Osteospermum fruticosum - Freeway Daisy

Osteospermum fruticosum is a garden stalwart. The Freeway Daisy dependably produces a wealth of early Spring and late Fall flowers in white or purple. Osteospermum fruticosum often blooms continuously through the Winter months in gardens that are frost free. Osteospermum fruticosum lives for a season or two and dependably produces enough seed to generate new plants to fill in for abused sections of the garden. The Freeway Daisy is often mass planted. Osteospermum fruticosum is quite drought tolerant, particularly if you include the seed factor. The Freeway Daisy takes a long time to come back and can look pretty bad until conditions improve. Osteospermum fruticosum is a great plant for attracting the Painted Lady, Great Purple Hairstreak, Gray Hairstreak, White Checkered Skipper, Northern White Skipper, California Common Ringlet, Mormon Metalmark, and the Mournful Duskywing Butterflies. The Freeway Daisy will rot if over-watered. The pinwheel varieties generally revert to normal flowers once they go to seed. Plants will often recover from temperatures that dip into the low teens but the tops will die off. If you want Osteospermum fruticosum as a groundcover it is best to have a garden where temperatures don't go below the high 20°s F. Large bare patches develop when dogs or gardeners traipse through the plants. Since this the Freeway Daisy is often used on slopes this can lead to difficult erosion problems.

Plant pages from the genus Osteospermum featured on this site:
Osteospermum ecklonis Blue Eyed Beauty
Osteospermum Bright Lights * Red Freeway Daisy
Osteospermum fruticosum * Freeway Daisy
Osteospermum Spider White