Gerbera Does Double-Duty Indoors

Originally posted January 2011

This morning I walked into my home office and noticed the Gerbera Daisy I had brought in from my outdoor patio a couple of months ago had sprouted yet another beautiful orange-red bloom. It is doing wonderfully on my desk, which faces a window with a southern exposure. You can see in the photo below that another bloom is presently emerging as well. Apparently the indoor temperature of my home (usually at 68 degrees) coupled with the bright sunlight shining through the window has made a perfect environment for this plant. The main reason I brought the Gerbera indoors was to merely shelter and preserve the plant until the spring, when I planned to return it back onto my patio table with hopes of it resuming its blooming at that time. I must admit, though, another reason I thought it would be nice to bring the Gerbera inside was that I recalled, back when I was studying horticulture, that NASA named the Gerbera Daisy among the top 10 – 12 best “air-filtering” plants. This quality is especially beneficial indoors during the winter months, where the Gebera helps eliminate common household toxins associated with oils, paints, varnishes, inks and dry cleaning.

Gerbera 2

So . . . while I fully intended to reap the benefits of cleaner air while maintaining the Gerbera plant indoors, I certainly didn’t expect to be able to enjoy such a continuous, beautiful display of flowers as well!  I hope you will consider purchasing or bringing inside a Gerbera this fall to thrive in a southern window in your home or office too.

If you’d like to read more about NASA’s clean air study and discover other houseplants that would be beneficial to your home, office, school, etc., go to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study

Until next time,

Cindy

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