Gerbera

Family Asteraceae. Family - Asteraceae, subfamily - Asteroideae. Native range - South Africa.

Gerbera is a perennial ornamental herbaceous plant with a small rhizome and roots that penetrate deeply into the soil, leathery basal leaves, and erect bare flower stalks with flowers (one on each stalk). The inflorescence of gerbera is a head (capitulum). The flowers are brightly colored: white, yellow, pink, red, or purple. With proper care, gerbera can bloom with short breaks year-round.

Placement: Gerbera prefers a bright, sunny, warm and well-ventilated room. In winter the soil temperature should match the room temperature and be 20-24 °C. If the temperature is reduced to 10-12 °C, gerbera will enter dormancy and stop flowering.

Care: Water gerbera regularly throughout the year but not heavily; avoid wetting the center (rosette) to prevent fungal diseases. Feed gerbera weekly with flower fertilizers. Repot the plant annually in spring into a substrate consisting of sphagnum peat and perlite in a 1:1 ratio, or into sphagnum peat only with pH 5.5-6.0. Gerbera can also be grown on acidic azalea soils.

Propagation: By seed and by division of the clump.

Tip: When planting or repotting gerbera, the root collar should be 2-3 cm above the surface of the substrate.