Gazania Trial at Suttons Seeds in Devon, 1993 From Garden News Gazanias are relatively new as bedding plants to raise from seed. For many years cuttings were taken in the late summer and overwintered in frost free conditions for growing again the following year. In the last fifteen years seed raised varieties have come along and they're becoming increasingly good. The problem which all the plant breeders are trying to overcome is that on dull, cool days the flowers close up - which ruins the show. This is caused partly by dull weather and partly by cool temperatures. But as well as trying to develop varieties which stay open when the weather is poor, the breeders have also developed varieties with grey leaves so that at least the plants look less boring when the flowers are shut. There were over twenty stocks in the Suttons trial last summer but when I was there the sun blazed down so it was impossible to assess how they would look on a dull day. 'Mini Star Mixed' was one of the neatest in growth, and as well as the fiery colours also had unusual pale mauve, beige and creamy lemon shades. 'Oranges and Lemons' was a very colourful special mixture of the orange and yellow from the Mini Star Series. 'Dwarf Mixed' was very dramatic, but this long established variety was actually taller and more straggly than most modern ones. The flowers were large, some up to 5in/12.5cm, and many were attractively striped; I especially liked the yellow with rusty stripes. 'Chansonette' had a very good colour range with some lovely shades, but some plants were strong and produced masses of flowers while others were small and weak. 'Carnival' was like 'Dwarf Hybrids' but with grey rather than green leaves while 'Talent' had the greyest leaves of all. 'Talent' also had a good habit and masses of flowers, but there was far too much yellow in the mixture. My choice would be 'Talent', which I've seen looking good on relatively dull days on other trials, and which at least has that grey foliage when the flowers do finally close up. And also those 'Dwarf Hybrids', which are also fraction of the price of modern varieties.     First published in Garden News, 23.3.94 Gazania A-Z ©copyright 1998 Graham Rice. All Rights Reserved. All Images Digitally Watermarked.