Gerbera Daisy Growing Calendar: What to Do in Each Part of the Year

Spring: restart, divide, reset the crown

The season starts when new leaves push up from the center of the crown as temperatures climb past about 55F (13C). Before that happens, do the tidying: pull off every dead or yellowing leaf with a sideways tug at the base, clear all debris out of the middle of the plant, and check the level of the crown. Mix settles through winter and a crown that was proud in autumn is often half buried by spring.

This is the window for dividing congested clumps and for repotting. A plant in the same pot for two or three years, or one whose roots are circling the base, wants fresh free draining mix and a pot only slightly larger. Set the crown high again, allowing for the mix to sink an inch over the following month.

Start feeding once new leaves are clearly growing, not before. A balanced liquid feed at half strength every two weeks is right for spring. Increase watering gradually as growth speeds up, still at the rim of the pot, and move plants that overwintered indoors out into the light in stages so soft leaves do not scorch.

Plant out new plants once nights are reliably above 50F (10C) and frost has finished.

Early summer: the main flush

This is when a well sited gerbera does its best work, producing a flower stem every few days and holding several open blooms at once. The jobs are all maintenance: water when the top inch (2.5 cm) is dry, feed every two weeks, and go over each plant once a week to pull out spent stems and yellowing leaves.

Switch the feed towards higher potassium now if the plant is making a lot of leaf and few buds. Six weeks on a tomato-style feed shifts the balance visibly.

Watch for powdery mildew starting on the older outer leaves as the rosettes fill out and air movement drops. Removing a few of the oldest leaves opens the plant up and is worth doing before any spray is needed. Check leaf undersides for mites at the same time, particularly on plants under cover.

High summer: the lull

When daytime temperatures pass about 85F (29C) most gerberas slow down. Fewer stems appear, the flowers that open are smaller and last two or three days instead of a week, and the plant puts its energy into leaves. This is normal and temporary, and feeding harder does not shorten it.

Keep watering steady through the heat, which will mean every two or three days for a pot in full sun, and give afternoon shade where temperatures are extreme. Water early in the day so the foliage and crown are dry by evening. A gerbera that wilts at midday and recovers by dusk needs nothing; one that stays wilted after a soak has a root or crown problem.

Keep spent blooms cleared away rather than letting them collapse into the crown, which matters more in humid heat than at any other time of year. Expect flowering to pick up again as nights cool.

Autumn: a second flush, then wind down

Cooling nights bring a second flush of flowers that is often better than the midsummer performance, with larger blooms on longer stems that last well. Keep feeding at half strength while the plant is producing, then taper off as growth slows.

The risk shifts as the weather turns. Cool damp days with little drying wind are ideal for crown rot and for gray mold on spent flowers. Cut watering back sharply, water only in the morning and only at the rim, and clear every fading bloom off the plant rather than leaving it to collapse.

Early autumn is the last acceptable time to divide, and only where the soil stays warm enough for roots to establish before cold sets in. Later than that, wait for spring. Plants that will come indoors should be checked over for pests before they move, because a few mites on a plant in a warm room become an infestation by midwinter.

Winter: keep it dry and bright

Gerberas are not reliably hardy, and a crown that freezes while wet will not recover. Where frost is expected, bring pots into a bright, cool, frost free place, or lift plants from the ground and pot them up. Where winters are mild, plants stay outside but need protection from prolonged wet more than from cold itself.

Water very sparingly, perhaps every two weeks and less if the plant is cold, letting the mix approach dryness in between. Do not feed at all. The plant will hold a reduced rosette of leaves and produce almost nothing new until temperatures rise, which is exactly what it should be doing.

Give it the brightest window available even though it is not growing. Plants kept dark all winter emerge in spring with long floppy stalks and take two months to recover. Keep them away from radiators, which is where spider mites establish, and inspect the leaf undersides every couple of weeks.

Remove yellowing leaves through winter as they appear rather than leaving them, since a dead leaf lying across a cold damp crown is the start of the rot that kills so many plants over winter.

What to record through the year

Write down the date new growth first appears in spring, the date of the first open flower, and the date flowering effectively stops in autumn. Those three dates define your growing season far better than any general advice, and after two years they let you time division, feeding and bringing plants under cover with real confidence.

Record the position of every plant and how it performed there. Sun exposure and air movement decide most of a gerbera's success, and the same corner behaves the same way every year. A note that the pot by the wall mildewed twice running is worth more than any spray.

Note the dates of the first mildew, the first mites and any crown rot, along with the weather at the time. Problems on this plant arrive in predictable conditions, and once you know your own site you can act a fortnight before the trouble rather than a fortnight after.