The cultivation of the gerbera is becoming more and more known, gaining a place, during the last few years, as one of the five most cultivated flowers in Holland.
▶ The gerbera is a herbaceous plant, belonging to the Asteraceae family and is appreciated for its exotic flowers and foliage, increasing the demand for new cultivars and plant material for propagation.
▶ Credits: Eagrovision. – [Image of Public Domain]
Its popularity has grown not only in the Netherlands, but also worldwide, behind other flowers such as the rose and carnation.
Gerbera is grown in different climates and regions on all continents. The main production areas are in Holland, Italy, Germany, France and California.
The expansion of the cut flower market worldwide faces the challenge of reducing transportation time and at the same time increasing the vase life, while preserving its quality, until it reaches the final consumer.
Starting from seed makes it difficult to obtain quality flowers and multiplication by conventional methods is too slow. For this reason, micropropagation has been widely developed from meristematic apices and pieces of flower heads. In vitro propagation makes it possible to obtain homogeneous plants, in greater quantity and free of pathogens.
NOTE: Reference material.