Brachyscome iberidifolia, Swan River Daisy

Brachyscome iberidifolia , (Asteraceae) Swan River daisy

This little daisy is from Western Australia and is spring flowering, responding in the wild to winter rainfall and then flowering for about six weeks until the hot weather sets in. Normally the flowers are blue but pink ,white or mauve flowering forms also occur. It is fairly easy to grow from seed sown during winter but the resulting seedlings need pinching back to produce bushy plants with more flowers. It eventually reaches a height of about 40cm and is quite wiry in appearance having only tiny leaves. The only drawback to growing it is that it only has a small shallow root system which means it is subject to wind damage and may topple over and continue growing in a lop-sided way. Easy to forgive this habit as it is such a pure and simple lovely plant.