The silvery grayish green color to nearly white foliage carries a soft felt-like texture. The shallow deeply notched cut leaves appear as fern fronds. Although best known for its striking foliage, dusty miller produces loose clusters of one to one and a half inch mustard yellow flowers.
Read on to learn more about dusty miller care and other useful information about this plant. Grow Dusty Miller in full sun, but plants will also tolerate light shade or partial shade during the heat of the day.
Space plants at inches apart in well-drained soil and water moderately until well established. They are drought tolerant, making them an excellent addition to annual garden containers. Dusty miller cineraria plants tolerate heat, poor soil conditions, and salt air. Plant in a hole roughly two times the width of the container. A few recommended varieties to plant dusty miller with include Angelonia plants , bright petunia flowers or basil as well as ornamental grasses.
Known as a light feeder dusty miller if applying too much fertilizer can lead to weak, leggy plants. They benefit from a light application of a general purpose, slow release fertilizer during early spring.
Sprinkle 2 to 3 teaspoons of dry fertilizer around each Senecio cineraria plant and water deeply to distribute fertilizer evenly around the roots. A layer of natural mulch helps prevent the growth of weeds. It also moderates the soil temperature and helps conserve moisture around the roots of plants.
Mulch also adds nutrients and improves soil drainage as it decomposes. Add a 2 to 3-inch layer of mulch using natural materials such as pine needle mulch , bark chips or composted leaves. A layer of grass clippings also proves as a useful mulch. If you must position the plant in partial shade, make sure the shaded time is during the afternoon. This will offer the plant some relief from high temperatures during the hottest time of the day, though generally speaking, the plant tolerates heat well.
The plant is hardy in USDA zones 7 through 10, though it can be grown in cooler zones than this as an annual rather than a perennial. The plant tolerates heat well, but in hot climates, it would benefit from afternoon shade where the temperature will be a few degrees lower Missouri Botanical Garden. Dusty millers can be grown from seed or from stem cuttings. To grow from seed, you can sow seeds directly outdoors once the final frost has passed, or sow them inside on a seed tray anywhere between 10 and 15 weeks before the last frost is predicted.
Germination typically takes between 10 and 15 days. Grow your seedlings inside by maintaining moist soil and transplanting them to larger containers when they are an inch or two in height.
Once the last frost has passed, you can transplant your seedlings outside. They work well as bedding plants in borders and flower beds. Sowing seeds outside is exactly the same, though the weather must be warm to achieve germination. Thin the seedlings out so that around 18 inches of space separates each one, allowing adequate growing room for the plants to thrive.
Stem cuttings should be taken from the plant in summer if you wish to use this method of propagation. Softwood stems are needed for this, which should have all lower leaves removed before being placed in a moist growing medium and kept in a bright spot. You may also want to cover the cuttings over with a clear plastic bag to create greenhouse conditions to help the stem root.
Once roots have formed, you will notice new leafy growth above the soil. At this point, remove the plastic bag and wait a few more weeks before transplanting the new plant outside.
If your dusty miller gets leggy, then you should prune it to encourage more bushy growth. Cut it down to around half its height, and it will respond with more growth lower down, which will help the plant to fill out and become denser and lusher looking. If you are happy with the size and shape of your dusty miller, then you may never need to prune back its stems at all. The flowers, however, are a different story. If your dusty miller blooms, it is advisable to cut off the flowers right away.
Also, it might be very confusing to you at the moment. We researched and gathered all the information to bring you this guide on how to prune dusty miller. Probably, you imagined some dusty plant or something like that. Interestingly, it has another name. Jacobaea maritima. The plant is as attractive as it sounds. Well, even being so beautiful, they are pretty low maintenance plants.
Moreover, the plant can give your flower garden a different pleasing look. There are two methods that you can follow when you prune your dusty millers. Pinching or using a pruner. Yes, just your bare hands are enough to take care of your young dusty miller. You see, pinching your young dusty miller plants early in the season, delays the blooming slightly. But the result of this is fascinating. Well, when your plants will be growing in the future, new stems will grow from each of the spots you pinched.
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