osteospermum and salpiglosis

This past summer in the UK we saw these flowers and would like to have them here in Maryland. I'd like to know if I can grow them in pots indoors, or else in the partial shade that we (and the British)have. If in pots, I can start in February and take them out in April when danger of frost is gone, as I do many other of my plants.
Also, I'd like to know where I can get seeds, and what choice of varieties we have. We especially liked the osteospermum "whirligig," and the salpiglosis we saw was partly black and very elegant. By the way, is it salpi-glosis or -glossis? I've seen it spelled both ways.
I'm posting this in the General Forum as well as here in Annuals. Thank you for your responses.
"Griffex"

hi there

I answered in the other post

greetings from the Emerald Isle.
Little wonder it's called that cos it's been raining for 24 hours now

Dear Mark
Thank you for reply. I'll go to other post to see it.
Allan

Griffex I would love to have some Whirligig osteospermum seeds, if you know where I can get them please let me know.
I have grown the Sunny Sonja http://davesgarden.com/fp.php?pid=6347
And the Nasinga Cream http://davesgarden.com/fp.php?pid=4820
as well as the Nasinga Purple which is included in the barrel http://davesgarden.com/fp.php?pid=6941

Windsurfer you wont get seeds as Osteospermums are very shy at setting seed. They are propagated from cuttings taken in late summer.

Mark I do have seeds that I collected from the Sunny Sonja, Nasinga purple and Nasinga Cream. There was a lady here at DG that had seeds for the Whirligig last year that promised me a few but never sent them. Most people think that they won't be ture to the mother plant but I know that not to be ture as well, I planted some last year from my seeds and they looked just like the mother plant. As a matter of fact the Nasinga Purple above is from some of my seeds.

thats really good. None of my plants have ever set seed. They try but the seed is empty.

What a beautiful plant!
a

I love them but the only problem is that hey spread and I don't have a lot of gardening space.

lucky you to live somewhere that they can become a problem. Dont you get any frosts that kill them?

Yes I do but they do tend to spread out in the summer months, I usually end up cutting them back. They grow so fast I have to planted them in a barrel instead of the ground.

http://www.osteospermum.com/

This site was very inspirational, but I try a lot of new plants, and Osteospermum just died as soon as I planted it. I consider myself, a great gardener, so I think they are harder then one would imagine. It did not even live long enough for me to photograph it. I bought it in a three inch pot.

The link that you provided is where I first found out about the osteospermums and fell in love with them. Although they do give you a lot of information on how to grow and care for them they don't tell you where you can get the plants or seeds here in the US, nor do they recommend that you grow them from seeds.

you will find that the only Osteospermum that is widely available as seed is O ecklonis http://www.marksgardenplants.com/osteospermum-ecklonis.html
growing plants from open pollinated plants isnt because they dont usually come true from seed. Cultivars are much easier from cuttings.

7 species seeds can be bought here http://www.silverhillseeds.co.za/ByName.asp

Mark

I bought 'Lemon Symphony' in a pot from east bay nursery, the larger and better nursuries should have them. If not ask about special orders.

the 'Symphony' series arent hardy and possibly arent Osteospermums either

That gives me hope, which would you suggest?

I'll get you some seeds later this week and get you some cuttings in the summer.

Heronswood usually carry some. You should arouns for 'Lady Leitrim', 'Chris Brickell', 'Stardust', O ecklonis, 'Joe Elliott' and 'Irish' just to name some that are available.

So the seeds aren't true; have to buy the plant?
What is the best source for the plants to buy?
Am interested in finding Sunny Lady, as well as most of the spoon type ones.
Thanks
Arlene

TLC the spoon daisies actually called 'Whirlygig' are available in the spring from nurseries who supply bedding plants. This is where you are likely to find 'Sunny Lady'.

Do you get catalogs from nurseries supplying plug plants? Ours are out already.

Mark your picture of O ecklonis is lovely. I know that they don't sell seeds for the Spoon daisies, which is the only ones that I am interested in. I have grown mine from seeds and they were true to the mother plant. Not sure if this is luck but I sure will find out this summer when I plant them from seeds for the second time. I wish I could get a cutting for the Whirligig or at least some seeds. It is so hard to find the different varieties of spoon daisies here. We usually get the Nasinga Cream, Nasinga Purple and the Sunny Sonja. I have all but given up on having these lovely plants.

They are there! someone recently said "I cant find ***" but my first search found it.

Why these seeds dont or shouldnt work is all down to genetics. a plant which is a first F1 hybrid is a combination of mixed genes, a & b and cant produce the same plants with open pollination. eg mate one pedigree dog with another different pedigree and you come up with a mongrel which may look like both parents. These cant then be mated with other dogs and expect to get an original parent.

are your next generation 'Whirlygigs' as tightly rolled as the parent plant?

Baa will, I hope, explain better if she reads this thread.

There has to be mail order nurseries who do plant plugs. Dont we have someone on here who owns a nursery?

Mark I have been looking for three years to find them here. I even sent and emial to a couple places that were listed on the Osteospermum forms and the only answer I received was to ask my local nursery to order them. Well I did get Fisher's to order the above mention spoon daisies but not the whirligig. I have done search after search and most nurseries that I have called or emailed don't know what I am talking about.
If you can do a search and find some here in the USA I would be really surprised. I have had everyone I know helping me look with no results.

well I found a list of plant suppliers in 5 minutes http://www.thearb.org/sources_by_state.htm

None of which has the Osteospermum spoon daisies.

http://osteospermum.com/ here is a link to the named varieties of spooned Osteospermums. I would suggest you search for each variety seperately.

look under photo album and then click on spooned

This message was edited Tuesday, Dec 3rd 5:54 AM

Can't really explain it much better Mark *G*

You're right of course, is Whirligig a hybrid or a culivar?

Either way any offsping from a hybrid or a cultivar will be (most usually) an inferior plant to the parents. These progeny are called F2 hybrids and sometimes something interesting results (F2 Petunias sometimes have good colours but smaller flowers and differing growing habits to the F1 parents). In short, the offspring will not have all the attributes of the hybrid/cultivar parent even if they appear similar and therefore shouldn't be named as the parent plant. To get the right plant (in this case Whirligig) it much be vegetatively propagated.

it's a cultivar but the same applies. I was using the dogs as an example instead of using Xx and Yy.

From searching the net today it seems the name 'Whirlygig' isnt used anymore. Maybe because there are too many other similar plants now.

Your dog allagory was much easier to understand Mark.

I was wondering if Whirligig was an obsolete or a UK only name as there are few sources who site it now. Do you know what the new names are?

Cannington John
Cannington Kira
Ivory Fantasy
Namaqua
Nasinga Cream
Nasinga Dark Pink
Nasinga Purple
Nasinga White
Pink Whirls
Sonja
Vega
Whirligig
William

Mark I had mention in the above post that I had visited the Osteopermum forum and is where I first fell in love with the spoon variety. I have done a search there first and they do give a lot of places to get the spoon daisies but not in the USA. If they do it's only for wholesale to nurseries. If you trurly can find a web site that offers the spoon dasie I would appreciate it.
As far as your links above I did do a search on a lot of them with no results. Of course they do offer Osteospermums but not the ones I am looking for.

I also am still looking for the "spoons"
a

I put a link on DG recently to a supplier in the US. I havent got the time to do a net search again sorry.

TLC I know that it is hard to find them in the USA as I have said before but if I do find one I will be sure to let you know.

Just to be sure we are talking about the plant I'm thinking of, this is a http://plantsdatabase.com/go/1923/ to a common shrub sold here on the West Coast. They cost about $6-10 for a 1-gallon size at the local Home Depot and Orchard Supply garden departments, although you usually only find the purple 'spoon', there's a white but I've never seen it offered at the places I go. Note my comment that they occasionally lose the quilled petals, then gain them back; very odd. BugGirl may have had problems with them because they do demand a lot of sun; when we have long periods of foggy weather they sulk terribly. They are also heavy feeders and greatly prefer high-quality compost.

Just returned from Orange County and brought with me a Nasinga Purple $6.29 for a 4X6" High pot and Found the Nasinga Cream at Organic Art in Orange, CA. The only other one that may be available is the Sonya but have not seen it. Whirlygig may have been renamed? Does anyone know?

I am not looking for the Sunny Sonja but the Whirligig, canninton John which I can't seem to find here. I have found the Nassinga Cream, Sunny Sonja, and the Nassinga Purple. I would like to have all the spoon daisies collections and I am still looking.