees and small flying insects, so this is a popular plant! The flowers close at night and on overcast days. Like similar members of the Asteraceae, this plant employs a pollination strategy designed to prevent self-pollination called "plunger pollination." The pollen matures earlier while the stigma is unreceptive to encourage cross-pollination with other plants. It is called plunger pollination because the unreceptive stigma/style pushes the pollen from the fused anthers up through the tube formed by the anthers, so visiting insects can take it to other plants.

   Felicia amelloides with honey bee                                                                                                 S. Reeve

There are 79 species of Felicia in South Africa with 84 species in total. Felicia amelloides is a common coastal plant in South Africa. For a plant that flowers almost constantly it is remarkably long-lived. I have read reports of 15-year-old plants, but five years seems more typical. It is a tough plant too, and one of the few able to live under native oaks. 

 Felicia amelloides                                                                                                                                       S. Reeve

Stems and leaves are covered in short stiff hairs and have a sandpapery feel. Leaves are opposite, variable in form, from elliptical to spatulate, and have entire margins. After pollination, the flowers shrink back into the plant and form seeds. This means the dried flowers are not readily visible while the beautiful flowers are held high. Below is a ripening seed head with feathery pappus waiting to carry the mature seeds on the wind. This plant starts easily from spring cuttings.  

   Felicia amelloides                                                                                                                                     S. Reeve

If the summer is hot the flowering can slow. At any time the plant gets too big or has an abundance of dried flowering stems, it can be cut back to encourage more flowers and a better growth pattern. I just grab a handful and trim it. This is very easy to do. Highly fertilized plants do not bloom as well. Also, this plant does not do well in humid hot summer weather but prefers semi-arid locations with sandy, well-drained soil. It is hardy down to 20-25 degrees F. So if you are frustrated in your attempts to successfully grow plants, give this one a try.

The Raver Series of Arctotis- You can't go wrong with any of them!

I am a disciple of plants. What spurs me to write about certain plants is my intense admiration and love for the good performers in my garden. I feel the need to share with people the names and identities of these heroes in my garden. Hopefully, someone else will plant them and love them as much as I do, and be transported by their beauty, and delighted every time they see them in their gardens. 

This is Arctotis 'Pumpkin Pie'. It was the one that started my affection for this series of hybridized Arctotis.

Arctotis 'Pumpkin Pie'                                                                                                                             S. Reeve

I planted it last year from a 4-inch pot from Gourmet Grown growers. I mention them because they do not use neonicotinoids on their plants, so they are safe for the bees to put in the garden. Look at this luscious healthy foliage! The color is kind of a silvery blue that I find very satisfying. The foliage has dense woolly hairs that either creates or contributes to the silvery nature of the leaves. I am continually on the lookout for plants with blue, silver or gray foliage. They seem to unify a plant composition. This plant is now about a foot across a year later. Would you look at how dense this foliage is! 

      Arctotis 'Pumpkin Pie'                                                                              Photo by Green Acres Garden Supply

There are several selections of color forms in The Raver Series. They were patented by Proven Winners of North America LLC under Amerinova Properties LLC. They were developed by a breeding program of Graham Noel Brown of Nuflora International of NSW, Australia over a period of several years. A. 'Pumpkin Pie' was released in 2004. The hybrid series is a result of a series of crosses between Arctotis venusta grandis and Arctotis fastuosa, both South African native annuals. There are six selections with just sumptuous colors, 'Bumble Bee', 'Cherry Frost', 'Hearts & Tarts', 'Pink Sugar', 'Pumpkin Pie', and 'Sunspot'. They all have a dark eye made of black disc florets and golden-yellow ray florets in the center. As the name would suggest A. 'Bumblebee' has yellow petals with a black eye. A. 'Cherry Frost' has deep rosy burgundy petals against really gray foliage. This one seems to have the most silver foliage of all. It is a beautiful combination. A. "Hearts and Tarts' is my least favorite color, the flowers are kind of washed out looking compared to the others, a pinkish red and yellow. A. 'Pink Sugar' was the one that caught my eye first, it has the most beautiful bright pink flowers with a golden center. The petal color grades from pink to golden yellow and I find the "in-between" colors on the petals just fascinating and so attractive. You can see the wonderful and intense burnt orange of A. 'Pumpkin Pie' above. A. 'Sun Spot' is light orange grading into deeper orange on the petal tips. I also love the descriptive and perfect names for these selections. 

   A. 'Bumble Bee' and A. 'Cherry Frost' photos from Gootsjes AllPlant, A. 'Bumblebee' from Norm's Nursery, and A. 'Hearts & Tarts' from Devil Mtn.

This plant is hardy in USDA Cold Hardiness Zones 9-11. It has a dense compact habit. Silvery basal foliage is dense while the flowers emerge in a "candy cane' fashion from out of the foliage. the flower bud is upside down and curves down from the straight stem and is shaped like a candy cane. It gradually straightens until it finally blooms with a straight stem. As the bloom fades the color fades and the petals reflex backward and curl up. Look at the first photo in the upper right and upper left to see old flowers fading away.

   Bud emerging from the basal foliage in a candy cane shape from  A. 'Pink Sugar'                                S. Reeve   

Here is a close up photo of the felty silver foliage. You can see emerging buds and the dry withered peduncles of the old flowers on the upper right. The flowers wither away and become "invisible" without deadheading. I never deadhead and I still get flowers almost non-stop. It is just a flower-producing machine. Don't you love this beautiful blemish-free healthy foliage? Even if this plant didn't flower, I love this foliage. 

   Arctotis 'Pink Sugar'                                                                                                                               S. Reeve

As with many of the plants in my garden, this one needs well- draining sandy soil and would surely not grow well in dense clay. I grow A 'Pumpkin Pie' and A. 'Pink Sugar'. I am on the lookout for A. 'Cherry Frost'. The flowers open during the day and close up at night and on cloudy days. The colors just blow me away. I almost can't believe they are real, but they are.

    Arctotis 'Pink Sugar'  Bluish-pink grading into golden yellow                                                           C. A. Martin

This plant is sterile so it puts a lot of energy into producing flowers rather than seeds. The basal foliage is only about four inches high and is so dense no way a weed seed would be able to germinate underneath. The flowers rise to about 8-10 inches above the foliage so they are really prominent and exposed when they bloom. I hope you try this plant and let me know how it performs for you.