Gerbera daisies (photo by Fernando Montalvo for Gardenipedia.com)

If you’re ever in the need for some really vibrant color in your landscape; something approaching neon Crayola® crayon colors, then the gerbera daisy is your flower.  Seriously… don’t even read the rest of this post, just go get some right now, try growing it, and get back to me in a few months.  I’ll wait.  This fifth most popular flower in the world will definitely do the trick.

For a lot of people who are used to hearing the words rose, tulip, or sunflower, a gerbera daisy may seem like a recently discovered flower, but gerberas were discovered a very long time ago and have been around in gardens for a while now.  They have been widely gaining in popularity over the past decade.  Gerberas were discovered by Scotsman Robert Jameson in 1884 near Barberton, South Africa and the name gerbera is homage to the German naturalist Traugott Gerber, whom I am sure did something important in his life that merited the homage.  There are more than forty species of Gerberas, although the most common one in gardens by far is Gerbera jamesonii, which is known as a Barberton daisy, Transvaal daisy, or just good-old gerbera daisy (which is the name that I suggest you use when talking to your garden shop-guy or florist-lady, at least here in the US).  These plants have a native habitat that encompasses temperate and mountainous grasslands in Africa and Asia.  The plants are usually very small and the leaves look like some kind of leafy-green edible thing, not particularly pretty by themselves, but OK in numbers.  The flowers, however, are very showy and come in an incredible variety of very vivid colors.

How do I get one?

Gerbera daisies are readily available in most garden centers, as long as it doesn’t have a name like “Tulips Only Garden Center”.  You can go to one of those fancy garden centers where people know what they are talking about or you can go to a national retailer, like Home Depot.  In warm places like Florida, they are available year-round, while in colder climates they can be found in the indoor plant section of your garden center or supermarket during the winter and are easily available in the outdoor section the rest of the year.

Unlike when picking a podocarpus, picking Gerbera plants requires a lot of special attention.  If a plant looks sick or is yellowing all over, leave it (unless you like wasting money).  If you’re looking forward to the flowers (and frankly, who isn’t?), make sure that you see new flower buds emerging from the plant.  Any flowers that are already “out” will most likely wilt and die soon and there will be a long wait before new ones emerge.  Your best bet is to buy ones with emerging flowers, so that they open after a few days of being in your home.  Look at the leaves; are there any squiggly patterns on them? (See below)  Check under the leaves for slugs (or Osama Bin Laden) which will leave your plant looking like Swiss cheese before moving on to other garden delicacies in your home.  Make sure the plant looks healthy and is not stressed in any way.  The soil under them should not be bone-dry; something my local garden center doesn’t seem to understand.  Finally, check the flowers.  A lot of these “modern” flowers found in garden centers have gone through a lot of genetic manipulation to become as pretty as they are and sometimes you get some varieties that yield crazy amounts of deformed flowers or double-flowers (in which two flowers are joined together by the stem).  Try staying away from varieties that exhibit this, unless of course you actually like the look.  If the ideal plant conditions are met and you don’t end up running home, screaming like a little girl due to the price (yes, they are a little more expensive than similar sized plants), put a few of these in your garden cart and head home (pay for them first).  For indoors, one or three plants is fine, but if you’re going to be making a border, make sure you get a lot of them as they are much prettier in numbers.  Don’t be like my neighbor and expect three gerberas to steal the show.

OK, I’m home… how do I plant them and what do I have to do to keep them alive?

Hopefully, either you have tools or bought some at the garden center while you were getting the gerberas, because we are going planting.  First, find a full-sun spot (preferably in your yard and not your neighbors’).  What’s full sun, you ask?  Well, it’s that place in your yard where you’re likely to get skin cancer the quickest in summer and makes you happy for its warmth in the winter.  Where nothing (or very few things) blocks the light coming from the sun or those full-spectrum light bulbs you use to grow your marijuana in the basement (you know who you are!).  Once you’ve located the spot, make sure you have enough space.  In general, gerberas should be planted about a foot from each other and other plants around them.  This gives them ample room to spread without overcrowding, which can lead to deadly diseases (for the plant, not for you).  A quick note… if you live in a warm climate area, plant the gerberas where only morning sun hits them or in a place with slightly filtered sunlight.  Otherwise, the plants will appear to wilt on a daily basis.

Dig a hole about two times the width of the pot and just a bit deeper.  Backfill the hole a bit so that the root ball’s top (where the plant comes out of the soil) is even with the ground level in your garden and set the plant in the hole.  Depending on your soil’s fertility levels, either use the same soil that was in the hole to refill it (lucky you!), or use a bag of good quality garden soil (buy professional for less weeds).  Tamp it a bit so the soil doesn’t settle or run off when you water.  Make sure the plant doesn’t end up in a soil pyramid as this will only make the water wash off the soil near the plant’s roots when you water.  Add mulch if you want to (and believe me, you want to), but make sure you don’t get the mulch too close near the plant that it may rot it or make it too easy for slugs (or Carmen Sandiego) to hide near the plant.

Once it is in the ground, water the plant regularly at first, making sure to keep the soil moist, but not water logged, and as the plant gets established, the need to water it will be greatly reduced.  I don’t water some of mine at all anymore and I once grew them in a very dry, Central America garden with very little water problems.  As far as fertilizing, use a liquid fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro® every month or so, except in late-fall or winter.  The cold temperatures may hurt fresh new growth that comes out as a result of your fertilizing.  Once established, this perennial will give you a long life, although outdoors in colder climates it may behave like an annual and die from the colder temperatures (below 32°F).  Cut off old flowers to keep the plants pretty and, for potted plants, plant in a larger pot every year.  They do flower a bit better with some crowding on the pot, though.

What the heck is that on my gerbera?

The flower or the slimy thing next to it?  Gerberas are susceptible to plant diseases or pests, just like you’re susceptible to the swine flu and getting taxed every year.  Expect slugs and leaf miners to be common problems.  You should know what slugs look like and they are easily removable by hand-picking them (GROSS!) or adding an organic (or earth-harming) “slugacide” near the gerberas.  I recommend earth friendly Escar-Go by Gardens Alive to do the trick.  I’ve actually hand-fed it to slugs with good results.  Leaf miners are a little bit tougher to tame and they leave a squiggly line on your gerbera leaves as they tunnel their way around.  There are many products out there that will kill these larvae before they become full-fledged adult insects.

Early stages of leaf miner damage on a gerbera. (Photo by Fernando Montalvo for Gardenipedia.com)

Other pests and diseases that may affect this plant are aphids (kill them with soapy water), thrips, whiteflies (which are a bit hard to kill), gray mold (see comments below), powdery mildew, blights, and rots.  I won’t go into the specifics of fighting each one of these conditions as those are future posts.  Deer may seek other plants in your yard when encountering gerberas as the plant is somewhat deer resistant, but starved-zombie deer may still opt to eat them.

On another note, some people complain about the flowers dying quickly after they buy the plant.  Don’t fret!  Maybe the flower had been open for quite some time and was due to wilt or simply moving the plant from the loving and overprotected care of a commercial nursery to your home may have affected the plant.  The new flowers that emerge will most likely be fine.

Hope you enjoy your new gerberas.  I welcome comments and suggestions, as well as your gerbera growing experiences, in the comments below.

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