PlantFiles: Florist's Cineraria
Pericallis cruenta

I plant this every fall even though it also self sows. I buy them in 6 packs and get a wonderful show of color in April lasting to July. I plant in areas of light morning sun and areas of shade with both areas doing well. Plant in soft, well drained soil, if possible. Love this plant!

This lovely evergreen ground cover is indispensable in dry shade. While it is true that it will overwhelm more dainty lamium, a major plus for me is that it took hold in a very shady area and then headed downhill, actually managing to hold its own - slowly - against well-established ivy. I note that it is said to be invasive, but compared to ivy it's extremely well-behaved and very easy to up-root. Highly recommended!

I had known these plants as Cineraria, but it looks like the genus name has changed.

I got a one gallon 'Senetti Blue' yesterday at Lowe's for $2.79. It makes a nice splash of color in a pot near my front door. In my hot humid climate, from comments previously posted by others here, I expect it will only perform as an annual, but the bright color will be very nice while it lasts!

Jeremy

The color that I choose to call "blurple" (neither blue nor purple) is a true eyecatcher -- almost neon in its intensity. If you keep it deadheaded it will rebloom throughout the spring. Here in inland southern California, however, it runs out of gas when the real heat of the summer comes. I've never had any success carrying it from one year to the next, but in late winter/early spring (February) it's easy to find, both in nurseries and in places like Ole's and Home Depot.

Can be grown as a perennial in moist shade in Southern California. However, mine were so tattered by slugs that I moved them into pots. Recently I tried a new and larger variety called Senetti Blue which bloomed for five months as a bedding plant in the shade. It also seemed to be unappealing to the slugs -- a huge plus. Now in January of its second year, it's loaded with buds and about to bloom again.

I love this showy splash of color for the shady areas! I have been searching all over for it and finally had to special order seed. What I love best is how the colors seem to glow in the twilight of early morning or late evening. And it does reseed itself very easily. It is worth it to keep the slugs and snails at bay.

I loved this plant, the flowers are beautiful and it makes me happy living in canada in the winter to have flowering plants around. Beware though ! evil little worms love to burrow into this plants main stem. I bought one and it started drooping within days. I researched it, but to no avail. Once it was beyond resurrection i dug it up and dissected it and found the awfull larvae that had eaten its heart out. I have another on order! But beware your source, i found out from my research that these plants are actually known for getting bugs of all kinds. (especially aphids)

A stunning plant, but sadly the slugs love this as much as I do. And worse, it's the flowers they eat. It's not really an option in a sluggy garden, it seems, unless you protect it lots.

In the late 1960's I lived in a very old house on a steep hill with a large cedar tree in the front yard, just at the fog line in San Francisco, near SF State college. In the spring the whole little shady postage stamp sized front yard was ablaze with these flowers, in wonderful shades of deep pinks and blue-purples. They must have been growing there for years, with some ferns and mosses, all along a rock wall. This was a very temperate climate, with hardly any frost, and this was a very protected spot, between the two story house and the tall tree. The flowers were just beautiful--glowing colors in the fog.

I planted Cineraria Stellata Tall mix, it bloomed for 3 months, beautifull

Beautiful bright COLOR for shady areas.

For the colder regions there is now (at least in Europe and the UK) a new strain with large, vibrantly coloured flowers for the early Spring bedding season (Feb-April) that can tolerate a few degrees of frost and are even upon release for the first time this year, often completely sold out. The trade name is SENETTI.

We call this plant the "aphid plant" because aphids love them. They don't like extremes in temperature.

An old time favorite. Great variety of colors. Self seeds readily and many of the colors almost glow.