Last year I grew some osteospermum from seed. They were surprisingly easy to grow. I planted them in two tubs and enjoyed them over the summer. Come winter to give them a little more chance of survival we placed the pots in the greenhouse.
Most of the plants survived but some didn't which left me with gaps in the tubs which I decided to fill with more osteospermum but, being far too late to raise more from seed, these I would have to buy as plants.
Whenever I don't want to buy osteospermums the garden centres are full of them, (in fact this happens with lots of things that I specifically go shopping for), but the first garden centre was osteospermumless. Fortunately the second one that we visited had enough to fulfil our needs and I bought three.
Although these were much smaller than the overwintered plants I hope they will grow to catch up with their older cousins.
Two went in this pot ...
... and another in this one.
Maybe I should trim back the original plants to even up the planting but I can't bring myself to forfeit all those lovely flowers.
One thing that did surprise me was that the plants that I bought were described as bedding annuals. Is this a ploy on the part of the growers to get us to throw them away and start again next year or are these different from the ones that I grew from seed?
The centres of the flowers fascinate me,. As the pollen 'buds' release the pollen it starts by creating a circle of stars around the very edge of the centre and gradually more pollen appears.
It's all in the detail and something I may not have ever noticed if I hadn't taken lots of photos.
So those of you who said that I had obviously bought something else on my visit to the garden centre were correct and we also bought four mint plants too that Martyn posted about. Having said that I would like to point out that we have visited a garden centre since and didn't buy a single plant - three packets of seeds - but no actual plants. Not through want of trying though - they just didn't have what I was looking for!