Glorious Gerbera Daisies

Gerbera Daisies are the easiest plants to grow in your garden, and this particular daisy can also be grown indoors to splash up your window during the winter dodrums.   If you want to grow them for indoor enjoyment, fill a container with soil and plant one seed two and half inches down and cover with soil.  Water in and place on a sunny windowsill.

It only grows as a tender perennial in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 9 through 11.

This plant can be used in container gardens, as a border and in beds.  The plant requires a sunny location and grows to be a foot in height and two feet wide so prior to planting plan for this fact.  The blooms of the gerbera daisy are not only used for cut flowers but also are a favorite of many butterfly species.

While you can buy gerbera daisy plants, it is just as much fun to grow your own from seed.   If you plan to plant your gerbera daisy outside, directly seed into the ground.  To do this, choose a sunny location after a danger of frost has passed and the soil has warmed to at least 60 degrees.   Once that environment has been selected and the temperature is right, loosen the soil and add a good amount of compost and peat.  This combination will help the soil retain moisture.

Once this is done, mark off the area so that you have a foot between plantings.  At each planting location, place the seed in the ground two and half inches deep.  Cover up and water in.  Keep the soil evenly moist but not wet then await your seedlings.

Regardless of how you start your gerbera daisies, always make sure to check the soil moisture before watering.  To do this is simple, just stick your finger straight down into the soil and pull up.  If your finger comes out covered in dirt, then the plant does not need to be watered.  If, on the other hand, your finger comes out clean, then you will need to water.

Once the seedlings have germinated, feed with a fertilizer that is cut half strength every week.  After they have their second set of true leaves,   feed once every two weeks with a full strength fertilizer.

To encourage continuous blooming through the season, remove the spent flowers with gardening shears.
















Tags: flowers, plants, containers, gerbera, daisy, blooming, indoors, glorious gerbera daisies,