Family: Asteraceae
Common Name: New Zealand Daisy

Mostly native to New Zealand, these evergreen perennials and subshrubs can be grown in cool climates on rock gardens where they make fine and unusual foliage plants. The leaves are often silvery and the plants produce daisy-like flowers in summer.

Species

C. argentea, from the alpine regions of New Zealand, has narrow, needle-like foliage and large white flowers.

C. coriacea produces longish, silvery, rather stiff and leathery leaves and a flowering stem that sometimes reaches 1 m (3 ft), with very large, white summer flowers to 8 cm (3 in) in diameter. Many varieties have been produced in New Zealand.

C. gracilenta, from New Zealand, has narrow, silvery, straplike leaves and soft, white, daisy flowers in summer. It grows to about 40 cm (16 in).

C. lyallii is a New Zealand alpine species, with narrow, linear leaves resembling grasses and small to largish, white daisy flowers in summer. It grows to about 45 cm (18 in).

C. sessiliflora, from New Zealand, is a low, tufting plant to 10 cm (4 in), with large, white, gazania-like flowers. The most commonly grown of the New Zealand alpine species is probably C. spectabilis. It has brownish white foliage and white, summer flowers, and grows to 20 cm (8 in).

Cultivation

These daisies must have a moist, well-drained, sandy acid soil in a position enjoying full sun or partial shade, preferably in a climate with cold winters. Large numbers of seeds are released from the flattened, dry seeds of the plant when ripe, usually in mid to late summer. The seed germinates and grows quite slowly. Tufts of well-established plants can be divided in spring or cuttings can be taken from the perennial, creeping rootstocks of some species.

Climate

Zone 7.