Osteospermum Sky and Ice - African Daisy

White daisies with cool sky-blue undersides, so the flower looks frosted as it opens in the morning and again as it closes in the evening. On neat mounds of glossy foliage at 25 to 35cm, flowering June through October.

Most osteospermum is hot orange and shocking pink. This is the cool one, and it sits far more easily in a white or pastel scheme than the usual bedding sorts do.

Be clear about the light requirement before you buy it. The flowers only open fully in sunshine. They shut in dull weather and rain, which is a mechanism from its native South African semi-desert and a real limitation in a British summer. On a grey week you will have a green mound and nothing else. Give it a sunny sheltered position, or leave it alone.

It is half-hardy and will not survive a British winter outdoors, so treat it as an annual. It is genuinely drought-tolerant and wants lean, well-drained soil; the usual mistake is watering and feeding it. Deadhead to keep it going into autumn.