Cut Leaf Daisy ‘Blue Moon’

Cut Leaf Daisy 'Blue Moon' (Brachyscome iberidifolia 'Blue Moon') lays a carpet of blue over a hot, dry bed in a single season. It holds at about 30cm tall and 40cm across, with fine ferny foliage that all but disappears under mauve blue daisies through the warm months. A Western Australian native, it asks for full sun and sharp drainage and little else.

Why you'll love it

• Months of flower, not weeks. Blue to soft purple daisies open from spring into autumn, heaviest where the sun is strongest.
• It stays small. At 30cm by 40cm it edges a path or fills a gap between shrubs without creeping onto the paving.
• Built for hard sites. Drought, heat and salt tolerant, so hot driveway strips and coastal front gardens suit it.
• Bees and butterflies work it hard. Open faced daisies are easy landing pads, and a mass planting hums on a warm afternoon.

Where it works best

Groundcover and mass planting. Plant 30cm apart, about nine to the square metre. The plants knit into unbroken cover within a season and shade out weed seedlings as they go.

Borders and edging. A single row at 30cm softens the front of a bed or a path edge without blocking a sightline or a mower run.

Pots and rockeries. It spills neatly over a container rim or a rock ledge. Use a free draining mix, a pot 250mm or wider, and water more often than in the ground.

Growing Cut Leaf Daisy in Australia

Position and climate. Full sun all day gives the flowering this plant is bought for. It performs across subtropical, warm temperate, cool temperate and Mediterranean gardens, and takes light frost only: in hard frosting inland and tableland districts treat it as a warm season planting, or pot it and shift it under eaves for winter.

Soil. Drainage matters more than fertility, and sandy or gravelly soils are ideal. On clay, raise the bed 150mm and work coarse sand and compost through it, because winter wet is what kills this daisy, not cold.

Water and feed. Water twice a week for the first six to eight weeks, then leave it to the rain in all but a long dry spell. A light controlled release native fertiliser in early spring is plenty; rich feeding buys foliage, not flowers.

Pruning. Shear the planting back by about a third once the main flush eases off. That one cut stops the centre going woody and usually brings a second wave of bloom.

What to expect when it arrives

This daisy is grown as tube stock and is currently on backorder, so allow time for the next batch. Tubes are small, roughly a handspan of growth, which is normal for a groundcover: young plants establish faster and cost far less by the square metre than potted stock.

Tube stock travels well, with little top growth to bruise. Plant within a couple of days of arrival, water in properly, and expect visible spread inside four to six weeks in warm weather. Plants are delivered Australia wide, with delivery from $29.95. Every plant is covered by our 30 day healthy plant guarantee.

Plant care guides and related reading

• Choosing the right groundcover for your garden
• Browse the full groundcover range
• Compare other Australian native plants
• Plants suited to rockeries and dry banks

Common questions

How many plants do I need per square metre?

About nine at 30cm spacing gives cover within a season. Stretching to 40cm saves on numbers and still closes over, it simply takes a few months longer.

Will it survive frost?

Light frost only. It shrugs off the odd cold morning in warm temperate and coastal gardens, but repeated hard frosts cut it back, so in those districts grow it in a pot you can move under cover.

How long does it live?

Treat it as a short lived perennial, usually three to four good years before the centre thins out. Shearing after flowering stretches that, and gaps are easy to patch with a fresh tube or two.