Common Name: Swan River daisy
Type: Annual
Family: Asteraceae
Zone: 2 to 11
Height: 1.00 to 1.50 feet
Spread: 1.00 to 1.50 feet
Bloom Time: May to frost
Bloom Description: Lavender, blue, violet, yellow or white rays with yellow to black centers
Sun: Full sun
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Medium
Suggested Use: Annual
Flower: Showy, Fragrant
Tolerate: Dry Soil
Culture
Annual. Easily grown in moist, organically rich, well-drained soils in full sun. Tolerates some drought. Best in cool summer climates. For hybrid seed strains, start seeds indoors 6-8 weeks before last frost date or sow directly in the garden after last frost date. Optional successive sowings every two weeks will extend the bloom throughout the summer into fall. Most hybrids must be vegetatively propagated however. Set out starter plants after last frost date. Shear back when bloom begins to decline to encourage an additional flush of bloom and to shape the planting.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Brachyscome, commonly called Swan River daisy, is a compact, bushy, mounded, spreading annual that grows 12-18” tall. Hybrid cultivars most often have B. multifida or B. iberidifolia as a dominant parent and feature fragrant daisy-like flowers (to 1.5” diameter) with lavender, blue, violet, yellow or white rays and yellow to almost black center disks. Some hybrids feature double flowers. Gray-green leaves are pinnately divided into narrow linear segments. Flowers appear in a profuse summer bloom that often totally obscures the leaves. Hybrids are generally more vigorous and longer blooming than species plants.
Genus name comes from the Greek words brachys meaning short and komemeaning hair.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems. Watch for slugs and snails.
Uses
Rock gardens, edgings, raised beds or containers.