Gadenin日本語Get the appThe shape of the year
Livingstone daisy runs on a single warm season. It germinates quickly in warmth, grows fast once the ground is warm, flowers hardest through the hottest and brightest weeks, and is killed outright by the first frost rather than fading away. Everything below is anchored to soil temperature and to the last and first frosts rather than to any date, so it reads the same in either hemisphere.
Two decisions shape the whole season. The first is when you sow, which should be about six weeks before your last expected frost if you sow under cover. The second is when you plant out, which should be after the last frost and once the soil has genuinely warmed. Being late with either costs you very little; being early with either costs you plants.
There is nothing to do in winter, because the plant does not overwinter. Unlike some other succulent annuals it does not take from cuttings reliably enough to be worth keeping stock plants, so the continuity from one year to the next is seed and nothing else.
| Season | What the plant is doing | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Late winter | Seed dormant; nothing in the ground | Sow under cover six weeks before the last frost, on the surface of a gritty mix |
| Early spring | Seedlings growing slowly in strong light | Transplant, water from below, keep cool and bright, no feed |
| Mid spring | Young plants filling their cells | Sow direct outdoors where the soil has warmed; begin hardening off indoor-raised plants |
| Late spring | Ready to move once frost has passed | Plant out at six to eight inches (15 to 20 cm) apart into gritty ground; water in once |
| Early summer | Spreading and setting the first buds | Pinch tips once; protect from slugs for three weeks; then leave alone |
| Midsummer | Full flowering on clear days | Water only when leaves soften; no feed; watch for aphids |
| Late summer | First flush thinning, stems sprawling | Shear back by a third on a dry morning for a second flush |
| Early autumn | Flowering slowing as nights cool | Let the last flowers set seed; collect capsules as they dry |
| Late autumn | Killed by the first frost | Clear the dead plants; leave the ground bare and open |
| Winter | Absent | Store dry seed cool and dark; plan positions from this year's notes |
Late winter and early spring: raising the plants
Sow under cover about six weeks before the last expected frost. The seed is very fine and needs light to germinate, so it is scattered thinly on the surface of a gritty seed mix and not covered. Keep the tray at 60 to 65F (15 to 18C) and expect germination in one to two weeks. Water from below so the seed is not washed about.
The single most important thing at this stage is light rather than warmth. Seedlings raised on a warm windowsill in weak late-winter light stretch into pale threads that never make a decent plant. If you cannot give them strong light, sow two or three weeks later; the later sowing will overtake the stretched one and be a better plant when it goes out.
Transplant into individual cells or small pots as soon as the seedlings can be handled by a leaf, and grow them on cool and bright. Do not feed them. A slightly hard, stocky, blue-green seedling with short internodes is the target, and it will establish faster than a large soft one.
Late spring and early summer: planting out
Do not plant out on the calendar. Wait until the last frost has passed and the soil in the intended position has reached about 60F (15C) at two inches (5 cm) down. This is a half-hardy annual and even a light frost will kill it, while cold wet ground causes rot in plants that survive the cold.
Harden off over a week to ten days by increasing the time outdoors gradually. Plants raised under cover have softer leaves than they will develop outside, and going straight from a greenhouse to full sun scorches them. Then plant six to eight inches (15 to 20 cm) apart into gritty, unimproved ground, with the crown sitting slightly proud of the surface.
Water once at planting to settle the roots and then stop. About two weeks later, once the plants are visibly growing, pinch out each growing tip to force branching. Protect from slugs over these first three weeks, and after that the planting looks after itself.
Midsummer and late summer: the flowering weeks
Through the hottest weeks there is almost nothing to do, and that is the point. Water only when the leaves soften, which in open ground on light soil may mean not at all, and in a shallow container means roughly every five to seven days. Do not feed, do not mulch with compost, and do not deadhead individual flowers, which last a day or two each and are replaced continuously.
When the first flush thins and the stems begin to sprawl with flowers only at the tips, shear the whole planting back by about a third on a warm dry morning. Expect a bare-looking fortnight and then a second flush that will run until the nights cool. In a long hot summer there is time to do this twice.
Late summer is also when you decide about next year. Leave a few plants unsheared so that they can set seed, and mark them so you do not tidy them away by habit.
Autumn and winter: closing the season
Flowering slows noticeably once the nights fall towards 50F (10C), and the first frost ends it outright. Before that, collect seed from the capsules as they turn papery, working on a dry day and tipping the capsules into a paper bag. Seed shed where the plant grew will often come up on its own the following season in a hot gravelly spot, and those self-sown plants are frequently the best of the year.
After the frost, clear the blackened plants away rather than leaving them as cover. They collapse into a wet mush that holds damp on the surface where you want it dry, and they harbor slugs over winter. Leave the ground bare and open, and top up the gravel or grit if it has washed thin.
Store collected seed dry, cool and dark in a paper envelope, labeled with the year and the position it came from. Over winter the only real work is reading your own notes and deciding which positions to plant next season and which to give up on.
Write down the date of the first open flower, the date the first flush thinned, and the date of the frost that ended the season. Those three dates, kept for two years, tell you exactly how long your own site gives this plant and whether an earlier or later sowing is worth trying.