Greetings, caretaker. We are the African Daisies, a vibrant chorus of *Osteospermum* reaching for your sun. To help us sing our brightest song of blooms in your American soil, we require a specific nutritional cadence. Our needs change with our life cycle and the seasons you experience here. Listen closely to our schedule.
Before any fertilizer touches our roots, the stage must be set. We hail from well-drained, slightly acidic to neutral soils. American clay is often too dense and alkaline for our liking. Amend your native soil with generous amounts of compost or well-rotted manure. This provides a gentle, slow-release nutrient base and dramatically improves drainage. A soil test is the best gift you can give us; it will tell you the pH (we prefer 5.5 to 6.5) and any specific deficiencies we might face in your local earth.
As the frost recedes and our new growth emerges in spring, we are ravenous for energy. This is the time for the most important feeding. As you plant us or as we wake up, work a balanced, granular fertilizer into the soil around our base. Look for a formula with equal parts Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K), such as a 10-10-10 or 14-14-14. The nitrogen fuels our lush, green foliage, the phosphorus strengthens our root systems for a strong season ahead, and the potassium promotes overall plant health and bud formation. Water this in thoroughly.
Our goal is to flower profusely from late spring straight through fall. To sustain this incredible effort, we need consistent, but lighter, feedings. Once we begin to set buds, switch to a liquid fertilizer applied every 4-6 weeks. We now crave more phosphorus to fuel our spectacular floral show. A fertilizer where the middle number (Phosphorus) is higher is ideal—think a 5-10-5 or a 10-20-10 formula. This encourages continuous blooming rather than excessive leaf production. Please, do not overfeed us in the summer heat; a light, consistent diet is far better than a heavy one that can burn our roots and stress us.
As the days shorten and the air cools in late autumn, our energy shifts from blooming to preparing for dormancy or, in warmer zones, slowing down. You must cease fertilization approximately 6-8 weeks before your first expected frost date. Feeding us too late encourages tender new growth that will be severely damaged by the cold, weakening us overall. Our systems need to harden off and rest. A final top-dressing of compost around our crown can provide a gentle, protective blanket of nutrients that will slowly break down and be ready for us when we reawaken.
