Felicia Amelloides: Blue Marguerite Daisy

The Felicia Amelloides is an eye catcher in any garden with its striking sky-blue and sunny bright yellow flower-heads. It is one of the few blue-flowered plants and perfect for indigenous and water smart gardening.

There are 84 species and Southern Africa boasts with 79 of them. They are mostly found in the Cape provinces of South Africa. It was introduced to Europe in the middle of the eighteenth century and was one of the first species used in horticulture.

It has dark reddish stems and the leaves are dark green, opposite and elliptical, both are covered with tiny, stiff hairs. The Blue Marguerite is a spring-flowering annual. The flowerheads are 30 mm in diameter and grow on naked stalks of about 180 mm long. These daisies do not close at night. Each flowerhead has 12 female sky-blue ray florets and in the centre there are yellow, bisexual disc florets.

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They have darkish brown hairy fruits, called achenes, are darkish brown and minutely hairy. Each fruit is shed together with its pappus which acts like a parachute.

Colour contrast of flower in sun and shade:

**This beauty is an evergreen, densely branched shrub, reaching a height of 45cm with a spread of 55cm. It is hardy, fast growing, long-flowering, long-lived (5 years), and frost- and wind-resistant. **

This daisy thrives in full sun, and well-drained soil with organic compost. It needs moderate water, slow release fertiliser in spring, and little care.

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