Gerbera
Posted: July 3rd, 2013, 4:01 pm
| Botanical Name | Gerbera |
| Family | Asteraceae(sunflower) |
| Genus | Gerbera |
| Specie | above 30 species |
| Local Name in Urdu | none |
| Common Name | African Daisy |
| Life Cycle | perinnial |
| Cultivar Name | Gerbera hybrida |
| Flowering Months | all over year |
| Flower Color | mix colors |
| Growing Areas | all Pakistan |
| Frost Tender | Yes |
| Exposure | partial shade |
| Soil pH | tolerant |
| Propagation | seeds.by dividing plants after 3 or 4 years |
| Uses | cut flower |
| Description | Gerbera is very popular and widely used as a decorative garden plant or as cut flowers. Thousands of cultivars exist. They vary greatly in shape and size. Colours include white, yellow, orange, red, and pink. The centre of the flower is sometimes black. Often the same flower can have petals of several different colours. Gerbera is a tender perennial plant. It is attractive to bees, butterflies... here is a detailed note on gerberas by MIKHURAM sb. Gerberas are extremely sensitive to standing water and i keep on reiterating again and again that they should be planted on a higher raised bed with good drainage. The major threat they face is the rain onslaught during monsoon. Consequently the major reason of mortality rate is excess standing water. As mentioned before in my subsection there are two re-known Dutch companies specializing in the hybridization of tissue culture gerberas namely Florist and Shreurs and the flowers we seen in flower shops predominantly are the tissue culture gerberas. They are being cultivated successfully around Pattaki including Gladiolus. Haji Ibrahim of Changa nursery is a major supplier of cut gerberas. Often some of the upscale nurseries in Lahore tend to import the tissue culture Gerbera of Florist company through their joint venture based in India and sell tiny plants around Rs 150 which costs them around Rs 75. Someone recently informed me that some nurseries are again planning to import Tissue Culture Gerbera of Florist around November from India. Gerberas are also raised through seed provided by Sakata and Goldsmith companies. I have tried the gerberas grown from seed by Goldsmith and they their survival rate is zero and most of nurseries have a habit of fleecing customers by selling them gerberas raised from seed as tissue culture gerberas. The gerbera seed of Sakata company being offered in spider form or as Festival Semi-Double is very expensive. Two years ago they a single seed used to cost Rs 13 and now probably the cost by now would have jumped to Rs 18 and nurseries tend to sell a single plant from seed at Rs 100-200. Single gerberas are more hardier and can be bough for Rs 50 each but the flower shape and varieties pales in comparison to the tissue culture varieties. |
- Flowers
- small seedlings
- Leaves
- Leaves
- spider gerbera double
- gerbera double
I have included photos from the 1st and 2nd page of KBW's Gerbera collection of a tissue culture gerbera and single local gerbera to make it easier for viewers to easily distinguish the type of Gerberas sold by nurseries.
Tissue Culture Gerbera either from Florist or Scheurs. Notice that the petals are double.
Semi Double Gerbera most probably grown from seed.
Single local Gerbera
you have got to teach me how you perfected the entry, i am still struggling with the table 
