Give Me Sunshine ...

For this week's Sunday Challenge, which had the theme of heat.

Taken in our back garden earlier this week on one of the rare occasions that we enjoyed some warm sunshine, something that is essential if your are to see these lovely flowers open up fully.

Osteospermums are in fact relatively new to most gardeners, and were almost unheard of 25 years ago. They have risen in popularity in the last decade as they have become more commercially available seeing more and more people use them as summer bedding plants, either to put in the border or into pots.

As I said earlier, Osteospermums require full sun for the flowers to fully open, although while half-closed it is still possible to appreciate the different colours on the underside of the petals.

The name Osteospermum is derived from the Greek osteon (bone) and Latin spermum (seed). They belong to the daisy family ( Compositae/Asteraceae), hence their common names: African Daisy or South African Daisy; Cape Daisy; and of course Blue-eyed Daisy.

If you want to know more about them please follow the link below to a great little website that I've just discovered. There you can learn more about the propagation, botany and plant care of this beautiful daisy plant:

www.osteospermum.com

Also for Sight and Sound, what else but Morecambe & Wise with "Bring Me Sunshine" ...

youtu.be/qfXjDELeW5M

youtu.be/toqxJ4jbXaM