Pronounciation: Skee-VO-luh EM-yoo-luh

Hardiness zones
Sunset 8, 9, 14-24, as an annual elsewhere
USDA 9-11

Landscape Use: Cool season bedding plant for garden accent, mixed flower border, edging, ground cover, container plant, hanging basket

Form & Character: Variable in form so use named cultivars, succulent, tender, endearing, mostly spreading.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, herbaceous annual to short-lived perennial, upright to 10-inches tall, but at the same time prostrate and spreading gracefully to 3 feet.

Foliage/Texture: Fleshy, stems and leaves, alternate, elliptical with dentate margins on upper half of leaf lamina towards the apex; medium texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Profuse umbellated arrangement of flowers, each flower with petals splayed in a flattened and fan-like pattern, mostly blue to deep violet, sometimes pink or white, all with yellow centers; fruits inconspicuous.

Seasonal Color: In Phoenix, this wonderful accent bedding plant is best used as a "tweener", which means to avoid the high heat of summer and the brief 'deep cold' of December and January.

Temperature: The cardinal temperatures range for best performance is between 40^o to 90^oF, however, sometimes (during those increasingly rare 'cooler' years) Australian fan flower will 'barely' survive the Phoenix summer heat if sheltered from western afternoon sun, planted in mass groupings and well watered.

Light: Partial shade, absolutely no western sun during May to October.

Soil: Amend native desert soils with copious organic matter for best results.

Watering: Regular waterings applied at moderate amounts to maintain an evenly moist soil.

Pruning: No pruning needed, though fastidious folks will want to lightly head back to control spread or pinch to increase overall plant density.

Propagation: Cutting or seed, easy.

Disease and Pests: None

Additional comments: Australian fan flower is a cool season edging or border plant makes a nice floral accent when used by adventorous horticulturist in contrast with bright warm flower colors of many other annual species. It's great for containers and hanging baskets too. Sadly, Australian fan flower is only rarely seen in Phoenix. There are several named cultivars of Australian fan flower of various flower colors including the popular 'Blue Fan'.