How to Propagate Gerbera Daisies by Division and from Seed

Division is the main method

An established gerbera builds up a crown with several distinct growing points, each with its own fan of leaves and its own roots below. After two or three years the clump crowds itself, the center becomes congested, and flowering falls off. Dividing it solves both problems at once: you get more plants and the parent flowers better afterwards.

Divide in spring as growth restarts, or in early autumn while the soil is still warm enough for roots to establish before cold weather. Do not divide a plant that is in heavy flower, and do not divide in the heat of midsummer, when a plant with reduced roots struggles to keep its leaves supplied.

The right size for a division is one with at least two or three healthy leaves and a visible cluster of its own roots. Smaller fragments will sometimes take but sit still for a season. A large clump usually gives three or four good divisions and a handful of pieces not worth keeping.

1. Lift the whole plant Water the day before, then lift the clump with a fork, taking as much root as you can. Shake off enough soil to see the crown clearly.
2. Find the natural divisions Look for separate fans of leaves each rising from their own point on the crown. Those joints are where the plant will come apart cleanly.
3. Pull or cut them apart Ease the sections apart with your hands where they separate willingly. Where they do not, cut through the crown with a clean sharp knife, keeping roots attached to each piece.
4. Trim and let the cuts dry Remove damaged roots and any old brown leaf bases. Leave the divisions in shade for an hour or two so cut surfaces dry off before planting.
5. Pot each division high Into free draining mix in a pot just larger than its roots, with the crown half an inch (1 cm) above the surface. Never bury the growing point.
6. Water at the rim and shade for two weeks Water around the edge of the pot only. Keep in bright shade out of direct sun for two weeks, then move gradually into full sun.

Aftercare of divisions

A fresh division has fewer roots than leaves, so it wilts easily in sun for the first fortnight. Bright shade, moderate water and patience are the whole treatment. Resist the urge to water more when it wilts, because a division with cut surfaces sitting in wet mix rots at the crown far more readily than an established plant.

Remove any flower buds that appear in the first six weeks. Flowering costs the plant the energy it needs for root growth, and a division allowed to flower immediately establishes slowly and often stalls for the rest of the season.

Do not feed until new leaves are clearly emerging from the center. That new growth is the signal that roots have started working. Then begin a balanced liquid feed at quarter strength, increasing to half strength once the plant is growing steadily. Expect a division to reach a decent flowering size about three to four months after separation in warm conditions.

Label each division with the date you separated it and which parent plant it came from. Divisions look identical for months, and by the time they flower nobody remembers which was which or how old they are.

Growing gerberas from seed

Seed is a slower route and the seedlings will not match the parent, since most garden gerberas are hybrids and their offspring vary in color, flower form and vigor. That variation is the point if you want something of your own, and a nuisance if you wanted more of the plant you already have. For a copy, divide.

Gerbera seed loses viability fast, usually within a few months of harvest, so sow fresh. Sow into a fine, free draining seed mix, pressing the seed in point downward so the pointed end is buried and the tuft end just shows at the surface, and cover only very lightly. Seed sown deeply germinates poorly.

Keep the mix at 70F to 75F (21C to 24C) and evenly moist but never wet, in bright indirect light. Germination takes two to three weeks. Ventilate any cover daily, because seedlings damp off readily at exactly the same point on the stem where mature plants rot.

Transplant into individual small pots once the seedlings have two true leaves, again keeping the tiny crown above the surface. Expect the first flowers five to seven months after sowing in good conditions, and rather longer if light or warmth is short.

Basal shoots and what does not work

A vigorous plant sometimes throws a side shoot from low on the crown that develops its own small root system. If you can detach one with roots attached, using a clean knife close to the parent crown, it grows on exactly like a division. Treat it the same way: dry the cut, pot high in free draining mix, shade for two weeks.

Leaf cuttings do not work on gerberas, and neither do stem cuttings, because a gerbera has no true above-ground stem to cut. Every flower stem is a leafless stalk with no growth buds on it, so a cut flower stem is simply a cut flower. Any propagation has to include a piece of the crown with a growing point.

Commercial gerberas are largely produced by laboratory tissue culture, which is why bought plants are uniform. That is not reproducible at home, and it is also why dividing your own plants is the practical way to keep a plant you particularly like once it is no longer sold.

Keeping track

Record the date of every division and sowing, and where each resulting plant went. Gerberas take months to reach flowering size, and without a date it is impossible to judge whether a plant that has not flowered is behind schedule or exactly on time.

For seedlings, note the sowing date, the germination date and the date of the first bloom on each plant, along with what that bloom looked like. Seed grown gerberas vary enough that some seedlings are clearly better than others, and those notes are what let you choose which ones to keep and divide in later years.

Note failures too, with the reason if you know it. A batch of divisions lost to rot in a wet autumn is a useful argument for dividing in spring next time.