Gerberas shine in vivid colour!
Their dazzling blooms have been brightening up the greenhouse
For the past couple of years I’ve grown a gerbera in a pot in the greenhouse and it has done very well, producing plenty of flowers from spring through until autumn. The plant is one of the Garvinea series that was introduced a few years ago as a semihardy gerbera that could be grown outside. In mild areas it could be grown in the garden as it’s claimed to withstand temperatures down to -5C (23F), but I think it’s best grown in a pot, where it can be brought undercover in winter for a little extra protection.
My original plant was divided into several sections in early spring and from the one plant I now have three strong plants that are making healthy foliage and red blooms. The daisy-like flowers are produced on stems around 30-35cm (12-14in) tall and they make a lovely display on the greenhouse bench. They also make really good cut flowers
and will last for a long time in a vase. We cut a few of the early blooms in spring and they stayed fresh for two weeks.
Having discovered how long they look good for, I decided to grow some other colours, and purely by accident I spotted some plants in our local supermarket several weeks ago. They were in excellent condition, so I’m assuming they’d only been delivered that day. I bought an orange and white one so I now
have three colours in the greenhouse and they’re all flowering well.
The good thing about gerbera Garvinea is the more you pick the flowers or deadhead, the more they produce. They need watering on a regular basis to keep the roots moist and I feed with a liquid fertiliser once a week to keep the foliage healthy and to encourage new flower buds to develop. They also don’t appear to be attacked by pests such as aphids, so all in all they’re ideal for the greenhouse.