The weather is warming up

The long cold "snap" is over, and as we near the end of July there is more warm sunshine, which the Gerberas will love. The plants look pretty shattered really after the cold weather and there is a lot of damage leaf matter to remove, which we are scheduling to start on next weekend.

We ususally do a de leafing arund this time of year, but with the cold weather we've had to wait otherwise we'd stress the plants out too much, and anyway, in the mornings it has been too cold to work in the "hot" houses. Hot - NOT!

There are lots of buds coming up, so we are looking for better production over the next couple of weeks. I'm planning to go to Adelaide on August 9th - just hope the great production arrives after I get back otherwise I will leave lots of work for others to do.

Almost a disaster

All Gerbera growers in the south east of Queensland are suffering right now - and judging by the number of desperate phone calls we are getting from florists Gerberas are scarce all around right now.

In the southern states many growers heat their hot houses during winter, but as this is the worst winter - such a long cold snap has not been recorded since 1941, we are all unprepared. In any case, we know it is for just a short time generally but this time we've been caught out.

It is so cold, as I've reported, that it is warmer in the cold room!

Fine clear crisp days, but freezing cold night time temperatures are doing the damage and it has been so long, it will be interesting to see if the plants recover well in spring. They are pretty hardy - so we are hoping for a change soon, but the cold is not showing signs of letting up.