Growing Gerbera by Divisions

 I just remembered that I have not give any update the result of our adopted gerbera that we made divisions and transplanted 2 years ago. It was a success and the plants still live on till today and now we know the colour of the adopted gerbera plant bloom as well. Gerbera or also known as African daisy is a perennial plant in our garden which bloom twice a year in spring and autumn preferring the milder weather. Gerbera is a very drought-tolerant plant. Prefers well-drained soil and does not like its feet to be wet in a long period of time. Likes the sun very much, although still produce flower in partial shade not as profusely as the one receiving more sun. Needs a good air flow and dry condition in partial shade or the leaves tends to be sickly or caught some disease.

 Two years ago, my boys gave me 2 pots of gerbera plant for Mother's day. Since we will be moving by the end of this year, I wanted the plants to be in a place that I can always take some with me whenever we have to move to a new place. So the safest place will be transferring the whole plant to my parents house all the way to Malaysia. I am one crazy girl I know, probably not an expensive plant but reminds me of the difficult days of trying our best to make sure Rayyan be strong until he goes for his complete corrective surgery. Rayyan rarely goes out to public places to avoid infectious diseases. So the garden is where he spent most of his time outdoors playing when he was a baby and toddler. You can divide gerbera plants which has grown more than 2 years old especially if the pots look really crowded during dormant season. For my climate will be winter through early-spring to propagate new gerbera plants by divisions.

This is how I basically did when my sister help me transported our gerbera plants back in Malaysia last May. Carefully lift up the plant with all its root intact, washed out gently all the soil away from the root, wrap the plant gently with newspaper. Plant as soon as you reach your destination. The gerbera plant was bare-rooted for 2 days wrap in newspaper before it got planted. As you can see on the photo above, the plant on the right can be easily divided to several plants with a sharp tool (roughly about 4 plants, probably more since that is just the front). Those gerbera plants were divided before it was planted in my parents garden.

Here is one of the new gerbera plants growing a few weeks after making a new home in my parents garden. Liking the warm weather after leaving the cold winter growing really fast. Some of the new plants has already producing bloom in my parent garden. Growing gerberas by division saves a lot of money and you can also swap with other gardeners too.

Does gerbera have seeds?

Yes they do have seeds.

But gerbera is not a plant that grow easy by seeds.

Not impossible just difficult.

Need to find the right season and requirement to have successful germination perhaps.

I tried several time in my first year in gardening from the seeds I bought.

Not one germinate.

Used fresh seeds from our garden in different season still did not germinate.

I forgot to continue the gerbera seed sowing experiment for more than a year now.

Maybe someday I will continue with the experiment again.

Dividing gerberas

We received some pots containing plants or empty pots from friend who is going to go back to Malaysia soon about two weeks ago. Its been raining almost everyday so I did not have the chance to welcome our new plants and sort out which need to be taken care first. Sunday morning the sun got the chance to shine before the rain came pouring again in the afternoon. I only managed to give my attention to this plant only before I am totally drenched. What do you think this is? We are guessing it is gerbera.

I tried to grow gerbera by seeds in different season before but the seed never germinate. Some resources said it is better with fresh seeds. Other resources said divide the gerbera plants with their own sets of roots intact in cool weather. So this time I divided the gerbera plant with their own set of roots and re-planted them in ground and pots. I managed to divide them into 4 identical plant (they still has the same gene don’t they).
I found this eggs attach on the roots when I was dividing them. Mik said it was earthworm eggs! I was a bit sceptical. Whose egg do you this belong to?

This plant look much better on its new home.  Hope they produce beautiful flower soon. Wonder what is the flower colour will be.
  Our gerbera is cheerful again leaving winter behind. Seems to be thriving in Adelaide current temperature. My Little Potted Garden blog has many beautiful variety of gerberas growing in her garden.
Seed diary (05/09/2010):
(1)Nicola potato seeds
(2) Turnip (Eden seeds)

Upsy Daisy here is budding ~ gerbera

I received two pots of gerbera plants for mother’s day in May this year from Rayyan and Ilhan. Since last year whenever I went to Bunnings I will longingly gaze at the gerberas and feeling undecided whether I want to buy them or not. Well the cheapest you can get for one pot is usually around AUD7. I still don’t understand the reason why I was holding myself back from buying them when my husband usually will comment don’t think too much just buy them. Finally he found an excuse to buy it for me with a good reason.

I tried to grow Gerbera jamesonii (Gerbera daisy) from seed but not even one seed germinate for me. Failure attempt even though I tried on different time of the year. Did some reading that it is not easy to grow them from seed as you need fresh seed. It is better to take new divisions of the gerbera plant during cooler month.
They give me pretty flower through May but stop producing flower in June. Now early August they start to produce bud. I can’t wait to have them blooming in the garden again.