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Gerbera jamesonii

COMMON NAME                                   Gerbera

Family                                    Composita

 Propagation                    September-October (February-March) Transplanting Month                             October-November

Planting Distance                                          40 cm x 30 cm

Height of Plant                                              Medium: 30-45 cm

Flowering Month                                          Almost round the year

Colours                                                            Pink, red, orange, yellow, white, lilac

Soil                                                              Medium

Sunlight                                                        Partial shade

Irrigation                                                      Normal

Suitable For                                                 Raised beds and as cut flowers

Gerbera jamesonii has a small stem with broad leaves which are narrow towards the base and broad at the tip with deeply cut edges. The flower head consists of a long ray and disc florets. The petals are long, narrow, compactly arranged and surround the inner dark circle. The flower can be single or double.

The plant is a herbaceous perennial which grows in clumps. The roots of Gerbera go very deep into the soil, therefore raised soil beds about 12-15 cm are prepared by deep digging up to 30 cm. In September, the large clumps are divided into small clumps and planted. In February, the clump from the mother plant gives rise to 5-6 plants. Keeping the main shoot intact, trim the roots and leaves of the suckers and bury the main shoot in such a way that the main shoot does not get covered by the soil. The hot summer is harmful to Gerbera so it needs to be protected from direct sunlight using nets or the plant can be grown under the partial shade of trees in the vicinity.

Freshly harvested seeds should be sown in beds and planted in 4 inch size pots till they reach 1-2 inch in size. The pots are maintained under shade till their final transplanting in beds during September-October. Transplantation is done when the seedlings attain a height of 4-5 inch.

It is a popular, attractive and ideal cut flower having a cut life of 6-8 days.

Roses Pruning India

All the healthy roses branches are retained and pruned to about one- half of the growth made in the preceding season. However, to get good quality roses, the number of _branches retained has to be reduced to about 3-5, so that nourishment is available to a few limited growths to obtain exhibition blooms. There are certain H.T. roses, which may not like even moderate pruning, depending upon the locality. A grower will learn by experience the amount of pruning needed for a particular type of rose in a specific climate. It is normally observed that cultivators growing vigorously need less cutting back, than those which are weak in growth. In tempeiate climates like England, it is suggested that one branch every year be pruned to one eye to ,get some based growth to keep the plant bushy.
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Floribunda Bushes

This class of roses produce flowers in abundance and hence the name. In the year after planting, Floribundas may need much harder pruning than only tipping, as in such climates roses produce rank growth. Hard pruning is never practised for Floribundas.

Standard

The principle of pruning for both H.T. and Floribunda standards is almost similar to bush roses of these kinds. Hard pruning is not given. The standards make less vegetative growth compared to bush roses, as the sap has to flow about 1 metre from the roots. Accordingly, pruning has to be a little lighter than for bush roses. All dead wood is removed during pruning. Any sucker which may be growing in the 1 metre stein of the rootstock has also to be removed.
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Dwarf Polyantha and Miniature

By nature these roses are dwarf and hardly need any pruning. The overcrowded and dead branches are removed. The branches

which have completed flowering are tipped to encourage new, growth.

Climbers and Ramblers

There is some confusion regarding the pruning of Climbers and Ramblers. This is because these groups of roses have been hybri­dized and mixed so much that suggesting any general method of pruning is not possible. Training of Ramblers and Climbers are -as important as pruning. It is recommended that all Climbers and Ramblers may be trained horizontally, if profuse blooming is desired. For this purpose they are trained on walls or trellis. Any vertical growth is to be pegged down if possible. Fornon vigorous types, it is advised to train them on posts or pillars. On a post or pergola the canes (stems) may be twisted or zig-zagged rather than training these straight. Any method which hinders the free flow of sap in the stem, will promote flowering. The aim of training. is to ensure unhindered supply of light, air and space.

• As already mentioned, because of the heterogenous nature of the climbers, it will be difficult to give any general guidance for pruning. Some of these flower on old stems while others bloom in new stems. Hence, one has to first study the nature of the climbers (i.e., whether blooms occur on new or old wood) and accordingly adjust the pruning. Fortunately, a majority of the climbers, especially the Hybrid Tea types, boom satisfactorily on older canes. The H.T. Climbers do not produce enough bloom on new growth. The short branches arising out of the old canes, pro­duce the most and best blooms. To avoid over-crowding of branches, one or two old canes may be removed to accommodate the new growth. One major pruning strategy is to remOve all dead and exhausted canes. Any dead tips on branches Must also be removed.

Theoretically, all Ramblers flower on the preceding year's growth. Hence, once a shoot has flowered, this has to be cut off, and in its place a new growth may be trained, if there are not much of new stems, some of the good old stems may be retained. and the laterals growing on them are trimmed to about 6-8 cm from the base of the main cane. Vigorous growing Ramblers like 'American Pillar' may not need much pruning except removal of dead wood. But if such a vigorous Rambler attains an unmanage­able size, sometimes, it is advised to cut back the whole plant at

45 cm from ground level and to allow young growth to develop. However, some Ramblers may need only light pruning. Hence pruning may be adjusted depending upon the growing behaviour of a cultivar.

Blind Shoots

Occasionally, it may be observed that after pruning some new branches stop growing and fail to produce a flower bud. Such shoots are called a blind shoot. It has been proved experi- mentally, by propagating blind shoots and vigorous flowering shoots, that blindness is not an inherited character as plants railed from a blind shoot flower freely. According to one finding, severe pruning may produce more blind shoots compared to moderate pruning. Low auxin or gibberellin levels in blind shoots may be a cause for their occurrence. Shading of young shoots may cause blindness. Shading reduces the translocation of carbohydrates in the young shoots. Similarly, levels of auxin and gibberellin in shaded shoots are low. One way of inducing a blind shoot to flower is to cut back lightly to a healthy eye just below the tip. Experiments indicate that spraying with chemical like Cycocel, reduces the occurrence of blind shoots.

PROPAGATION AND CULTIVATION Of Roses

PROPAGATION AND CULTIVATION Of Roses

Several important aspects of rose growing will be discussed in this chapter. To begin with, it will discuss the way new rose plants are propagated. Other aspects will include preparation of land for rose growing and method of planting. The other important topics of deliberations will be the cultural care the rose plants require throughout its useful existence. Proper feeding is another area in rose growing, • which demands special attention on the part of a rose grower. The water requirement of roses must also be studied so as to grow this flower successfully.    
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Propagation

Roses can be propagated by various methods, both sexual as well as asexual or vegetative methods. The methods used for pro- pagation are from seeds, cuttings, layers, budding, grafting and tissue culture.

A. Seeds

Rose plants can also be raised from seeds. However, this method is followed normally for propagation of some rootstocks _ (in tem­perate regions) and species, or for raising new hybrid plants. Some wild species of roses (e.g., dog rose) used as rootstock in temperate countries produce numerous fruits (called hips) which contain enough seeds for raising new seedlings. Since there is hardly any crossing in nature, these species of roses produce more or less true- to-type seedlings (i.e. seedlings which do not show much diffe­rence from the mother). However, seedlings thus raised do not get ready for budding in the same season.

Rose seeds go through a period of 'after ripening' following harvest, during which phase these will not geminate. This is partly because the seeds are covered with a hard and imper- vious seed coat. A short description of how to get the seeds ger- minated may be given. The fruits or 'hips' are harvested when they ripe, i.e., when the colour changes from green to orange, red or yellow as the case may be. The seeds are extracted by cutting open. the hips. The hard seed coats have to be softened by scarification before ^.sowing. The procedure followed is to immerse the seeds in concentrated sulphuric acid for 30 minutes, following which these • are washed in water (preferably running water) for 2-3 hours. After scarification the seeds are put for stratification. For stratification, the seeds are sown in flats containing shredded and wet sphagnum moss, or wet vermiculite or moist sand. These can also be sown in plastic bags. These flats or bags are stored (before storing these are to be labelled indicating the parents used in the cross, in case of hybrid seeds) at 3 to 4°C for at least 4 weeks or until about 5 %, of the seeds start germinating. After this, the flats containing the seeds are transferred to a temperature of 18 to 21°C, where•the seeds finally germinate in about another 3 weeks. The seedlings, when these are large enough to handle, are transferred to a fertile growing medium for development till the first bloom appears.

Hips can also be harvested in the green stage for embryo cul­ture. The embryos are extracted from the seed coat with the help of a sharp instrument and these are cultured in a nutrientagar media (similar to ones used for germinating orchid seeds), to obtain the rose seedlings. The whole operation is undertaken in a completely aseptic (i.e., sterile) condition to avoid fungal con- tamination.

In India, except few professional and amateur breeders, no other rose grower may need to propagate roses from seeds.

B. Cuttings

Roses are propagated from recently matured stem cuttings. This method of propagation is most useful, especially in India, to raise the rootstocks or understocks as this is called sometimes. Not many modern cultivars of roses can be propagated by cuttings, while some others which could be raised by this method, do not grow as, vigorously or produce as many flowers as a budded plant will dO. 

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USES OF ROSES

Importance in Social Life

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The importance of the rose in the literary world and religion_. has been emphasised to a great extent, in the introduction and chapter on 'Roses Through the Ages'. Though the rose is not_grown as widely as such other flowers as jasmine or marigold, but it is still loved by all Indians irrespective of religion, caste, or economic status. One reason why it is not cultivated widely is the difficulty in getting good quality plants and the cost which is beyond the reach of many people. Moreover, many people do not have the proper know-how about the cultivation of roses. Although the rose is a comparatively hardy plant, to grow it successfully a certain amount of expertise is essential. Once these difficulties are removed, this flower will be grown more widely than ever. In spite of the difficulties stated, the queen of flowers is ever popular with the Indian masses. It is preferred to many others because of its beauty, fragrance and astonishing range of shape and colour. Except black and true blue, any other 'colour and a blend of various colours may be fold in this popular flower, However, in U.S.A., the rose does not top as a cut flower, taking a back seat in preference to 'mums' (chrysanthemum) and probably carna­tions, as the life of a cut rose is much shorter than these flowers. One other reason for the popularity of this flower may be due to the fact that Pandit Nehru was fond of roses and every morning sported one in his buttonhole. The untiring efforts on the part of Dr. B.P. Pal, one of our top agricultural scientists, to evolve new varieties and publicising and popula^pising this flower has definitely contributed towards its wide acceptability in recent times. His efforts has encouraged other people to start scientific investi­gation and breeding on roses.

It was mainly the Mughal rulers of India who introduced this flower into this country. With the discovery of Attar-i-Jehangiri by Nur Jehan, its popularity increased. Huge quantities of rose petals used to be sent to the Mughal Emperors for personal use. The Kings and .Begunis used to bathe in rose water. It was during one such bath that Nur-Jehan discovered drops of rose oil on the surface of water.

Since the flower is so popular and so much in use in our daily lives, methods have been developed to dry rose bloom's in their natural colour and use them as long as desired for decoration. The roses are dried with a small stem in standing position in a glass jar with the help of silica gel. The National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow has standardised the method 'for/this and a bulletin is available describing the procedure.

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Commercial Preparations

There are several economic and commercial uses of rose products. The rose was used as a medicine even in ancient times. Culpeper (1616) said that every part of rose could be used as a medicine. He found that a decoction of red roses in combination with wine is good for headache, pain of eyes, throat and gums. Peasants in Calabria in Italy, make a liquor from roses which is not only intoxicating but also provokes sexual excitement. During the last world war vitamin C was extracted from rose hips. Some wild and cultivated roses produce hips in abundance. About 150 mg of ascorbic acid (i.e., Vit. C) is said to be obtained from 100 g of rose-hip syrup. Compared to this, raw orange juice has only about 20 mg. Rose water is used in eye lotions And eye drops even in-modern medicine for its soothing effect. it is also used to mal_ice soothing summer drinks.

Rose-oil or 'ono' of roses is prepared from roses. For the preparation of rose water, rose oil or attar, freshly opened flowers are plucked early in the morning before sunrise. Flowers plucked late in the day are used for the preparation of other rose conser­ves. The roses which yield rose oil of perfumery grade are Rosa damascena (Damask rose), R. alba and R. centifolia (the cabbage• rose). In India the 'Rose Edouard' a variety of R. bourboniana (popularly known as ‘Baramasi' or ^`Chenia') is also used.

The conserves made out of rose in India are Gulkhand, Pankhuri and Gulroghan hair oil. Out of these, the first is most

popular and used as an ingredient in the preparation of pan (betel- leaf). This product is valued for its properties As _,a tonic and laxative. Normally petals of 'Rose Edouvc1_.' are ^*iise41er Its pre, paration. However, many other people tisi^— a0Iscenidd rose for this purpose. The product is prepared by.pounding equal quanti- ties of rose petals and white sugar over a ^...g6ittⁱe heat. To conserve the delicate perfume heating may be ^..iistiidetTS-⁷-the 'dried rose petals are commonly called Pankhuri and used to prepare Sherbat during summer. Scented roses are preferred for-this purpose.