Balance Art
by Shirley Mangini
Title
Balance Art
Artist
Shirley Mangini
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Peach Colored Gerbera Daisy with Water Drop balanced, by Shirley Mangini
***Award Winning Image**
** Featured Image **
In South Africa, a Scotsman by the name of Robert Jameson discovered this flower. Although it was discovered in 1884, it wasn’t until nearly 40 years later that this flower was cultivated. The gerbera daisy was named after Traugott Gerber, a German botanist.
Other names for this flower include: African Daisy, Barberton Daisy and Transvaal Daisy. It is easy to understand the names African Daisy (because it’s native to Africa) and Barberton Daisy (because it was first discovered near Barberton.) However, the third name, Transvaal Daisy may require some explaining for those who are not familiar with South African history and geography. Barberton is located to the East of Pretoria (the capital), close to Mozambique. The Vaal River runs through that area and the area North of the Vaal is known as the Transvaal (across the Vaal).
J.D. Hooker was the first to scientifically identify the flower in 1889. He refered to it as Gerbera Jamesonii. Other species are found in South America and tropical Asia. This plant is definately a fan of warm weather! England began cultivating the plant some time around the 1890s and North America took another 30 years to join the trend.
In the United States, California and Florida produce the most amount of these flowers compared to the rest of the states. Not only are these flowers popular as cut flowers, but garden varieties are also gaining in popularity. You cannot deny they intense color they they bring to your garden and they can survive in very hot conditions just as long as they have enough water.
The daisy is probably be one of the most well known flowers on earth.
It has most certainly been used by many for the famous �He loves me, he loves me not� plucking of the petals. It has is always been linked to children, and innocence.
Dasies have been shown up in stone carvings as early as 3000 BC. The daisy family arrived some 50 to 60 million years ago not long after dinosaurs became extinct.
The daisy family consists of 1500 genera and 25,000 plus species more than any other plant family on Earth.
The daisy was very popular in the medievil times, Knights would wear daisies as a symbol of their fidelity.
Daisies were very common and still are in Victorian Style Gardens.
Uploaded
September 28th, 2014
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