Gerberas must be the happiest looking flowers ever. If you've received a flower arrangement from a friend or loved one and it contains a gerbera daisy or multiple daisies you'll know what I'm talking about. It's the one flower that can brighten your day by merely gazing at.

The gerbera daisies growing in our garden came from various sources so we have a bit of a mixture. One we received as a gift, a couple we bought from the local nursery, some were given to us by my mother who has a friendship with a lady who grows gerberas by the bucket load and one we found in the vacant block across the road that someone had discarded. As scavenger gardeners we hastily picked it up and planted it immediately and this is the one that I took the photo of for this post.

All of our gerberas reside in the one flowerbed at the front of our house. This bed doesn't receive full-sun all day but it does for the majority of the day and mainly afternoon sun. We grouped them with annuals and perennials that shared similar requirements and they have done really well.

The tip for growing gerbera daisies and seeing them flower profusely is to grow them in full-sun and keep the crown above the level of the soil. If the crown is below the soil you will end up with a heap of foliage but no flowers. Growing gerbera daisies successfully isn't difficult but requires at least those two important factors to be considered.

Fertilise your gerberas regularly with a soluble fertiliser and keep them out of the frost. Deadhead the spent gerbera daisy flowers by cutting them off close to the crown. Water regularly.