The cineraria I blogged about in early March has been blooming and gaining strength, topping now over 4 feet in height, coarse and sprawly. These two plants came from Annie’s Annuals, from the seed strain ‘Giovanni’s Select.’ One is a mid blue, the other purple. When the strong afternoon sun slants in, piercing the edge of the smoke tree’s canopy, the cineraria leaves just grazed by sunlight collapse in wilt but recover by twilight. Shade is a must. If I get any seedlings next year, I have to remember to pinch them back. No further sign of scale on the duranta. In these closeups, the cineraria resembles the diminutive brachycome daisies, but make no mistake, this is a formidable, out-sized daisy. One insistently wayward branch has been staked with rebar to keep it off the pathway.
These plants are tempermental little hot house flowers here, but your photographs of them are very nice. In fact all of the photos on your blog are very good, I spent a little time poking around. Thanks for you comments on one of my recent posts.
That was my take on cineraria too until I found this strain. Thanks for stopping by.
Beautiful! You know, the only place I can find Senecio stellata anymore is at Annie’s Annuals. Once upon a time you could get 6-packs from Satake nursery, now called Coyote Nursery,(wholesale) in Morgan Hill, CA but they lost their seed source sometime in the last year or so. Such a shame,such a lovely and vigorous plant that has been supplanted by short stubby little florist ones. Thanks for sharing!
I just picked up some of Giovanna’s Select senecio stellata at Green Thumb Nursery in Los Gatos. They are from Annie’s Annuals, according to the tag.
I saved a bunch of seeds from my plants – I was lucky these were growing wild when I bought my house. Love them. But I am not very good about propagating – I can never figure out the secret of growing anything from seeds.
Hello all-
I have been trying to track down some seed for Senecio stellata ‘Giovanni’s Select’ –they wouldn’t be hardy for me in zone 5, British Columbia, Canada….but since they self seed…..they are amazingly pretty….
I would be happy to pay postage,
Thanks
Hello all
I have been trying to buy some seed of Senecio stellata ‘Giovanni’s Select’ online. the only source, Annie Annuals, doesn’t sell overseas (Holland)
I would be happy to pay for seeds and postage,
Thanks Monique
Looking for seed too, thinking they’ll do great here in Portland Oregon.
I collected some seed from a wild patch of plants in Hayward California.I plan to plant them this week to see how they gereminate. In the past they came back from seed so easily I just let them do their thing. Isam looking for directions for growing the seed to maximize. production so I can share the plants with others too..
I got them from Annie’s too. Could I plant them in a pot?
Hi Dita — I don’t see why they wouldn’t be good pot plants even though they’re bigger than the typical kinds sold by florists in pots. Just allow for their extra size.
The variety us “Giovanna “ not “ Giovanni “ the flower was named for Jim Ottobre’ daughter Giovanna