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FLIMBY: Easy-care gazanias fill those hot corners

Bright flowers are drought-tolerant sun lovers

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED JUN 23, 2026

Put gazanias where they receive plenty of sun and not too much water, and they'll reward you with blooms for years. Kathy Morrison

This is another installment in our Flowers in My Back Yard series, devoted to everything that blooms.

If gazanias didn't produce such nice flowers, they'd be considered a weed.

Orange and white gazanias — These gazanias show classic colorations.

Also called treasure flowers, gazanias grow in any soil, need little water, love sunshine, and bloom brightly from spring to fall. They also reseed easily, and if not deadheaded the unattractive seed heads tend to hang around too long. (But the plants will keep blooming anyway.)

Gazanias are great, in other words, for those hot corners of the garden where little else seems to grow, and where their post-bloom looks are less important. They are perennials in our region, so don't have to be replaced unless we get (increasingly unlikely) severe winter frosts.

Gazanias are not native to California -- they originated in South Africa -- but have adapted to our climate easily. Introduced as an ornamental, the gazania linearis is considered moderately invasive in some areas by the California Invasive Plant Council (Cal-IPC) for "escaping into creekside vegetation and into native grassland from plantings in San Francisco, Monterey, and Ventura counties, where it can form a dense groundcover and outcompete other species."

Members of the Asteraceae family, gazanias' daisy-like flowers are most often seen in yellows and oranges, but also include red, coral, white and violet, plus many combinations thereof. Petals can have a different color at the base, for instance, or a strip of color down the middle, or both.

The plants form 12-inch-wide mounds, 6 to 10 inches tall. Some nurseries sell gazanias as ground cover, but they also work in containers and as borders in drier flower beds. The flowers close at night so they are not good cut flowers.

Gazanias are not especially attractive to the big pollinators, since they produce pollen but not nectar. Think small bees, not butterflies. On the flip side they don't have pest or disease problems in our region. Just don't plant them in locations where the soil will stay soggy.

Many gazanias — This raggedy bunch of gazanias planted
themselves in a spot next to a sidewalk. They
could use some clean-up, but will continue
blooming without deadheading.

They do grow well from seed, maybe too well: I bought a pony pack of gazanias for my front yard probably 20 years ago. These days I have clumps in six different spots around the front area, and the blooms are a multitude of colors -- I never know which color is going to show up next. At various times I've been ruthless about digging out larger clumps but most of the time I just let them live where they like.

Now that's the definition of an easy-care plant.

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FLIMBY Flowers in My Back Yard flowers perennials drought-tolerant flowers garden color summer June Sacramento gardening

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

Aug. 18: Pollinators adore scabiosa, aka pincushion flower

Aug. 11: Hardy hibiscus adds big tropical impact

Aug. 4: Dianthus a deceptively hardy flower

July 28: Naked Ladies put on summer show

July 21: Thank Luther Burbank for these long-lasting beauties (Shasta daisies)

July 14: How to keep hydrangeas happy

July 7: Grow these bright cosmos for bees and butterflies

June 30: Agapanthus adds blue fireworks to the garden

June 23: Easy-care gazanias fill those hot corners

June 16: Daylilies are perfect for water-wise gardens (and a lot more)

June 9: Grow coneflowers for pollinators -- and yourself

June 2: Sunflowers capture Sacramento's summer attitude

May 29: Are your roses going 'blind'?

May 26: Zinnias are the summer flowers every garden needs

May 19: Plant dahlias now for late-summer flower power

May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens

May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact

April 7: Calendulas do double duty

April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come

March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)

March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots

March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy

Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come

Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers

Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses

Feb. 3: Why grow flowers?

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

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