The Gloriosa Daisy is my favorite garden flower. I plant them in a mass to get the full effect of their brilliant displays of yellow and orange flowers which bloom from mid July until the first frost. Individual plants and groups of a few plants are beautiful, too.

Plants can grow to several feet. I usually support them with green twine and stakes so they don’t become twisted. To get a bushy plant, just pinch the stem.

Gloriosas like full sun but do well in partial sun. They require watering in the hot and dry mid and late summer months.

Once you have established a bed of Gloriosas, you will be rolling in seeds. When the flower heads dry, clip and put them in a paper bag. Occasionally shake the bag and you’ll see hundreds of small black seeds.

If you don’t want to collect seed, just let them disperse round the plant. Next year you’ll have plenty of seedlings. And you can buy plants to add new genes to the seed pool.

I collect seed and sow some of it in the fall to have early flowering plants the next year. I sow the rest of the seed in the spring for later blooms.

I lime the beds in the spring and give the plants a small amount of all purpose fertilizer after they are two or three inches tall.