encouraging gazanias to produce more flowers

Question

How can I encourage my gazanias to produce more flowers? They have great foliage, and propagate well. But not nearly as many flowers as they used to have. The gazanias are about 8-10 years old and used to flower a lot. But just a few flowers now.

Answer 1

Poor flowering on gazanias can be attributed to too much nitrogen (which promotes healthy foliage at the expense of flower production), not removing flowers as they start to fade (energy diverted into seeding rather than flowering), insufficient lighting, etc. However, given the age of your plant, I suspect the problem may be due to overcrowding. Gazanias have a tendency to become crowded after a few years. In this case you should dig up and divide into clumps to re-plant.