The Gerbera flower is the fifth most popular flower in the world. They were grown in North America in the early 1920s while the Netherlands produces almost 900 million of these flowers per year.
Gerbera flowers belong to the Asteraceae family, the same family of sunflowers and daises. Hybrids come from a cross of the jamesonii and the viridifolia species.
Like sunflowers, they follow the direction of the sun from East to West. They make excellent cut flowers because of their vase life which lasts for up to two weeks after being cut.
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Types
Double Gerbera Daisies
These double-petaled flowers include not only doubles, but crested and full-crested varieties. They have one or more rows of petals, called ray flowers, and a compact group of disk flowers in the center. The rows make the daisies look very round and attractive, and all double Gerbera daisies have a dense, full look.
Gerbera Apricot
Native to South Africa, this is the perfect ornamental plant and is quite large, enjoying a beautiful apricot-pink color, petals that are trimmed in light-yellow with golden-yellow centers.
It looks beautiful in vases or containers, and it thrives best in full sun and soil that is moist and well-drained.
Gerbera aurantiaca
This daisy is a bit different than others, with long, pointed petals that are bright-red in color and a dark center, and its large, bright-green leaves add the perfect touch to its overall appearance.
They do best in moist but well-drained soil, an eye-catching ornamental plant that looks great in containers and pots.
Gerbera hybrida (Gerbera Fiction Beige with Pink Centric)
With beautiful, creamy, whitish-beige colored petals and striking flushes of raspberry-pink throughout each petal, this plant grows just 1 foot high and is both sturdy and compact. Perfect for containers and bouquets, it also makes a great accent plant or border for your garden.
Gerbera hybrida (Orange Gerbera Daisy)
In striking bright-orange, this flower is large and showy, and, depending on your growing zone, it is classified as a perennial and an ornamental plant.
The plant stays at about 1 foot in height. It is stunning when placed in a vase or bouquet, and its bright-orange petals always demand attention, regardless of where they are planted.
Gerbera hybrida (Orange Spider Gerbera)
These petals are pointed at the tips and have a light coral-orange color, soft-yellow flushes close to the center, and a center that is shades of brown and orange.
Its very narrow petals are truly elegant, and the plant can grow about 1 foot in height. It also does best in full sun and moist but well-drained soil.
Gerbera hybrida
Perfect for vases and bouquets, this flower has bright golden-yellow petals with light-yellow trim complemented by a light yellow-green center and large, bright-green leaves. The flowers get up to 4 inches in width, and it is an evergreen originating in India.
Gerbera hybrida
With deep-maroon petals that are slender and spikey, this flower is complemented by a beautiful black center and has bright-green leaves to accent the colors of the petals.
This plant is a compact, strong evergreen that gets up to 1 foot high and looks stunning as a cut flower. It is easy to grow and prefers full sun or partial shade.
Gerbera jamesonii souvenir
With beautiful, coral-orange petals and brownish-yellow centers, this gerbera grows up to 1 foot in height and is easy to grow.
Its large blooms are truly eye-catching, and if you want something that looks great in a vase or large pot, this is the flower to choose. It also has large, bright-green flowers, so the entire plant is just gorgeous.
Gerbera jamesonii Transvaal daisy
With striking bright-orange petals and trim that is yellow in color, this flower is a native of South Africa and is a tender perennial with petals that are quite large.
It looks great in containers and pots, and its bright-green leaves perfectly complement its extraordinary petals, making it a very popular favorite among gardeners.
Gerbera jamesonii
Native to South Africa, this flower has sparse, very slender petals that are bright-red in color and quite large.
It makes a beautiful border, mainly because of its striking shade of red, and it looks great in vases and containers as well. A tender perennial plant, this variety does best in moist soil and full sun.
Gerbera Red and Yellow Variegated Lalbagh
Like its name suggests, this type of Gerbera daisy has fiery orange-red petals that include a layer of bright-yellow near its center, which is dark and really shows off the rest of the flower.
Perfect for containers and vases, it is sturdy and strong, and it has oval, bright-green leaves for an added attention-grabbing effect.
Gerbera Spider Daisy
This flower has sparse, spider-like flowers in a beautiful shade of yellow that get up to 3.5 inches in width.
It is an ornamental plant that looks beautiful as a cut flower, and its large, bright-green leaves make the yellow color stand out even more. It gets up to 1 foot high and does best in full sun or partial shade.
Gerbera White
This plant grows up to 1 foot in height and has creamy-white petals and a small circle of ivory-yellow petals that surround a dark center.
It is a perennial that grows quite large and does best in full sun or partial shade. It makes a perfect bedding plant and looks smashing in vases and containers, not to mention bouquets.
Gerbera x hybrida (Gerbera Pink, Transvaal Daisy)
Also called a Pink Gerbera Daisy, its bright-pink petals are highlighted by a very dark center that makes it very eye-catching and unique. It is native to South Africa and needs plenty of sun, and it is an ornamental perennial that looks spectacular in vases and bouquets.
Gerbera x hybrida (Gerbera Red)
Native to South Africa, this flower’s cheery, bright-red petals are certain to catch your attention, especially with its dark centers that perfectly complement those petals.
Also called the Transvaal Daisy, its striking colors and bright-green foliage make it the perfect addition to any garden, and it looks extraordinary in bouquets.
Gerbera x hybrida (Pink Elegance Gerbera)
This flower has very large, showy petals that form a lower level of long, elegant-looking petals that is topped with shorter petals. The rose-pink in the petals looks fantastic next to their yellow-green center, and they look great in bouquets and vases, as well as borders and pots.
Gerbera x hybrida (Pink Gerbera Daisy 2017)
Getting up to 1 foot in height, this type of daisy is compact, strong, and has beautiful dark-green leaves that will catch your attention as much as the flowers themselves do. With layers of pink petals and a dark center, they look great in containers and vases, as well as pots and bouquets.
Gerbera x hybrida (Pink Gerbera Daisy Germini)
A tender perennial plant, its petals are bright-pink with light-yellow trim around each petal, and its center is a flash of bright-pink and yellow mixed together. It can also be a deeper pink or hot-pink color, and it makes a beautiful cut flower for vases, containers, and pots.
Gerbera x hybrida (Red Gerbera Daisy)
This is certainly one of the showiest and most attractive daisy plants in existence, with slender, bright-red petals, tiny spikes of bright-white near the center and a very dark middle.
Native to South Africa, it has large, bright-green leaves that are perfect complements to the flower itself, and it looks great in pots and containers.
Gerbera x hybrida (White Gerbera)
A tender perennial plant, this flower is delicate-looking and creamy-white in color, and it has soft-pink trim around each petal and soft-pink flushes near the center.
It grows up to 1 foot in height, and it is a great plant to include anywhere you want to call attention to, including borders, bouquets, and specimen plants.
Gerbera x hybrida (Yellow Gerbera Daisy)
Growing up to 1 foot in height, the petals on this flower are bright golden-yellow and very large and showy. The petals are pointed and spiky, and the plant itself gets up to 1 foot in height. Looking great in bouquets and vases, the Yellow Gerbera is truly a stunning sight to see.
Gerbera x hybrida
Growing up to 12 inches high, this flower is also known as the Salmon Pink Gerbera because of its color, and it has creamy-white tips, smaller like petals in the center surrounding a beautiful green middle.
It is compact and strong, and it looks stunning in vases and containers, not to mention bouquets and borders.
Orange Spider Daisy
With slender, spiky petals in bright-orange and an orange-and-yellow center, this is a very noticeable flower that has large, bright-green leaves that top off its striking appearance. It gets up to 1 foot in height and is easy to grow, especially if you keep the soil moist and give it plenty of sun.
Quilled Gerbera Daisies
Much like the name suggests, these flowers have petals shaped like porcupine quills, which are longer and somewhat thinner than petals on other types of Gerberas.
They are sometimes called spider daisies, and the petals have a very distinct, unique look. They are spiky petals that overlap and protrude straight out, and once you see what they look like, you’ll never forget them.
Single Gerbera Daisies
This is the largest category of Gerbera daisies, and consists of long, thin petals that surround a smaller ring of disk-shaped flowers that are even smaller.
Very popular in home gardens, they grow best in zones 9-11 and thrive in full sun and moist soil. They also come in a wide variety of colors.
Interesting Facts about the Gerbera Daisy
- The flower is named after the German physician and botanist Trauggott Gerber, who did most of his work in the 1700s.
- Although this is surprising to some people, the plant actually originated in Africa, and if you go there today you can still find varieties of the flower growing in the wild.
- There is no such thing as a blue Gerbera daisy. They are grown in colors that include almost every color of the rainbow, except for the color blue. If you find a Gerbera daisy that is blue in color, it is certainly an artificially created flower.
- The width of the petals can be either small or large, depending on the variety. Some flowers are 3 inches wide, while others can be 5 inches or wider, so the size of the Gerbera daisy varies greatly depending on the type you’re buying.
- If you love cut flowers in vases and bouquets but get frustrated because they never seem to last as long as you’d like, you should definitely consider growing Gerbera daisies. When it comes to cutting them and placing them in containers, the Gerbera daisy lasts much longer than almost any other plant you might consider, and gardeners always appreciate this long display life.
- As far as flowers that are used in vases and containers go, the Gerbera daisy is the fifth-most used one. They come behind roses, carnations, chrysanthemums, and tulips, most likely because of how beautiful they are and how long they last – up to 14 days.
- The Gerbera daisy is a very smart flower; in fact, throughout its lifespan it has developed a unique mechanism that protects it from various fungal diseases, which means this is one ailment you won’t have to worry about when you plant these types of flowers.
- The Gerbera daisy comes from a very large family, as there are currently more than 40 species of the plant worldwide. If you like the flower but love variety as well, these are definitely flowers you’ll want to consider growing.
- Although its look can fool you into thinking otherwise, the Gerbera daisy is actually a group of hundreds of flowers of all different sizes. It may look just like one big flower head, but it is actually a cluster of hundreds of blossoms, which contributes to its dense, full look and therefore its beauty.
- The Gerbera daisy is actually used in many scientific studies. For instance, the flowers have been used in the past as model organisms when flower formations have been studied.
- The Gerbera daisy has health benefits as well as beauty. When it’s nighttime, the flower produces oxygen and gets rid of toxins that are found in the air. Some people even place one of these plants on their nightstand, because it does a great job helping them sleep.