Take closer look at the versatile and elegant daisy-like blooms of the gerbera

The gerbera is one of the world’s most popular cut flowers. The joy of receiving a delivery of gerberas is taking in the colours that vary in depth, contrast and shade. Gaze a little deeper and you can really appreciate why the gerbera is so popular as a gift.

Gerberas have long been associated with innocence. In their natural habitat of South Africa and Asia, the Transvaal daisy tracks the sun from east to west to face the light so the gerbera has also come to symbolise happiness and devotion.

Gerberas and their useful place in flower culture

Gerberas arrived in the UK in the early 19th century and by the mid-to-late 20th century they had become a common sight in homes and gardens.

The gerbera is unique in the world of flowers as it has become associated with an automobile. In the 1990s, Volkswagen added an artificial gerbera to the dashboard of its relaunched Beetle, the car long associated with ‘flower power’. The addition was a homage to the Beetle’s early days when a vase was an optional extra to add colour and to act as a natural air freshener.

Gerberas were also used by NASA in early studies into the feasibility of biohomes on other planets thanks to their natural ability to remove toxins from the air. The gerbera is particularly effective at absorbing benzene, a harmful chemical emitted by vehicle exhausts. So, VW knew what they were doing after all.

Taking in the beauty of the gerbera

If you’ve taken delivery of a spray including gerberas, be sure to take a closer look. Gerberas don’t have much of a scent so what they lack in one sensory experience, they make up for in their beauty taken in by the eye.

An inspection of individual gerbera blooms reveals incredible complexity, variation and subtlety of colour. An individual gerbera flower is actually composed of hundreds of smaller florets. Central discs are circled by increasingly large rings of overlapping petals.

The gerbera’s colour spectrum moves from white into yellow, orange, pink, purple and then red and a deep velvet. Gerberas come in elegant single blooms, dense doubles and speciality varieties with pincushion centres circled by longer ray flowerets.

For same day flowers or a London flower delivery of gerberas, take a look at our carefully selected and arranged displays of this most beautiful bloom.