Thursday, 23 July, 2015
One of our favorite seasonal plants are “gerberas”. And now the Garden Center Fuerteventura is plenty of these plants!
With its spectacular and colorful flowers, you can not help but love them... Do you want to know the secrets of their care? Keep reading!
The gerberas are outdoor plants of the Compositae family such as lettuce. Surprising right? It's very easy to see their similarity: like lettuce, they have no trunk itself, but grow many leaves around a single stalk.
The leaves grow abundantly and spread. The gerbera has a great advantage, which is that its root is a taproot, ie grows down and not sideways. Therefore, there is no competition for water and nutrients with other plants.
It doesn't tolerates wind and need to grow at least 6 hours of light. Avoid planting it in clay soils such as those found in our island. While it's true that volcanic soil has many nutrients, usually there are major deficiencies of calcium which can be seen as small white spots on the surface of the leaves. The ideal here in Fuerteventura, is to plant them in pots deep enough for the shape of its roots. In our Garden Center we have a lot of models from which to choose for your plant to grow as it should.
This plant emits one or more flower pods in early spring, depending on the irrigation provided during winter. At this point it's advisable to fertilize the soil to ensure proper flowering. It's best to use our standard liquid fertilizer 5-5-5 (5 nitrogen ppm, 5 phosphorus ppm and 5 potassium ppm). Furthermore, the rigidity of the sheath is an indicator of the hydration of the plant. If your gerbera pods bend sideways, it's because it requires a more extensive and frequent watering.
You should prune the pods at the end of the summer, unless you want to get seeds to plant them later. In that case, you should leave the flower stem after wilting flower in the center and you'll find the seeds. But if you decide to prune, use cold water and ensure that it will flourish again. Although it's a perennial plant stay during autumn and winter, water it daily is what idea.
You would like to have a gerbera at home?
Come to our Garden Center Fuerteventura and choose!
In addition, we will advise you about the pots and the substrate which is better, as well as fertilizer and some more tricks for care.
