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Scientific: Gerbera jamesonii
Common: gerbera daisy, Transvaal daisy, Barberton daisy
Family: Asteraceae
Origin: Naturally occurs in grasslands in sandy, well-drained soils in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Pronounciation: GER-ber-a ja-me-SO-nee-i

Hardiness zones
Sunset
All depending on use
USDA All depending on use

Landscape Use: Winter time annual for bedding plant color, pot plant, cut flower

Form & Character: Upright when flowering, exceptionally bright and cheerful, clean, formal.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, herbaceous, short-lived perennial (annual habit in Phoenix). Slowly clumping and dividing to 4-inches tall with flower stalks to 10 inches.

Foliage/Texture: Basally clumping, sessile, oblanceolate leaves, clefted and lobed, pubescent sometimes to 5-inches long; medium texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Radiant, perfect ray flowers (multiple colors; white, yellow, orange, pink, red) to 3 inches in diameter on peduncles to 6-inches long; fruits are a villous (hairy) achene.

Seasonal Color: Bright flowers during winter and early spring

Temperature: Hardy to 28oF. Prefers mild to warm Mediterranean climate conditions. Does not grow in Phoenix after April due to the summer heat.

Light: Full sun to shade

Soil: Warm, sandy or organic and fast draining. In landscape bedding situations, soils must be heavily amended with organic compost, sand and or perlite to grow Gerbera.

Watering: Regular watering to keep an evenly moist soil. Prone to root rot.

Pruning: None, except occassional removal of spent flower heads to promote extended bloom.

Propagation: Seed or division of basal clumps.

Disease and Pests: Aphids, thrips, snails and spider mites, root rot in cool damp soils, Alternaria bacterial leaf spot if weather is cool and damp with rain or overhead irrigation.

Additional comments: There are many bred flower colors ranging from white through pinks, yellows, oranges to deep red. Used exclusively in Phoenix as a winter bedding plant for flower borders close to the human eye. Gerbera or Transvaal daisy is popular throughout the world as a bedding plant, decorative pot plant, or cut flower. The genus Gerbera consists of about 30 species, which are found in Africa, Madagascar, tropical Asia and South America.

More historical notes: The genus name Gerbera is in honour of the German naturalist Traugott Gerber, and the species was named after Robert Jameson who collected live specimens while on a prospecting expedition to the Barberton district in 1884, even though the species had been collected on three earlier occasions by other people. In 1888, Medley Wood, the curator of the Durban Botanical Garden sent plants to Kew, which subsequently flowered. The breeding of Gerbera started at the end of the 19th century in Cambridge, England, when Richard Lynch crossed G.jamesonii and G.viridifolia. Most of the current commercially grown varieties originate from this cross.