Dear Master Gardener : I bought some lovely, blooming gerbera daisies at the beginning of the summer but they stopped flowering. Is this typical of gerbera daisies? I was hoping they would keep blooming all summer!

Answer : Gerbera daisies (Gerbera jamesonii) are bright, colorful flowers in the Aster family. They usually bloom in cycles and not continuously — they take a break then bloom again. To keep gerbera daisies blooming, remove the flowers as soon as they start to fade by cutting the stems at the base. Feed your gerbera daisies every 2-3 weeks with a phosphorus-rich fertilizer. Fertilizers that are formulated for flowering plants have a higher middle number (phosphorus) which is important for blooming. For example, the one I use for all my annuals is 10-54-10.

Dear Master Garden

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