Berkheya purpurea, an unusual addition to the flower border

I have first seen Berkheya purpurea flowering in a botanical garden in Germany. I really liked the thistle-like leaves and the large pale-pink daisy flowers but it took many years until I saw it again, growing in the Merton Borders in Oxford Botanical Gardens. By then I had already acquired my first allotment so could try growing this fascinating plant myself.

Berkheya is very easy to grow from seed, you just have to sow the seeds in a good seed compost, keep them warm and moist and in good light. After about 2 weeks the first seedlings appear. They grow quickly and can soon be pricked out into individual plugs and later into 9 cm pots. I plant them out on the allotment when the roots start to grow through the bottom holes.  

Berkheya purpurea flowering in the Merton Borders in Oxford Botanical Gardens

 

The plants like to grow in well-drained soil (especially important in winter) which does not dry out too much in summer. Sunshine is essential and they don`t like to be crowded by other plants, a place among other low-growing perennials or at the front of a border would be ideal.

Berkheya purpurea has large prickly leaves which form a low-growing rosette which stays green in a mild winter. Don`t be alarmed when the leaves turn brown in a hard winter, the plant will grow back from its base in spring. The first flowers appear in June and carry on until autumn, this year I had the last flowers in October. The daisy flowers are very large, up to 10 cm in diameter and pale-pink in colour. They attract a lot of pollinators such as bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies.

Tree bumblebee, honeybee and solitary bee sharing a flower

Another tree bumblebee

Common carder bumblebee collecting nectar

South Africa is the home of Berkheya purpurea, the plants grow naturally along streams and on steep, grassy mountains slopes 1525 to 3050 m above sea level, from the mountains in the Eastern Cape to the Drakensberg in KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and the border of the Free State. Snow and frost are common at a higher altitude and summer can be quite wet. This might be one of the reasons that Berkheya is quite happy to grow in the UK.

Frosted Berkheya leaves, still green in December

The seed heads look pretty as well

There are 75 species in the genus, about 71 species are indigenous to South Africa, and most have thistle-like leaves. Jelitto Perennial Seed offers a selection of different species including Berkheya purpurea. I would also like to try Berkheya cirsiifolia, which has white flowers, so watch this space if I succeed. A few years ago I had one plant of Berkheya multijuga (with yellow flowers) which survived a few years, but unfortunately rotted away in a wet spring. Berkheya purpurea does seem to be a lot more forgivable and I have not lost a plant so far. 

  

I hope I could spark your interest in growing this pretty plant; I would love to hear from you if you decide to give it a go next year.