QBRBERA 
207 
The hardiness of the Gerbera has been 
a debated point, but in most parts of 
Britain if in the open air it must be 
planted in a warm place such as the 
foot of a wall and preferably one with 
hot-water pipes on the other side, as 
at Kew, where the plants thrive against 
the sunny side of the Orchid-house. 
In such sunny and sheltered places of 
the southern counties it has passed a 
good many winters in the open air. At 
Cambridge it thrives at the foot of a 
wall, protected during winter by glass 
lights from rain and cold dews, while 
allowing full ventilation on every side. 
A friend writing from a spot so far north 
as Alnwick says that he has had Ger- 
bera 'Ja7nesoni in the open for about 
six years with scarcely any protection, 
showing that in favoured places where 
its needs are understood, the plant is 
far hardier than at first supposed. A 
dry well-drained spot and sunlight are 
essential to success, and given these a 
certain degree of frost does the plant 
no harm. In places that from condi- 
tions of soil and climate are unsuited 
to the Gerbera, it may be grown in pots 
in a sunny airy house and treated like 
the Gazanias and other South African 
plants, but though it blooms fairly well 
in pots its progress is slow. It will not 
stand over-potting or over-watering, 
and after a long experience with the 
plant, under all manner of conditions, 
I find it thrive best in good loam of a 
fairly substantial nature. 
The hybrid Gerberas which 
I have raised are likely to 
be valuable. In colour they vary from 
white to pink, and a scarlet even more 
Hybrids. 
brilliant than that of G.yamesoni; they 
offer many shades of yellow, and already 
promise good sunset tints in orange and 
orange-pink. As cut flowers they last 
a long time in water and are often quite 
fresh even after a fortnight. The first 
hybrid was made between G. viridi- 
folia which has small dirty-white flow- 
ers, and G. yamesoni^ the result being 
various shades of colour from white to 
deep pink. Another of the first crosses 
was between G. Sir Michael and G. 
yameso7ii producing Gerbera Bril- 
lia72tr The colour of this cross is more 
vivid than that of ya7neso7ii^ the yellow 
of Sir Michael having softened and 
heightened the dark intensity of the 
Barberton Daisy. Crosses were made 
again between Sir Michael and the first 
hybrid, and all the early crosses have 
been crossed again with one another 
with a view to obtaining sunset colours, 
so that the plants exhibited this year at 
the Temple Show have resulted chiefly 
from four crosses. The hybrids so tend 
to vary that by cultivation and selec- 
tion yet more important results may be 
expected at the hands of Messrs. Veitch, 
to whom these plants have been en- 
trusted for distribution. Some of the 
hybrids are freer in flower than G. 
ya7neso7ii but without the same length 
of season, though this point will no 
doubt receive attention in future selec- 
tion. Some of the hybrids have larger 
flowers than either of the parents, while 
others vary in sizes which meet the 
prevailing demand for small composite 
flowers. A first-class certificate was 
I awarded in 1 8 9 1 to a group of G. 
I ya7neso7ii from the Cambridge Botanic 
