Fabulous Gerberas

I was really suprised by the number of people who found their way to this blog in search of a brown rose.  So how about a brown gerbera?

Brown_gerbI’ve seen this gerbera in person; it really is a lovely chocolate brown with an espresso-colored center.  Good enough to eat.  This comes from Terra Nigra, a Dutch breeder of roses and gerberas that I interviewed for Flower Confidential.  They’ve got a tissue culture lab that allows them to create new colors and shapes of gerberas in the test tube and grow them out into tiny sprouts and, eventually, this.

Another interesting new gerbera from Terra Nigra is this ‘Gerrondos Terra’ gerb with a whopping 500 petals per blossom.  It’s so full that it looks more like a zinnia than a gerbera.  In fact, that’s one of the most interesting things about Terra Nigra’s gerberas:  in addition to the traditional daisy shape, they’ve figured out how to breed gerberas in the shape of a zinnia, a dahlia, or a roseGerrondos.

Please don’t torture your florist!  The brown gerbs are probably not too hard to get, but these new ‘Gerrondos’ are only just now showing up in greenhouses, so it will be a while before any of us can get hold of them.

Link: www.terranigrausa.com.